The University has received reports that students have been pestered to complete the National Student Survey even after they have filled it in, and is taking action to prevent this happening in the future.

We want to hear from students to whom this has happened, or who were called after the times agreed with the independent polling company, Ipsos Mori, who were carrying out the survey.

Ipsos Mori assured the University that once a student completed the survey they would have no further pressure from the company. The company said that:

·         Students completing the online survey via their unique link would not be contacted again.

·         Students who completed the online survey, but failed to give their full identity, would be called only to verify their student ID and/or date of birth - and would not be asked to complete the questionnaire again. 

·         The telephone team would only call students who had not completed the survey, and only between 9am - 9pm Monday to Saturday, and between 9am - 7pm on Sundays. 

·         Students who said they did not want to complete the survey would not be contacted again.

We have now heard that some students continued to be contacted by email, post and telephone after filling in the survey. We have raised the issue with Ipsos Mori, who insist that they kept to their agreed procedures.

We are now investigating the situation further, so we can provide Ipsos Mori with hard evidence of their procedures being broken. We therefore need to gather names of specific students who were contacted after completing the survey, and the details of how this contact happened.

Please help us stop any abuse of the system happening in the future by reporting any instances where you feel you were incorrectly contacted by Ipsos MORI by emailing Larry Roberts at l.roberts@kingston.ac.uk

Thank you to all students who have completed the survey.

Larry Roberts

Director of Academic Development