Candidate assessment participant information
This study is designed to test how a candidate applying for a position at a university is assessed. In this study you will be asked to assess a piece of work by a candidate. For example, whether each candidate appears professional and knowledgeable.
Key information
My name is Nigel Burnell and I am a researcher at the University of Surrey. I would like to invite you to take part in a research project. Before you decide whether to participate you need to understand why the research is being done and what it will involve for you. Please take the time to read the following information carefully and ask questions about anything you do not understand. Talk to others about the study if you wish.
This study is designed to test how a candidate applying for a position at a university is assessed. In this study you will be asked to assess a pieces of work by a candidate. For example, whether the candidate appears professional and knowledgeable. The piece of work is a short lecture about black holes in space. You will not be asked technical questions about the work. This study is being conducted by the University of Surrey as part of a major national research project, Delivering Better for Less: Improving Productivity and Motivation in Public Services.
You have been invited to take part in this study because you are in the age group 18 to 30 and can provide valuable data for this research project.
No, you do not have to participate. There will be no adverse consequences in terms of your legal rights if you decide not to participate or withdraw at a later stage. You can withdraw your participation at any time. Data from part completed surveys will not be used.
If you consent to take part, you will be presented with a piece of work by a potential candidate for a university lectureship position and asked to assess the candidate. For example, whether the candidate appears professional and knowledgeable. Your involvement in the research project will only be for the duration of the online survey session.
Personal data collected as part of this study is limited to what is strictly required for the purposes of the study. Once data has been collected it will be anonymised for research reporting purposes. Any public reporting of results will be at aggregated levels protecting the anonymity of participants.Data will not be shared with third parties or used in future research.
Research data are stored securely for at least 10 years following their last access and project data (related to the administration of the project, e.g. your consent form) for at least 6 years in line with the University of Surrey policies.
Personal data will be handled in accordance with the General Data Protection Act (GDPR) and UK Data Protection Act 2018.
There are no known disadvantages or risks from taking part. There is no obligation to complete the survey and an opt-out link has been provided in the survey. Data provided will be handled securely for academic research purposes only.
The wider benefits from completing this online survey will come from the publication and dissemination of the results of this study. Participants can request to be made aware of when the results of this study will become publicly available by emailing the following address: deliveringbetter@surrey.ac.uk
When data collection has been completed and analysed, the results of the survey will be published and will become publicly available by emailing deliveringbetter@surrey.ac.uk.
Any complaint or concern about any aspect of the way you have been dealt with during the course of the study will be addressed; please contact me, Nigel Burnell, the Principal Investigator at deliveringbetter@surrey.ac.uk.
Yes. Your details will be held in complete confidence and we will follow ethical and legal practice in relation to all study procedures. Personal data including your name, contact details, ethnicity and gender will be handled in accordance with the General Data Protection Act (GDPR) and UK Data Protection Act 2018 so that unauthorised individuals will not have access to them.
Your personal data will be accessed, processed and securely destroyed by me, Nigel Burnell, the Principal Investigator. I will anonymise any documents or records that are sent from the University of Surrey, so that you cannot be identified from them. You will not be identified in any publications resulting from this research and those reading them will not know who has contributed to it.
In respect of the data collected from you, Qualtrics, the producer of the survey software, gives assurances that data collected in the EU remains in the EU. However, there is still a chance that data collected through Qualtrics may end up being transferred to the US where there is no equivalent law to the European data protection legislation. Bearing this in mind, we will ensure that all the data we collect from you will be anonymized and the collected data points will not be linked to your identity.
This research is organised by the University of Surrey and funded by the Leverhulme Trust.
This research has been looked at by an independent group of people, called an Ethics Committee, to protect your interests. This study has been reviewed by and received a favourable ethical opinion from the University of Surrey Ethics Committee.
Contact
If you have any further questions about this survey, please contact me at deliveringbetter@surrey.ac.uk.