13 February 2023
By email:
[FYI request #21564 email]
Dear Nishanth
I refer to your information request dated 14 January 2023 made under the Official Information Act
1982 (the Act). You have requested mark and grade distributions for various Science papers offered
by the University of Otago from 2019 – 2022.
Subject to the following comments, please see attached the information you have requested. Please
note that there are four separate pages in the attached document (one for each year).
• we note that the grade and mark distributions for the Semester 2 2022 ANAT242, BIOC223,
CHEM205, GENE222, GENE223, MICR222, MICR223, PATH201, PHAL221 and PHSL232 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 happy to grant your request but
will release the grade and mark distributions for these papers once all student results have
been confirmed – we anticipate that these will be finalised over the coming weeks.
• on occasions where fewer than five students have failed a paper (i.e. received a grade of Fail
D, Fail E, Failed Compulsory Assessment or Failed Terms), we have determined that it is
necessary to withhold the marks and specific grades for these students 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 marks) could be disclosed. We therefore withhold this information
pursuant to section 9(2)(a) of the Act.
• please note that not all 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 mark and grade distributions, students who withdrew from the papers or
received an Aegrotat Pass grade (not a mark) are excluded from the data.
I trust that this information will be helpful. We will be back in touch once the mark and grade
distributions for the remaining Semester 2 2022 papers have been confirmed and are available.
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