The Rectorate of the University of Fribourg, through the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Office, has commissioned FORS (the Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences) to conduct the Uni-Respect Survey on study and work experiences: well-being, harassment and discrimination at the University of Fribourg.

The purpose of the survey is to better understand experiences within the University—whether positive or more difficult—in the context of study and work. It focuses in particular on well-being at the University, as well as possible experiences of discrimination or psychological or sexual harassment. The results will help target measures more effectively to foster a respectful, safe and inclusive study and work environment.

This survey and its methodology were developed with the support of a steering committee bringing together representatives of the different University groups, social science experts and data protection specialists.

To carry out this survey, you are asked to complete a questionnaire, which should take around 20 minutes.

Participation in the survey is entirely voluntary. You may decide not to answer certain questions, and you may leave the questionnaire at any time, without any disadvantage to you.

The data for this survey are collected independently by FORS, commissioned by the University of Fribourg (Unfir) to design, administer and analyze the questionnaire. Unifr will not receive any individual-level raw data.

The questionnaire is programmed and hosted on the Qualtrics XM platform, which specializes in conducting online surveys. Data are stored in Qualtrics data centres located in Germany (European Union). Qualtrics acts as a sub-processor of FORS.

Personalized invitations and reminders are sent via Qualtrics, using a contact list provided to Qualtrics by FORS. This list contains only the institutional email address (usually composed of first name and last name). These data are used exclusively to send invitations. Although Qualtrics can technically know whether a person has responded, this information cannot be exported and is never transmitted to FORS or to Unifr. Questionnaire responses are never linked to contact data.

To enable certain essential functionalities — especially the ability to resume a session (“Save and Continue”) for a questionnaire of around 20 minutes — Qualtrics automatically collects certain technical metadata (e.g. IP address, browser information). These data are used only to ensure the questionnaire functions properly and are not used to identify participants. They are deleted by Qualtrics at the end of data collection and are not transmitted to FORS or to Unifr.

For the operational management of the distribution of invitations, FORS also uses the Salesforce platform, hosted in Switzerland (“Hyperforce Switzerland”). Salesforce processes only contact information and has no access to questionnaire responses, which are processed exclusively in Qualtrics.

All data are encrypted in transit and at rest. Once data collection is completed, FORS downloads the responses to its secure infrastructure hosted at the University of Lausanne (UNIL). The data are then de-identified before analysis. Non-anonymized raw data are deleted in accordance with the planned procedures.

Although the data are hosted exclusively in Switzerland or in the EU, occasional technical access from the United States may occur as part of the support provided by Qualtrics or Salesforce. This access is strictly governed by recognized legal safeguards (Swiss–US Data Privacy Framework, standard contractual clauses, binding corporate rules for Salesforce). No other transfer takes place.

After the end of data collection, FORS conducts statistical analyses of the data and drafts a final report that is fully anonymized.

The report provided to Unifr and made public presents only aggregated results, with no possibility of identifying individuals.

As an additional safeguard, results are not presented when a group contains fewer than 10 people, in order to prevent any risk of indirect re-identification.

No individual-level raw data will be transmitted to Unifr, even in pseudonymized form.

Once the report is published, FORS proceeds with permanent de-identification of the data within its Swiss infrastructure. All information allowing direct identification is deleted. Variables presenting a risk of indirect re-identification (e.g. rare combinations of sociodemographic categories) are subject to specific treatments such as aggregation or recoding.

De-identified data are stored on the secure infrastructure of the University of Lausanne (UNIL), accessible only to FORS staff and to UNIL’s IT service. Any additional analyses may be carried out later at the exclusive request of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Office or of Unifr’s management. These analyses are carried out only by FORS, and the results provided always remain aggregated and without identifiers.

Any attempt to identify individuals is strictly prohibited.

Your participation is valuable for the success of this project. Thank you for the time and attention you are willing to devote to it.

If you would like to report a situation or obtain personal follow-up, you can find internal and external resources at the University of Fribourg by consulting this page.