27 January 2023
By email:
[FYI request #21392 email]
Dear Julie
I refer to your information request dated 11 December 2022 made under the Official Information
Act 1982 (the Act). You have requested grade distributions for all 200-, 300- and 400-level
Physiotherapy papers from 2020 – 2022.
Subject to the following comments, please see attached the information you have requested. Please
note that there are three sheets in the attached document (one for each year).
• we note that the grade distributions for the 2022 PHTY250, PHTY251, PHTY254, PHTY353
and PHTY354 papers have not been finalised yet as there may be special examinations
outstanding and the grades for some students have not been finalised. We are not
comfortable releasing the data before all grades have been confirmed – as this may affect
students’ wellbeing and disrupt students’ performance in special examinations. We are
happy to grant your request but will release the grade distributions for these papers once all
student results have been finalised – we anticipate that this will be finalised by the end of
February 2023.
• please note that not all papers were offered each year, therefore we have only provided
grade distributions for the years that the papers were offered:
o PHTY252 was not offered in 2022
o PHTY256 was not offered in 2020 and 2021
• on occasions where fewer than five students have failed a paper (i.e. received a grade of
Fail, Failed Compulsory Assessment, Fail D or Fail E), we have determined that it is necessary
to withhold the specific grades for these to protect their privacy and wellbeing. 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 grades)
could be disclosed. We therefore withholding this information pursuant to section 9(2)(a) of
the Act. Accordingly, where there are fewer than five students who have failed, we have
either indicated this as “<5” (“fewer than 5”) or grouped students together.
• we have also included papers that are part of the Bachelor of Physiotherapy (Honours)
programme. These papers are PHTY468 and PHTY469.
• please note that all final grades for papers completed in Semester 1 2020 were increased by
5 marks to account for disruptions created by COVID-19. In Semester 2 2020, final grades of
47, 48 or 49 were bumped up to 50 (pass). There was also a 5 mark increased to students in
full year papers to each of their assessments in Semester 1 2020.
• 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 will be helpful. We will be back in touch once the grade distributions for
the 2022 PHTY250, PHTY251, PHTY254, PHTY353 and PHTY354 papers have been finalised.
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
Kelsey Kennard
Official Information and Compliance Coordinator
Office of the Registrar