Student Survey Policy

Policy Rationale
Students are frequent targets for surveys administered by parties ranging from outside agencies to faculty conducting research to fellow students running opinion polls. While individually most of these surveys serve valid research or administrative purposes, collectively they take time away from core academic endeavors and cause “survey fatigue,” eroding survey response rates and reducing the validity of results.

Lack of coordination in the past has resulted in multiple/similar surveys being fielded simultaneously to the same students, creating confusion and frustration for survey administrators and respondents alike. Survey fatigue is a particular danger for members of groups that need to be "oversampled" (in the technical statistical sense) to ensure a valid survey sample size for that group.

Procedures and Guidelines
Surveys proposed by Student Affairs departments to be administered to more than 100 students require approval by Assessment and Research Office (AR) as well as by Duke Office of Institutional Research (OIR). OIR requests will be submitted by AR. Such requests will be evaluated in terms of the following guidelines:

  1. Surveys should normally be administered to the smallest number of respondents necessary to achieve a high likelihood of statistical validity, taking response rate assumptions based on recent experience into consideration.
  2. All requests for population samples should include procedures to maintain confidentiality of survey respondents, to make clear to survey recipients that they are free not to participate, and to give survey respondents the opportunity to see the research results (basic human subjects research considerations).
  3. All requests for population samples for purposes of generalizable research and publication must conform to Human Subjects guidelines, and will be referred to the Human Subjects Committee (IRB). Survey participant lists will not be released prior to IRB approval in this case. Subsequent survey policy requirements still apply as well.
  4. Larger surveys, defined as requiring samples of more than 500 students, should be submitted for consideration at least one month prior to proposed administration to allow time for survey samples to be coordinated with other simultaneous surveys. Such coordination will be implemented by selecting prospective respondents who have not yet been included in other surveys' samples, to the extent possible.
  5. Group-email advance letters, survey invitations, and non-respondent follow-ups must conform to the university Group E-Mail Policy.
  6. No surveys should be administered during students’ final examinations for each semester except by special permission by the AR or OIR.

Surveys of fewer than 100 undergraduates do not require review and approval only by Assessment and Research, although notification would be appreciated.

Survey requests and questions should be addressed to Anna Li, Eulena Jonsson, or Cole Taylor in the Duke Student Affairs Assessment and Research Office:.