19 January 2026
Josh
By email
: [FYI request #33080 email]
Dear Josh
OIA 25.392 – 400 Level Grade Distribution
I refer to the Official Information Act (the Act) request dated 1 December 2025 regarding 400 Level Grade
Distribution. You have specifical y requested:
•
For all 400 level papers in the second semester of 2025 and whole year courses of 2025, could you
please provide the fol owing:
(1) The final grade distribution for the paper (broken down by letter grade, e.g. A+, A, A-, ... etc.)
(2) The number of students who passed the paper
(3) The number of students who enrol ed in the paper
(4) The mean and median final marks for the paper (percentage) •
If the papers had anything notable that would sway the statistics please also note that down.
Where a course has five or less students in it, the overal pass rate of the course has been provided in lieu of
the grade distribution. This is to protect the privacy of those in these smal er courses under s 9(2)(a) of the Act.
It is in the public interest that individuals are not identifiable when providing information about course
numbers.
Where a course has six or more students in it, where there are five or less students in a particular grade, the
actual number is not provided, rather a range of less than or equal to five (≤5). This is to protect the
individual’s privacy under s 9(2)(a) of the Act. It is in the public interest that individuals are not identifiable
when providing information about grades.
There are instances where less than or equal to five students have failed a course. The exact number could be
worked out by taking the number of students that enrol ed in the paper minus those that passed the paper.
Therefore, in these instances, the number of students that passed these courses has not been provided under
s 9(2)(a), to protect the privacy of the students that failed. It is in the public interest that individuals are not
identifiable when providing information about course numbers. Where six or more students have failed, the
number of students that passed the course has been provided. The overal number of enrol ed in a course has
been provided.
To obtain the mean of the letter grades the Grade Point Average (GPA) value for each grade was used. The
median letter grade was determined by the order of the GPA value corresponding to each letter. Some courses
do not have letter grades, where the option are Pass, Fail or Withdraw. For completeness, these have also
been included. For further information about the grading scale at UC, please se
e here. To go get the
information on percentage final marks from each course would take substantial collation and research, as this
would include contacting the course coordinator for each course separately. This is therefore refused under s
18 (f) of the Act. What is held in a more central location is mean and median final letter grades, therefore this
is what has been provided.
There is no information held on whether anything notable swayed the requested statistics. Therefore, this
information is withheld under s 18(e), as it does not exist.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision. Information about
how to make a complaint is available at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
Yours sincerely
Information and Records Management
Attachment:
OIA 25.392 Data
