The University of Siegen is very interested in learning what factors led you to leave the university and what experiences you’ve had since then.

Your responses play a major role in improving academic programs and teaching. Only through your feedback can academic programs be evaluated and, if necessary, adjusted.

Prospective students can also benefit from your experiences.

All former students from the relevant academic year are eligible to participate. For example, if the class of 2025 is invited to participate in the alumni survey, only those former students who left the University of Siegen during the winter semester of 2024–2025 or the summer semester of 2025 are eligible to participate.

Former students will receive an invitation by mail.

ISTAT generates a six-digit access code consisting of numbers and letters for all participating former students. You can only take part in the alumni survey using this access code. You can pause the survey at any time and resume it later.

In addition, the University of Siegen uses the access code to exclude from future contact those former students who have already participated in the survey.

The access code is linked to certain data relevant to the survey, which was provided to ISTAT in advance for the generation of the questionnaires. Specifically, this data includes the following:

• PIN
• Personal data: gender, year of birth, German or foreign citizenship (without specifying the country)
• Enrollment data: Degree type (Bachelor’s, Master’s, etc., partially aggregated), field of study (partially aggregated), semester of withdrawal from the university
• Reason for withdrawal

Using this submitted data, you will be directly assigned to the correct questionnaire. You only need to confirm the information regarding your degree. The personal data is relevant for the analysis of the alumni survey.

You can participate in the alumni survey exclusively via an online questionnaire. The online questionnaire is created and provided by ISTAT. All data is transmitted in encrypted form.

At no time does the University of Siegen know which answers were provided by which access code. The university only knows which access code was used to log in and should not be contacted again. Your personal data and your answers are not linked in any way. The results are published in aggregate form. If there is a risk of identifying individual respondents due to an insufficient sample size, the responses provided will not be included in the analysis.

Once the survey is complete, the data necessary for conducting the survey will be deleted by the University of Siegen.

ISTAT coordinates the project and advises the universities on the study design, questionnaire development, and analysis of the results. In addition, ISTAT conducts the online survey, integrates the individual university surveys into a single dataset, and provides the universities with print-ready tabular analyses of the survey results. Furthermore, ISTAT analyzes the motivations behind students’ decisions regarding their academic progression.

The results of the alumni survey are published on the website.

Your address information is retrieved from the University of Siegen’s campus management system (unisono). If we cannot reach former students at the address provided, we will attempt to locate them through local municipal offices and online searches.

How is data protection ensured?

There is a contractually stipulated and legally binding agreement between the University of Siegen and ISTAT regarding how the survey results are to be handled. Furthermore, the University of Siegen ensures compliance with data protection regulations.