22 March 2024
By email: [FYI request #25879 email]
Tēnā koe Samuel
I refer to your information request dated 25 February 2024 made under the Official Information Act
1982 (the Act). You have requested mark and grade distributions for the RELS303, CHTH224, CHTH324,
CHTH235, and CHTH335 papers from 2021 to 2023 offered by the University of Otago.
Subject to the fol owing comments, please see attached the information you have requested. Please
note there are three pages in the attached document (one for each year).
the data is correct as at 29 February 2024.
on occasions where fewer than five students have failed a paper (i.e. received a grade of Fail D
or Fail E), we have determined that it is necessary to withhold the marks and specific grades
for these students to protect their privacy and wel being. We consider that withholding this
information is necessary to protect against the identity of these students being determined or
inferred, and their personal information (i.e. their marks) could be disclosed. We therefore
withhold this information pursuant to section 9(2)(a) of the Act.
on occasions where fewer than ten students are enrol ed in a paper, we determine that it is
necessary to withhold the mark and grade distributions for these papers. As there were fewer
than ten enrolments in 2023 for RELS303, and 2021 and 2023 for both the CHTH235 and
CHTH335 papers, we have withheld the mark and grade distribution for these papers to
protect students’ privacy and wel being. We consider that withholding this information is
necessary to protect against the identity of these students being determined or inferred, and
their personal information (i.e., their marks and grades) could be disclosed. We therefore
withhold this information pursuant to section 9(2)(a) of the Act.
please note that not al papers were offered each year, therefore we have only provided mark
and grade breakdowns for the years that the papers were offered.
in the attached grade and mark distributions, we note that students who withdrew from the
papers are excluded from the data.
I trust that this information wil be helpful.
In the above cases, we consider that good reasons exist for withholding information, and this is not
outweighed by other considerations which would make it desirable, in the public interest, to make the
information available.
If you are not satisfied with our response to your information request, section 28(3) of the Act
provides you with the right to ask an Ombudsman to investigate and review this response. However,
we would welcome the opportunity to discuss any concerns with you first.
Yours sincerely
Joey Lin
Official Information and Compliance Coordinator
Office of the Registrar
