NSS flaw found
A hold is exposed again, or, re-exposed
A flaw in the NSS has been exposed once more. It is possible, and not too difficult, for students to fill out the survey on behalf of others, raising concerns over the security of the survey – particularly due to the importance place on its results in league tables.
Felix reported last year that it was possible to find students’ names and corresponding CID numbers for certain departments. This time, the Business School have distributed the CID numbers and corresponding names of students on Blackboard. A student who wished to remain anonymous passed this information to Felix. The list on Blackboard was originally to show students where they are sitting in an exam. With this information, the only other piece to the puzzle that is needed is the day and month of birth; once this information is obtained, the NSS can be filled out. This can, of course, be found using some choice Facebook searching.
All of this leads to the possibility of fraud, as well as someone being able to build a programme that fills out the survey on behalf of many students.
Felix contacted Ipsos MORI, who conducts the survey. Sami Benyahai, Director of Higher Education Research, responded that they have multiple safe guards in place. Benyahai said: “Surveys submitted are once again checked electronically and where needed manually. Where there is doubt about the identify of a respondent the interview is rejected. We send email confirmations to respondents to their university emails. We collect IP addresses, monitor response rates and response patterns. We work closely with institutions and students’ union[s].”
To complete the NSS, a student must put in their CID, the first letter of their first name, the first four letters of their last name, and the day and month of their birth.
Research councils dictate that the College must take part in the NSS, and a failure to get a certain number of replies leads to the result being void. This affects the standing of Imperial College London in the league tables. The NSS is still going on, and students who have not filled it out yet will start receiving calls.
Felix also contacted the Business School, but is yetto hear back, as the story only came in very late.
