There has been a considerable increase in survey activity and survey-based research in recent years. These surveys are of critical importance to the University and its community, but careful steps need to be taken to plan and coordinate surveys in order to continue to collect meaningful and useful information while minimizing survey fatigue and maintain and improve response rates.
The primary means to achieve this has been the Queen’s Policy on Administrative Student Surveys that was approved in August 2015. Under this policy, Institutional Research and Planning ensures the following:
- Maintains an inventory of surveys for the purpose of scheduling to minimize overlap or survey conflicts.
- Serve as the sole provider of survey samples to adhere to do not contact requests, avoid overlapping samples and ultimately minimize survey fatigue.
- Has the final approval in the implementation of administrative surveys.
There are notable exceptions where the policy does not apply. In these cases, IRP assists in the scheduling and providing the survey samples. These exceptions are:
- Faculty research surveys
- Course-based surveys
- Surveys related to academic program improvement
- Teaching evaluations
You can read the Policy on Administrative Student Surveys outlining IRP’s role on the University Secretariat web site.