SETU REVIEW – PHASE 2 – NEW SCREENING AND DISTRIBUTION PROCESSES
The Strategic Review of SETU recommended changes to
the screening and distribution processes in order to:
Further protective action
ƒƒ Reduce the workload in ADEs’ offices for additional
screening and distribution;
ƒƒ Qualitative data reports cannot be printed as control
is lost once printed and may be seen on a local printer
or the desk of an authorised person.
ƒƒ Ensure the qualitative data can be provided with the
quantitative data;
ƒƒ Protect educators from breaches of privacy,
publication of defamatory material, and maintain
their wellbeing.
Changes to screening process
University Planning and Statistics will conduct a twostage screening process.
ƒƒ An automated screening against the Offensive Words
database to flag potentially offensive material.
ƒƒ A second, manual screening of all qualitative data
by trained staff will remove material flagged by the
automated process, or is offensive when read in
context, or that is not a comment on the teaching of
the unit.
ƒƒ It is important to note that this process cannot remove
all offensive material, as some material will only be
offensive when read within the local context of the unit.
ƒƒ ADEs and Chief Examiners /Unit Co-ordinators
need to exercise their judgement as to if and how
an educator will access the qualitative data if there
have been issues at the local level that may affect
their wellbeing.
Benefits of the changes
ƒƒ The changes enable a more proactive approach to the
management of issues related to privacy, defamation
and staff wellbeing that may arise through the
distribution of SETU results.
ƒƒ By publishing the line of management it is clear who
will have access to the SETU qualitative data.
ƒƒ ADEs maintain their authority and responsibility
for determining who sees the qualitative data and
allows for variation of practice between faculties.
ƒƒ Material can be shared within the line of management
and cannot be considered defamatory – if it is
published to anyone outside of that line of management
then an educator may have a case of being defamed.
ƒƒ Under State privacy legislation individuals have the
right to know if personal information is being collected
about them. They have rights of access to the
information and to change anything that is incorrect.
See http://www.privacy.monash.edu.au/guidelines/
collection-personal-information.html
ƒƒ The reports cannot be emailed, rather they should be
saved to a drive with password protection, and the
password only made available to the people in the line
of management.
ƒƒ Resources for supporting staff wellbeing will be
available on the SETU intranet as well as in regular
communication from UPS.
Line of management (qualified
privilege)
ƒƒ Material can be communicated to people where
there is a relationship between the speaker and the
audience and the communications are necessary in
order to proceed with the business at hand.
ƒƒ Roles that can be included in the line of management
(beyond the ADE and CE) are the Dean, Heads of
School/Departments, Unit Coordinators, the teaching
team and their performance supervisors.
Action required of ADEs
ƒƒ Determine and publish the line of management
structure for units in the faculty by the end of
Week 8 (this will be the people to whom qualified
privilege extends).
ƒƒ ADEs retain the right and responsibility to
withhold access to qualitative data where the
wellbeing of staff may be affected by seeing
specific comments, or that overall are very
negative.
ƒƒ By the end of Week 8, notify all educators involved
in units to be evaluated that personal information
may be collected on them through the open
comments by students.
ƒƒ Confirm the name of the Chief Examiner /
Unit Co-ordinator (the nominee) with University
Planning and Statistics.
ƒƒ The qualitative and quantitative data will be
sent to the nominee at the same time as
ADEs receive the data. The nominee is then
responsible for enabling access to the data for
the unit to the roles specified in the faculty’s line
of management structure.
For further information contact Elizabeth Toy, Learning
and Teaching Quality Manager, Office of the Vice-Provost
(Learning and Teaching), on 9903 4493.
12/10/2015