Deakin and ABS partner to improve public engagement with online surveys

Deakin Vice-Chancellor Professor Jane den Hollander and the ABS Australian Statistician David Kalisch today signed a new partnership agreement at Deakin’s Waterfront Campus.

The partnership, formalised through a Memorandum of Understanding, will include a raft of projects, including research from Deakin to help the ABS understand barriers to the public responding to surveys online.

The new projects aim to increase public take-up of electronic data collection methods, improve retention rates for providers who respond electronically and increase responses to business collections through taking a respondent-centric view of the process, while also cutting red tape.

Professor den Hollander said the new agreement with the ABS would build on its existing relationship with the agency, which last year set up its National Data Acquisition Centre at the University’s Waterfront Campus.

“Deakin is delighted to now partner with the ABS to help improve response rates and data quality, drawing on our vast multi-disciplinary expertise and experience, combined with the latest technological innovations” Professor den Hollander said.

“Deakin is committed to supporting the communities we serve, so we are pleased that Government agencies such as the ABS have chosen to invest in Geelong and the local economy through jobs and research programs that will spring from our partnership.”

The NDAC brought 300 new jobs to Geelong, serving asa collection point for data from all business and household surveys conducted across the country.  The projects, which are expected to grow in number over time, will support the ABS with its move towards online data collection fit for the future in a big data world.