tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/student-experience-8634/articlesStudent experience – The Conversation2022-10-27T19:05:32Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1930242022-10-27T19:05:32Z2022-10-27T19:05:32ZWe took away due dates for university assignments. Here’s what we found<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491284/original/file-20221024-25-7hzfup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C25%2C5746%2C3816&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eliott Reyna/Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As university students around the country finish their final exams and assessments for the year, the idea of removing due dates might seem incredibly appealing. </p>
<p>Being more open-ended about when assignments are submitted may also seem like the logical next step for universities. Even before COVID-19, they have been looking for ways to make learning more flexible. This is generally done by offering units online or in a <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1264410.pdf">hybrid model</a>, where some units are in person and some are online. But <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0309877X.2022.2106125?journalCode=cjfh20">is it truly flexible</a> if just the place has changed? </p>
<p>An emerging trend in the sector is “<a href="https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/irrodl/2018-v19-n1-irrodl03927/1050875ar.pdf">self-paced learning</a>,” where students do not have to fit their learning into a university semester and there might be flexible due dates for assessments.</p>
<p>In other words, students with internet access and a laptop can study at a time and place that suits them.</p>
<p>At CQUniversity this is called “hyperflexible learning”. Our university already offers <a href="https://www.cqu.edu.au/courses/study-modes/online/be-different-online">hyperflexible postgraduate units</a>. </p>
<p>We wanted to know what the experience would be like for students and staff if hyperflexible units were offered at undergraduate level. </p>
<h2>Our study</h2>
<p>In a 2021 pilot study, we looked at four undergraduate history and communication units. The humanities was a good fit for the pilot because they attract a wide range of students, did not have tests or exams and had fewer restrictions like external accreditation. </p>
<p>We offered the units in the traditional mode and a hyperflexible mode. In the hyperflexible mode, students had access to all the unit content, could self-pace and did not have due dates for their written and oral assessments. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students reading at a bench." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491847/original/file-20221026-4274-lt2ynt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491847/original/file-20221026-4274-lt2ynt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491847/original/file-20221026-4274-lt2ynt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491847/original/file-20221026-4274-lt2ynt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491847/original/file-20221026-4274-lt2ynt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491847/original/file-20221026-4274-lt2ynt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491847/original/file-20221026-4274-lt2ynt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">University is becoming more and more flexible, in a bid to fit around students’ lives.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alexis Brown/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The unit’s content was self-paced, via short recorded videos and <a href="https://h5p.org/">interactive learning modules</a>, rather than traditional lectures. There were opportunities for learning with other students (like live Zoom tutorials), but these were not compulsory. </p>
<p>Of the group, 27 students chose to take the hyperflexible option. We interviewed them and three unit coordinators before and after the term about their experiences. We also surveyed all 12 humanities staff about their perceptions of hyperflexible learning. </p>
<p>While the sample size was small, students and staff suggested there are both risks and benefits to this type of study. </p>
<h2>‘I wouldn’t have passed’: what did students say?</h2>
<p>On balance, the students who took part had a positive experience. One even said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If it wasn’t hyperflexible I wouldn’t have passed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Several noted how assessment deadlines were a significant source of stress and relished the freedom to fit study around their life, rather than the other way around. Several said it made it easier to accommodate their work and family commitments.</p>
<p>One student said they were thrilled when they heard about the hyperflexible option because:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I am a very anxious student, and deadlines really, really stressed me out.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Other students suggested the quality of their learning was better in a hyperflexible model as they were able to “go deeper” on a topic that interested them and not have it reserved for one particular week. It was suggested that the hyperflexible unit allowed “study in a more intensive way”.</p>
<p>But students also raised concerns. Several noted it “feels a bit isolating”, “disconnected”, like they are “the only student doing it” and they are not “participating in the university experience”. </p>
<p>Others were worried they might not receive the same level of feedback from staff and there might be a temptation to “leave everything to the last minute”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/university-fees-are-poised-to-change-a-new-system-needs-to-consider-how-much-courses-cost-and-what-graduates-can-earn-192023">University fees are poised to change – a new system needs to consider how much courses cost and what graduates can earn</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Doing two jobs: what did staff say?</h2>
<p>University staff were generally more cautious about the benefits of hyperflexible learning. Common concerns were students would lose their sense of being part of a group, feel lost or overwhelmed, allow assignments to pile up, and it could ultimately see more students dropping out. </p>
<p>Staff were also concerned no due dates could increase their workload. They noted they would be less free to take leave or attend conferences if they did not have a reasonable expectation when their marking would be due. Even when students were being taught the same content, there were new challenges and as one staff member said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I feel as though I am managing two cohorts.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Staff members did see benefits in hyperflexible learning also and most said they were willing to experiment with it. Several commented on the potential for motivated students to finish their degrees faster. One staff member noted that having now taught a hyperflexible unit:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I have confidence that most students get there in the end.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-not-just-australian-students-who-need-more-food-university-staff-are-also-going-hungry-192928">It's not just Australian students who need more food, university staff are also going hungry</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What now?</h2>
<p>Our study suggests removing due dates from undergraduate units has potential to make university study more accessible and less rigid, while reducing student stress.</p>
<p>One key issue is how students can maintain a sense of being together in a group, receive support, and feel a connection to their university.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Young man, studying on his own at night." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491848/original/file-20221026-21-3r2eme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491848/original/file-20221026-21-3r2eme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491848/original/file-20221026-21-3r2eme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491848/original/file-20221026-21-3r2eme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491848/original/file-20221026-21-3r2eme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491848/original/file-20221026-21-3r2eme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491848/original/file-20221026-21-3r2eme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some students reported feeling isolated when studying without due dates.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Max Shilov/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For educators, hyperflexible learning is a distinct form of teaching and staff members would need to be adequately trained and supported. This way of teaching is individualistic and seeks to fit study around the needs of each student. To some extent, this is in conflict with the ideal of university as a learning community. </p>
<p>Although the responses to the pilot program were largely positive, there is still a lot more we need to know about the impact of removing due dates and time pressures. For example, although due dates were removed, students still had to complete their assessments within the semester – due to university and government policies. </p>
<p>Also, while this approach might fit the assessment-focused humanities, we don’t know how this works in disciplines that are more heavily exam-driven (like health and IT). </p>
<p>Ultimately, risks associated with hyperflexible learning and the impact on both staff and students need to be considered carefully before adopting these approaches for undergrads. </p>
<p>So, sorry students – seems like you’ll have to finish that essay this week after all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193024/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research was funded by a CQUniversity Learning and Teaching Research Development Grant. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benjamin T. Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Students reported being less stressed about deadlines, but some staff worry no due dates will increase their workloads.Benjamin T. Jones, Senior Lecturer in History, CQUniversity AustraliaAmy Johnson, Lecturer, CQUniversity AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1854832022-08-24T04:26:39Z2022-08-24T04:26:39Z5 problems with the Student Experience Survey’s attempt to understand what’s going on in higher education post-COVID<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469914/original/file-20220621-21-icn7t4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3997%2C2656&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brooke Cagle/Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Each year tens of thousands of higher education students complete the <a href="https://www.qilt.edu.au/surveys/student-experience-survey-(ses)">Student Experience Survey</a>. It’s seen as a litmus test of student engagement, satisfaction and educational quality. But do the ways in which institutions and governments try to understand student experiences still add up? </p>
<p>The pandemic has transformed enrolment patterns and the ways in which students interact with their institutions and the courses they offer. We suggest the <a href="https://www.qilt.edu.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/2021-ses-national-report.pdf">data from the 2021 survey released today</a> no longer adequately capture students’ experience of study. The current version of the survey was designed for a time when modes of study were more clearly defined than they have become since COVID-19 emerged. </p>
<p>The student survey is part of the Australian <a href="https://www.qilt.edu.au/">Quality Indicators of Learning and Teaching</a> (QILT) suite of measures for higher education. The <a href="https://www.qilt.edu.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/2021-ses-national-report.pdf">2021 report</a> shows ratings are more positive compared to 2020 for younger and internal (classroom-based) students. According to the report, this “can likely be attributed to some return to on-campus learning and also a change in the expectations and experience of students”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-has-changed-students-needs-and-expectations-how-do-universities-respond-172863">COVID has changed students' needs and expectations. How do universities respond?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But how are “internal” students engaging in their studies? Does learning look the same today compared to 2019, and should it?</p>
<p>New forms of flexibility in student mode of study have to be matched with new forms of support to enable students to make smart choices. The mode of study categorised as internal for the survey now includes so much variation that it no longer serves a useful function for reporting and analysis purposes. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1453903735097233413"}"></div></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/digital-learning-is-real-world-learning-thats-why-blended-on-campus-and-online-study-is-best-163002">Digital learning is real-world learning. That's why blended on-campus and online study is best</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Why QILT results matter</h2>
<p>Individual higher education providers might use results to:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>set key performance indicators – for example, “by 2030, we will be in the top 3 universities for learner engagement”</p></li>
<li><p>market themselves – “we are the top Australian university for teaching quality”</p></li>
<li><p>undertake evidence-informed planning – “develop sense-of-belonging roadmap to increase scores”. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Student survey data are also used in research that informs policymakers. Drawing on many years of survey results, social scientists analyse datasets to answer big, high-level questions. </p>
<p>It’s more than a matter of comparing universities and providers. Questions of equity and access are investigated. For example, how are rural and regional students engaging in higher education? </p>
<p>These data are used in research with other national datasets. For example, reports from the <a href="https://www.ncsehe.edu.au/">National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education</a> at Curtin University demonstrate the importance of such data.</p>
<h2>COVID has changed how we study</h2>
<p>The pandemic shone a light on issues of student equity as mode of study shifted (as a recent <a href="https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:2de31ec">review</a> showed). <a href="https://heimshelp.dese.gov.au/2015_data_requirements/2015dataelements/329">Mode of attendance</a> is defined as:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>internal: classroom-based</p></li>
<li><p>external: online, correspondence, and electronic-based (the language used for data-collection purposes shows how outdated it is)</p></li>
<li><p>multimodal: mix of internal and external.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>In 2019, about 75% of Australian higher education students were enrolled as internal students. Multimodal studies accounted for roughly 14%. </p>
<p>Even at that time, it could have been argued that the lines between internal (classroom-based) and external (online) were already becoming blurred. Lecture recordings, learning management systems, flipped classrooms, endless debates about the “lecture”, and growth in digital technologies not only broadened access to knowledge but also enabled a mix of online and in-class interaction. </p>
<p>The use of existing technologies was a key reason the higher education sector could pivot online in a week when the pandemic hit in early 2020. Imagine if the pandemic had happened in 2005 instead of 2020? Higher education institutions would have simply shut down without these technologies. </p>
<p>Now we have had two years’ experience of online learning and new modes of study. Examples include attendance via Zoom rooms, live online, hi-flex (making class meetings and materials available so students can access them online or in person), swapping from on-campus to online due to lockdowns, students moving between internal and external study on a week-by-week basis. Does the either-or categorisation of modes of attendance – internal or external – still make sense? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="illustration of hybrid learning with some online students interacting with a physical class" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470147/original/file-20220621-21-24ljn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470147/original/file-20220621-21-24ljn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470147/original/file-20220621-21-24ljn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470147/original/file-20220621-21-24ljn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470147/original/file-20220621-21-24ljn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470147/original/file-20220621-21-24ljn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470147/original/file-20220621-21-24ljn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The old hard-and-fast divisions between learning online or in a physical class are no longer appropriate – technology means students can be involved in both at the same time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-zoom-teams-and-video-lectures-what-do-university-students-really-want-from-online-learning-167705">Beyond Zoom, Teams and video lectures — what do university students really want from online learning?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>5 problems with categorising attendance this way</h2>
<p>We have identified at least five problems with the current survey categorisation of modes of attendance:</p>
<p><strong>1.</strong> categorising attendance as purely one or other mode, rather than a combination of modes, stifles research and analysis of important national datasets </p>
<p><strong>2.</strong> the existing categorisations stifle innovation, limiting institutions from creating distinctive blends of modes of teaching and learning</p>
<p><strong>3.</strong> it perpetuates an outdated, either/or mindset that permeates discussion in the sector</p>
<p><strong>4.</strong> it masks important implications of differences between new and established modes of attendance, including:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>hidden workloads for staff, leading to questions of burnout and mental health</p></li>
<li><p>unclear expectations for students, which hinders decision-making and effective study approaches</p></li>
<li><p>hidden costs and unclear planning processes for differing modes of study</p></li>
<li><p>lack of clarity about blurred modes of study being offered, which can restrict access to higher education and create obstacles to success for equity students.</p></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>5.</strong> the sector is missing opportunities to gather relevant mass-scale data on modes of attendance to guide policy and practice. </p>
<h2>Sector needs to agree on a new model</h2>
<p>The crude categorisation of modes of study is hindering evidence-based decision-making. Across the sector, institutions are scrambling to sort out how best to maintain the flexibility many students now demand while ensuring students meet expected learning outcomes. And institutions need to do so in ways that are sustainable and healthy for staff. </p>
<p>As the chaos of the pandemic hopefully subsides, the higher education sector would benefit from a sector-wide process of developing an agreed way of describing the full range of modes of attendance. A framework is needed that enables shared understanding of all these modes. This will enable institutions to better plan, resource, innovate and engage students and staff. </p>
<p>Such a framework could then inform ongoing national data collection, such as QILT, so social scientists and educational researchers can, in turn, better guide policy and practice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185483/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kelly E Matthews has received funds from the Australian Department of Education, Skills and Employment in a project with the co-authors and Matthias Kubler. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason M Lodge has received funds from the Australian Department of Education, Skills and Employment in a project with the co-authors and Matthias Kubler.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melissa Johnstone has received funds from the Australian Department of Education, Skills and Employment in a project with the co-authors and Matthias Kubler.</span></em></p>The annual Student Experience Survey is a litmus test of student engagement, satisfaction and educational quality. But the survey’s categories of study no longer match the post-COVID experience.Kelly E Matthews, Associate Professor, Higher Education, Institute of Teaching and Learning Innovation, The University of QueenslandJason M Lodge, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology, School of Education & Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation, The University of QueenslandMelissa Johnstone, Research Fellow, The Institute for Social Science Research, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1866782022-08-16T17:57:13Z2022-08-16T17:57:13ZHow universities can support international students beyond orientation week<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479256/original/file-20220816-20110-5jrdhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C181%2C6720%2C3812&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Social spaces that bring together international and domestic students are an essential part of creating an open campus culture.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/how-universities-can-support-international-students-beyond-orientation-week" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>As the new academic year starts, universities and colleges are preparing for orientations to welcome international students. </p>
<p><a href="https://edvoy.com/articles/university-welcome-week-around-the-world-canada">Orientation to local culture and society</a> offered by post-secondary education institutions is common, especially during the first couple of weeks of the new semester. In weeks and months to come, the international students will continue to adapt to their new environment and communities. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/coming-changes-to-the-canadian-airline-industry-could-lead-to-even-more-disruption-187425/">ongoing COVID-19 pandemic</a> brings another layer of complexity and uncertainty to <a href="https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/visitors-workers-students#students">international students’ university lives</a>. </p>
<p>For many students, it means <a href="https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/post-secondary-education/institution-resources-administration/covid19-return-to-campus-guidelines-web.pdf">limited interactions due to public health restrictions</a>. International students may have to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9266157/">self-isolate and reduce social contacts</a> with their peers on a daily basis.</p>
<p>My research with colleagues has examined how a <a href="https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2021.13809abstract">two-way approach that encourages social interactions between international students and local peers</a> is more effective than developing short-term programs to orient international students to the academic environment, campus culture and society. </p>
<p>To better support international students beyond orientation week, universities can focus on developing year-round academic and extracurricular opportunities that encourage cultural exchanges between international students, their peers and the wider society.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students seen in a line wearing face masks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479283/original/file-20220816-18-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479283/original/file-20220816-18-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479283/original/file-20220816-18-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479283/original/file-20220816-18-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479283/original/file-20220816-18-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479283/original/file-20220816-18-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479283/original/file-20220816-18-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The pandemic brings another layer of complexity and uncertainty to the university experiences of international students.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Connecting students</h2>
<p>Research has identified that creating <a href="https://penkethgroup.com/knowledge-centre/blogs/benefits-of-social-spaces/">physical or virtual social spaces</a> to connect international students with their local peers and communities allows students to engage and learn.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.josieahlquist.com/reimagining-your-campus-communities-in-digital-spaces/">Virtual spaces</a> hosted on <a href="https://medium.com/university-of-leeds/how-microsoft-teams-is-helping-to-create-a-virtual-social-space-for-our-students-c3df9b8c9d21">different platforms</a> can host student-initiated committees and associations. Such associations help students to <a href="http://blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca/innovationhub/engaging-international-students/">build social connections</a> between international students and their local peers. </p>
<p>In these spaces, students build mutual understanding, acceptance and a sense of belonging. When university educators are also involved in these <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.808104">social spaces</a>, this may inspire their creativity to innovate and adapt their current curriculum.</p>
<p>University educators also need to be aware of the potential for developing student academic competencies through these joint social spaces. Beyond visits to local cultural sites or extracurricular community collaborative projects, students’ participation in social spaces could mean learning through team projects for course credits. </p>
<h2>Academic-integrated approach</h2>
<p>For example, when international and domestic students from a variety of disciplines get together to experience culture and learning collectively, this can lead to emotional engagement and developing <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/jtc-2021-2007">competency in intercultural communication</a>.</p>
<p>I encourage university educators to create “social spaces” in their curriculum, and assign those social learning and interactions as part of obtaining academic credits. Students might be assigned work that involves <a href="https://www.royalroads.ca/programs/master-arts-intercultural-and-international-communication?tab=program-description">reflecting on academic learning outcomes</a> and “soft” interpersonal skills. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students seen talking on a campus." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479282/original/file-20220816-16-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479282/original/file-20220816-16-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479282/original/file-20220816-16-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479282/original/file-20220816-16-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479282/original/file-20220816-16-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479282/original/file-20220816-16-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479282/original/file-20220816-16-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students’ competency in intercultural communication can grow through participating in collective learning.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pexels/ Zen Chung)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Developing sustained spaces for social or academic collaboration moves beyond the current approaches of short-term cultural orientation, usually prepared by university administrators, international offices or student services. Instead, a year-round integrated approach involves inviting program designers, teaching faculty and student support associations to be involved. </p>
<p>University educators could also explore the possibility of offering different cultural and linguistic programs, driven by international students but available to all students and learners in the community. </p>
<h2>Encourage open campus culture</h2>
<p>Educational institutions should consider creating social spaces that deliberately bring together international and domestic students as an essential part of <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/education/campus-life-at-canadian-universities-during-the-second-pandemic-school-year">an open campus culture</a>. This means a campus that encourages international students, and indeed all students, from a variety of cultural backgrounds to <a href="https://www.educanada.ca/live-work-vivre-travailler/study-environment-milieu-des-etudes.aspx?lang=eng">participate</a>. And, it means promoting <a href="https://www.univcan.ca/priorities/equity-diversity-inclusion/">an inclusive attitude towards cultural diversity</a>. </p>
<p>During early-year orientation or other year-round activities, separating international students from domestic students may widen the cultural gaps on university campuses. </p>
<p>Our research highlights the imperative role of cultivating an inclusive and diverse campus culture that <a href="https://www.insightintodiversity.com/canadian-universities-band-together-to-improve-diversity-and-inclusion-in-higher-education">values cultural differences and similarities</a>, <a href="https://www.collegesinstitutes.ca/policyfocus/sdg/cicans-commitment-to-equity-diversity-and-inclusion-edi/">respects individual cultural contributions</a> and <a href="https://www.royalroads.ca/about/our-vision/equity-diversity-inclusion/edi-students">supports social interactions among peers</a>. </p>
<p>This way, international students are truly supported to adjust socially, culturally and academically for greater long-term success. </p>
<h2>Engage campus and local communities</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/international-student-projects-need-add-real-value-local-communities">Higher-education institutions</a> can also connect international students with local communities.</p>
<p>University campuses should take an engaged education approach that considers the role of local communities beyond the campus proper to <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781410605986-9/experiential-learning-theory-previous-research-new-directions-david-kolb-richard-boyatzis-charalampos-mainemelis">support experiential learning</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.welcomebc.ca/Study-in-B-C/Resources-For-International-Students">Universities</a> could establish processes that bring international students, local families, organizations and communities together to encourage community engagement activities and projects. Specific experiential learning projects, student practicums or innovation competitions are just a few ways this can be accomplished.</p>
<p>This way, international students <a href="https://cafesottawa.ca/2021-15-minute-neighbourhood-community-engagement-project/">could really learn to appreciate the value of their learning and work</a>, and how it contributes to <a href="https://www.royalroads.ca/partnerships">social development of local communities</a> in a positive manner.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186678/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Juana Du receives funding from Royal Roads University (Internal Grant of Research).</span></em></p>Year-round academic and extracurricular opportunities that encourage cultural exchange between international students, their peers and the wider society are important.Juana Du, Associate professor, School of Communication and Culture, Royal Roads UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1850412022-07-18T20:06:23Z2022-07-18T20:06:23ZWe have developed a way to screen student feedback to ensure it’s useful, not abusive (and academics don’t have to burn it)<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474471/original/file-20220718-14-lunsaw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C26%2C3540%2C2338&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Holland Taylor as Professor Joan Hambling in The Chair.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elize Morse/Netflix</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This week, many Australian universities will be sending academics the results of the first semester student evaluation surveys. </p>
<p>For some this will be a worrying and unpleasant time. The comments university students make anonymously in their teaching evaluations can leave academics feeling <a href="https://theconversation.com/lose-some-weight-stupid-old-hag-universities-should-no-longer-ask-students-for-anonymous-feedback-on-their-teachers-173911">fearful</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/read-the-student-survey-responses-shared-by-academics-and-youll-see-why-professor-hambling-is-justified-in-burning-hers-167897">distressed</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-uni-teachers-were-already-among-the-worlds-most-stressed-covid-and-student-feedback-have-just-made-things-worse-162612">demoralised</a>. </p>
<p>And with good reason. As a 2021 <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02602938.2021.2012643?journalCode=caeh20">survey</a> of Australian academics and their experiences of student feedback found: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Personally destructive, defamatory, abusive and hurtful comments were commonly reported.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Hurtful or abusive comments can remain permanently on record as a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02602938.2021.1888075">measure of performance</a>. These records can affect applications for promotion or for secure continued employment. </p>
<p>The authors of the 2021 survey, led by Richard Lakeman at Southern Cross University have been among those <a href="https://theconversation.com/lose-some-weight-stupid-old-hag-universities-should-no-longer-ask-students-for-anonymous-feedback-on-their-teachers-173911">calling for</a> anonymous online surveys to be scrapped. Some academics, burned by their experience of student feedback, say they no longer <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02602938.2020.1805409">open or engage</a> with student evaluation reports. They said the risk of harm outweighed any benefits. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lose-some-weight-stupid-old-hag-universities-should-no-longer-ask-students-for-anonymous-feedback-on-their-teachers-173911">'Lose some weight', 'stupid old hag': universities should no longer ask students for anonymous feedback on their teachers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In the Netflix show The Chair, a memorable scene sees the character Professor Joan Hambling <a href="https://theconversation.com/read-the-student-survey-responses-shared-by-academics-and-youll-see-why-professor-hambling-is-justified-in-burning-hers-167897">burn</a> her student evaluations. Clearly, a different solution is needed. </p>
<p>Feedback from students can still be valuable for lifting teaching standards and it’s important students have their say. </p>
<p>We have developed a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02602938.2022.2081668">screening system</a> using <a href="https://theconversation.com/machine-learning-is-changing-our-culture-try-this-text-altering-tool-to-see-how-159430">machine learning</a> (where software changes its behaviour by “learning” from user input) that allows students to talk about their experiences while protecting academics from unacceptable comments.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/read-the-student-survey-responses-shared-by-academics-and-youll-see-why-professor-hambling-is-justified-in-burning-hers-167897">Read the student survey responses shared by academics and you'll see why Professor Hambling is justified in burning hers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Why a new approach is needed</h2>
<p>University codes of conduct remind students of their general obligation to refrain from abusive or discriminatory behaviour, but not specifically in regard to student evaluations.</p>
<p>Instead, universities rely on self-regulation or on others to report incidents. Some institutions use profanity blockers to screen comments. Even then, these often fail to detect emerging terms of abuse in online speech. </p>
<p>So, in setting up our screening system, we wanted to:</p>
<ul>
<li>promote staff and student well-being</li>
<li>enhance the reliability and validity of student feedback</li>
<li>improve confidence in the integrity of survey results.</li>
</ul>
<p>We developed a method using machine learning and a dictionary of terms to screen for unacceptable student comments. The dictionary was created by QUT drawing on historically identified unacceptable comments and incorporating prior research into abusive and discriminatory terms. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1480282414760955904"}"></div></p>
<h2>Our ‘Screenomatic’ solution</h2>
<p>There is not a lot of published work on the detection of unacceptable or abusive comments in student evaluation surveys. So our team adapted <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10115-020-01481-0">earlier research</a> on detecting misogynistic tweets. This worked because often the student comments we looked at were similar in length to a tweet’s 280-character limit. </p>
<p>Our approach, which we call “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02602938.2022.2081668">Screenomatic</a>”, automatically reviewed more than 100,000 student comments during 2021 and identified those that appeared to be abuse. Trained evaluation staff members manually reviewed about 7,000 flagged comments, updating the machine-learning model after each semester. Each update improves the accuracy of auto-detection.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gender-bias-in-student-surveys-on-teaching-increased-with-remote-learning-what-can-unis-do-to-ensure-a-fair-go-for-female-staff-178418">Gender bias in student surveys on teaching increased with remote learning. What can unis do to ensure a fair go for female staff?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Ultimately, 100 comments were removed before the results were released to educators and supervisors. University policy enables comments to be re-identified in cases of potential misconduct. The central evaluations team contacted these students and reminded them of their obligations under the code of conduct.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02602938.2022.2081668">Screenomatic</a> model can help protect both educators and students. Staff are safeguarded from abuse, and students at risk – who make comments that indicate they need mental health help, include allegations of bullying or harassment, or that threaten staff or other students – can be offered support. Universities can share data to train the model and maintain currency. </p>
<p>Importantly, the process enables universities to act morally to harness student voices while protecting people’s well-being. </p>
<h2>Useful feedback, not abuse</h2>
<p>The number of educators who receive abusive feedback may be relatively <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10734-014-9716-2">small</a>. However, it’s still unacceptable for universities to continue to expose their staff to offensive comments in the full knowledge of their potential impact. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/our-uni-teachers-were-already-among-the-worlds-most-stressed-covid-and-student-feedback-have-just-made-things-worse-162612">Our uni teachers were already among the world's most stressed. COVID and student feedback have just made things worse</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>With last year’s High Court ruling on <a href="https://www.nfplaw.org.au/news/new-high-court-decision-affects-all-not-for-profit-organisations-that-use-social-media">liability for defamatory posts</a>, and attempts to <a href="https://www.ag.gov.au/legal-system/social-media-anti-trolling-bill">improve online safety</a>, there is a growing acknowledgement that people should not be able to post anonymous, harmful messages.</p>
<p>After all, the cost of screening responses is nothing compared to the cost to individuals (including mental health or career consequences). And that’s ignoring the potential costs of litigation and legal damages. </p>
<p>At the end of the day, the anonymous comments are read by real people. As a tweet in response to the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2021.2012643">Lakeman findings</a> noted:</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1475521673407389701"}"></div></p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02602938.2022.2081668">Screenomatic model</a> goes a long way towards enabling the “tons of useful feedback” to serve its intended purpose while ensuring people aren’t harmed in the process.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185041/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abby Cathcart leads the QUT Evaluation Strategy</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melinda Laundon and Sam Cunningham do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The new ‘Screenomatic’ model can protect students and academics, while still providing useful feedback.Abby Cathcart, Professor of Higher Education & Governance, Queensland University of TechnologyMelinda Laundon, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Management, Queensland University of TechnologySam Cunningham, Lecturer, QUT Academy of Learning & Teaching, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1771552022-02-22T19:09:06Z2022-02-22T19:09:06ZYes, uni students say some awful things in teaching surveys, so how can we use them to improve?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447169/original/file-20220217-17-1hadj1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1745%2C1358%2C4407%2C2774&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine some of the key evidence for promotions at work being <a href="https://theconversation.com/lose-some-weight-stupid-old-hag-universities-should-no-longer-ask-students-for-anonymous-feedback-on-their-teachers-173911">anonymous responses</a> from coworkers who just received a bad performance evaluation from you. Something similar happens in higher education, with teachers rated by students grateful for good grades or disgruntled by low grades. That’s a bitter pill to swallow for <a href="https://theconversation.com/read-the-student-survey-responses-shared-by-academics-and-youll-see-why-professor-hambling-is-justified-in-burning-hers-167897">some academics</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2017.1416456">Evidence</a> tells us students take their feedback personally. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2021.1923723">Jurors’ decision-making</a> is similarly affected by their emotional state. People make worse decisions when they are <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0022-3514.81.6.973">uncertain</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2013.04.046">stressed</a>, which are two common states for students.</p>
<p>So how unreliable are student evaluations? And what can we do about it? <a href="https://doi.org/10.53761/1.18.8.1">Our work</a> indicates there is still much to be done in this space, but we can set some rules to make it easier.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lose-some-weight-stupid-old-hag-universities-should-no-longer-ask-students-for-anonymous-feedback-on-their-teachers-173911">'Lose some weight', 'stupid old hag': universities should no longer ask students for anonymous feedback on their teachers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1493742260957368320"}"></div></p>
<h2>All surveys are not equal</h2>
<p>Australia’s national <a href="https://www.qilt.edu.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/2020-ses-national-report.pdf?sfvrsn=d1237953_5">Student Experience Survey</a> is considered “the pulse” on student satisfaction rather than a device to enable teacher growth, with the data being easily skewable by circumstances at the time. Unsurprisingly, during 2020, universities that already had an online presence saw the smallest decline in student experience scores. </p>
<p>So the question becomes: did the quality of learning crash in Group of Eight universities, which had the greatest declines in student experience? Unlikely. Instead, students’ ratings reflected their difficulties engaging with new forms of teaching and learning, plus the inertia of COVID-19 lockdowns. </p>
<p>Maybe they should have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080%2F00986280701700318">given students chocolate</a>?</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"452161822330593280"}"></div></p>
<p>The reality is these surveys do not tell us how students learn, but instead how students perceive their learning. Yet students <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2019.12.009">aren’t experts at what learning is</a>. And when students don’t receive effective training in evaluation, it’s hardly a surprise that teacher <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2021.1888075">gender, race and attractiveness</a> change scores. As the popular allegory puts it: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Instead, let’s ask students to share the most enjoyable content, the most rewarding educational technologies, and where improvement was needed. Include ethics and feedback training for bonus credit.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/our-uni-teachers-were-already-among-the-worlds-most-stressed-covid-and-student-feedback-have-just-made-things-worse-162612">Our uni teachers were already among the world's most stressed. COVID and student feedback have just made things worse</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Making survey tools that work</h2>
<p>Psychometrics is the study of measurements. Interestingly, many academics have specialist knowledge in developing surveys that are designed to be valid and reliable. But it’s unclear if universities use them as a resource to develop their surveys, with some academics wondering if they should. The <a href="https://www.qilt.edu.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/2021-ess-methodological-report.pdf?sfvrsn=db6efd6b_0">2021 Employer Satisfaction Survey Methodological Report</a>, for example, does not refer explicitly to the words validity or reliability once across its 140 pages.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1493334209141821440"}"></div></p>
<p>Valid surveys exist when the questions align to what we think they are measuring. Using a stopwatch to measure time is easy. When we try to decide how we feel about intangible concepts, it’s harder. </p>
<p>The national <a href="https://www.qilt.edu.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/2020-ses-national-report.pdf?sfvrsn=d1237953_5">Student Experience Survey</a> asks students whether they have developed a sense of belonging to their institution. Yet the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497">evidence on belonging</a> indicates it is typically developed through interpersonal relationships, not institutions, and not <a href="https://doi.org/10.53761/1.18.4.2">through universities</a>. </p>
<p>Reliable surveys exist when the questions generate consistent results over time and over different participants. It’s analogous to when we bake a cake and we assume the scales will always accurately measure 40 grams of butter. </p>
<p>Speaking of sweets, scores in student surveys are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080%2F00986280701700318">easy to game</a>. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01973533.2020.1756817">Inflating student grades</a> does the trick. </p>
<p>In contrast, as an example, the Australian <a href="https://www.qilt.edu.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/2020-ses-national-report.pdf?sfvrsn=d1237953_5">Student Experience Survey</a> asks whether students have developed their critical thinking skills during their course. How accurately can a person with low critical thinking skills answer this question? </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1447106074046308356"}"></div></p>
<h2>5 rules for surveys to help teachers improve</h2>
<p>There are ways that surveys can be used for good. To actually help teachers be better educators and improve student learning. But it requires a reset. </p>
<p>Here are five rules institutions could consider when developing their surveys.</p>
<p><strong>1. Find psychometric specialists to create quality tools</strong></p>
<p>We go to dentists to have our teeth fixed. The same rule applies here. Find individuals who can take the <a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/INFORMIT.491551710186460">theory</a> of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2018.07.001">scale development</a> (producing reliable and valid measures to assess an attribute of interest) into the practices of learning and teaching.</p>
<p><strong>2. Change when the survey is done</strong></p>
<p>Lots of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.1099">evaluations</a> are done before, during and after a program. In higher education, they are completed only after the class has ended. </p>
<p>A change to evaluations at multiple points will help identify if the learner makes progress during the class. This would also help control for cohort problems (one year, for example, students are smarter). </p>
<p>For student experience, contrasting how the same student rates different classes each semester may serve as a stable measure to see which classes need review. </p>
<p><strong>3. Use more than just numbers</strong></p>
<p>The numbers explain how we are tracking, and this is not inherently bad. The qualitative comments (<a href="https://theconversation.com/lose-some-weight-stupid-old-hag-universities-should-no-longer-ask-students-for-anonymous-feedback-on-their-teachers-173911">mostly</a>) help us explore what those mean. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2016.01.001">Mixed methods</a> approaches can help. </p>
<p><strong>4. Control for bias</strong></p>
<p>It’s not always possible to eliminate bias and emotion. We can seek to understand them and use the measures as a case-by-case conversation about improving teaching. Developing reliable and valid tools will help, but if the aim is for these to help teachers improve, then we need to focus on that, not cross-institutional comparisons. </p>
<p>Better yet, let’s actively recognise teachers’ professional growth, call decline into question, and report on averages. </p>
<p>We can also train students to be better evaluators. </p>
<p><strong>5. Create a growth community</strong></p>
<p>Teaching quality surveys do not necessarily increase <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0260293022000009294">teaching quality</a>, but they can. </p>
<p>The surveys offer an opportunity to raise awareness of differences. If students rate seven items at 90% but one is 84%, this should prompt research into the reasons. It could be a great opportunity to create more meaningful content; it could also just be an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlier">outlier</a>. </p>
<p>Use these findings as <a href="https://doi.org/10.53761/1.18.8.1">publishing opportunities</a> to share what was learned.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Correction: This article has been updated to remove an erroneous attribution of the allegory. It is often attributed to Albert Einstein, but there is <a href="https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/04/06/fish-climb/">no evidence</a> that he said it.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177155/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Students’ evaluations can be very personal and many factors can skew survey responses. But surveys can be designed to produce more valid and reliable results that could be used to improve teaching.Joseph Crawford, Senior Lecturer, Educational Innovation, University of TasmaniaKristyn Harman, Associate Professor in History, University of TasmaniaMichael Cowling, Associate Professor – Information & Communication Technology (ICT), CQUniversity AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1678972021-10-07T19:06:19Z2021-10-07T19:06:19ZRead the student survey responses shared by academics and you’ll see why Professor Hambling is justified in burning hers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424617/original/file-20211005-15-1l9r1ul.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5897%2C3916&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eliza Morse/Netflix</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you’ve watched the Netflix sitcom <a href="https://www.netflix.com/au/title/81206259">The Chair</a> you’ll remember the scene in which Professor Joan Hambling burns her student evaluations, after admitting she hadn’t read any of them since the 1980s. Many of us in academia whooped in delight when Professor Hambling lit that match. </p>
<p>We know exactly how she feels. For LGBTIQ+ people in particular, student experience or satisfaction surveys can be a source of distress as they provide students with an anonymous means to discriminate against and harass queer academics. At times, these surveys are little better than university-facilitated hate speech. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/our-uni-teachers-were-already-among-the-worlds-most-stressed-covid-and-student-feedback-have-just-made-things-worse-162612">Our uni teachers were already among the world's most stressed. COVID and student feedback have just made things worse</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>An unreliable guide to teaching quality</h2>
<p>Adding salt to the wound is that universities then use these surveys to assess academics’ teaching performance, despite growing evidence they are not fit for this purpose. The University of New South Wales has even proposed to <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/what-goes-wrong-when-uni-students-mark-their-teachers-20210831-p58nk0.html">publish these survey results</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2331186X.2017.1304016">Research</a> <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2331186X.2017.1304016">shows</a> student evaluations of teaching are not accurate measures of teaching effectiveness. Other <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0260293022000009294">research</a> shows these surveys do not lead to higher teaching quality or better learning outcomes and are not trusted by students as a means of giving them a voice. In contrast, such surveys are linked to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01973533.2020.1756817">poorer teaching, grade inflation</a> and to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349864729_Sexism_racism_prejudice_and_bias_a_literature_review_and_synthesis_of_research_surrounding_student_evaluations_of_courses_and_teaching">racism, sexism and homophobia</a>. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01973533.2020.1756817">number</a> of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13562510601102131">studies</a> have shown grade satisfaction is a major factor in survey results – the higher the student’s grades the better the feedback they give. Students at prestigious universities are also <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283298711_Designing_a_predictive_model_of_student_satisfaction_in_online_learning">more likely to positively rate their lecturers</a> because the university and its courses are seen as “world class”. Most damningly, student evaluations are often <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349864729_Sexism_racism_prejudice_and_bias_a_literature_review_and_synthesis_of_research_surrounding_student_evaluations_of_courses_and_teaching">little more than veiled bias</a> about their lecturer’s personal traits, especially gender, race and sexuality.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qF1JPTdS5pA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Despite what she tells the chair of the department, Professor Joan Hambling has resisted reading her student evaluations.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Sharing the best and worst feedback</h2>
<p>I recently asked a dozen academics from universities across Australia to share their worst and best student feedback stories. A common thread in these stories was students using the surveys to voice homophobic and transphobic sentiment. These are real student responses to questions about teaching quality:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I couldn’t concentrate because I couldn’t tell if the teacher was a man or woman.</p>
<p>I found it extremely frustrating that a lot of examples and theories all revolved around sexuality/gender/identification and how it affects him. Speaking to a number of students in this topic, a lot of us felt like it was over the top.</p>
<p>This lecturer has no empathy for students not supporting the LGBTQ ideology.</p>
<p>She looks like a man professor not a woman one.</p>
<p>He made me uncomfortable because gays and lesbianism are against my religion.</p>
<p>There are only two genders, men and women!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Some other comments were so offensive they were unpublishable. </p>
<p>There was also a strong thread of sexism. <a href="https://www.ofce.sciences-po.fr/pdf/dtravail/WP2015-13.pdf">Research</a> shows women receive lower ratings than male academics for doing the same thing. Women academics were judged harshly for being feminist or not conforming to stereotypical gender norms. One academic copped abuse for both in a single comment:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Question: Do you have any other comments to add about this teacher in this unit? Answer: You look like 13 year old boy but the brain of a woman power bullshit and your (sic) a germ.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The academic in question had a short, Pixie-style haircut at the time. Here we have the student’s perception of her gender non-conformity negatively impacting the academic’s teaching quality score.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1095775692996763649"}"></div></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/male-teachers-are-most-likely-to-rate-highly-in-university-student-feedback-111741">Male teachers are most likely to rate highly in university student feedback</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>These surveys provide two forms of so-called data, a numeric score and qualitative data in the form of student comments. To assess teaching performance, or to decide if an academic will be appointed or promoted, the numeric score alone is normally used. This means an academic given a poor score accompanied by a discriminatory comment is being evaluated without proper context. </p>
<p>That being said, neither the numeric score nor the comments necessarily reveal the student’s true motivation for the feedback. Students are discouraged from openly venting their racism, homophobia and sexism but this does not mean their attitudes change. They are just cleverer about how they express it. Anonymous surveys enable them to rate an academic harshly without having to justify the rating or say why.</p>
<h2>Many responses have nothing to do with teaching</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02602938.2019.1640863">Research</a> also shows students are often not even answering the question they are asked, as the comments above show. They often base their scores and comments – both positive and negative – on things outside the classroom and beyond the academic’s control. Here are some examples:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It would’ve been nice not to have to miss so many classes due to public holidays due to the classes being on a Monday.</p>
<p>Library access sometimes confusing - not everything available online.</p>
<p>IT help at this university is terrible, nothing ever works how it should and they never fix it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One academic I contacted received a positive score and comment because of her wardrobe:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Question: What was good about the course?
Student comment: I like your shirts 😊</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another academic received a low teaching quality score because the classroom did not have a nice view and the student found that depressing. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1381510610790285312"}"></div></p>
<p>Although academics generally value and respect their students, it would be foolish to pretend that as a group they will give objective feedback with the sole aim of improving teaching. About <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03075079.2021.1972093">one in ten students</a> routinely cheats on their assessments. <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/HE-05-2019-0023/full/html">Half of British university students</a> experience assault and harassment on campus from other students. Another <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10734-008-9172-y">UK study</a> showed close to a quarter of LGBTIQ students had been a victim of homophobic harassment or discrimination, including threats of physical violence, at university.</p>
<p>Most students are good people, but enough harbour sexist, racist and homophobic views to distort survey outcomes.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sexual-abuse-harassment-and-discrimination-rife-among-australian-academics-97856">Sexual abuse, harassment and discrimination 'rife' among Australian academics</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What are the impacts on academics?</h2>
<p>Having positions of relative authority in the university system does not make LGBTIQ academics immune to <a href="https://theconversation.com/sexual-abuse-harassment-and-discrimination-rife-among-australian-academics-97856">homophobia on campus</a>. If anything, they may feel like they have targets on their backs that force some back into the closet. Giving students an anonymous means to vent their bias and purposely harm academics’ careers and well-being just makes things worse.</p>
<p>Foregrounding student evaluations of teaching over other ways of assessing teaching performance — such as peer review and actual student learning outcomes — also leads some academics from vulnerable communities to self-censor in classes. Some queer academics, especially those on precarious casual contracts, try to be “less queer”. One non-binary academic adopted a “cisgender-friendly way of dressing” for the classroom after student comments. Having to wear more normative clothing made the academic feel they were “in a form of prison, wearing an inmate’s uniform”. </p>
<p>Obviously, having to hide who we are is not conducive to a productive teaching environment nor to our well-being.</p>
<p>Furthermore, for surveys to be statistically relevant and represent the majority attitudes of any given class the response rates need to be at 60% or higher – a benchmark routinely expected of survey data. Often students participate in these surveys at much lower rates. These low rates give a louder voice to those who wish to use the surveys to punish academics for their non-conformity to hetero-patriarchal values.</p>
<p>We already have better ways of assessing teaching quality and student learning, and ensuring those processes are authentic and fair. They’re called assessment outcomes. </p>
<p>In contrast, student evaluations of teaching are not fit for purpose and commonly discriminate against LGBTIQ+ and women academics. Perhaps Professor Hambling had valid reasons for burning her student feedback evaluations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167897/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pema Düddul does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Student experience or satisfaction surveys are not a reliable guide to teaching performance. Even worse, anonymous survey responses are at times little better than university-facilitated hate speech.Pema Düddul, Associate Professor in Writing and Publishing, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1440522020-08-25T17:26:36Z2020-08-25T17:26:36Z5 ways university education is being reimagined in response to COVID-19<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354237/original/file-20200823-24-17zn3ls.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=134%2C50%2C5355%2C3522&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Immersive and collaborative lab experiences are now possible online, and in the future they will complement in-person lab work. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shuttterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>With the new academic year beginning shortly, students, faculty and staff <a href="https://www.universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/covid-19-updates-for-canadas-universities/">returning to higher education</a> or <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6718713/coronavirus-college-university-students/">arriving for the first time</a> face uncertainty. There is anxiety about a fall term like no other.</p>
<p>Those of us responsible for ensuring the futures of post-secondary students have endured months of existential fears about <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2020/06/15/students-may-know-how-stay-safe-covid-19-doesnt-mean-theyll-do-so-opinion">student and employee health and safety</a>, the <a href="https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/online-enrolments-after-covid-19-some-predictions-for-canada/">efficacy of online teaching and virtual learning</a> and what it all means for <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-laurentian-university-warns-financial-viability-threatened-by-covid-1/">enrolment and revenue</a>.</p>
<p>Enough already. </p>
<p>Our responses to the pandemic are helping us reimagine the future of higher education. </p>
<p>Instead of lamenting what’s lost, let’s focus on what we’ve gained. Many of our adjustments to <a href="https://digitalpromise.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/ELE_CoBrand_DP_FINAL_3.pdf">teaching and learning, student engagement</a> and <a href="https://www.eng.mcmaster.ca/news/mcmaster-engineers-bringing-market-home-test-detect-covid-19-antibodies-and-3d-cell-printing">research</a> to adapt to COVID-19 have shown us the way to a better version of higher education. The future our students deserve can be fashioned by heeding the lessons learned from experience over the past few months. </p>
<p>Here is a blueprint.</p>
<h2>Create virtual content for the future</h2>
<p>Research suggests <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0092055X12446624">students are comfortable reading course materials online</a> but <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.3389%2Ffpsyg.2014.01278">prefer discussions and activities to occur face-to-face</a>.</p>
<p>Rather than a 50-minute lecture, virtual learning occurs best over <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2020/03/11/ensuring-online-teaching-engages-students-and-maintains-community-opinion">short sprints such as ten or fifteen-minute modules</a>. </p>
<p>A possible blended learning model is one where learning proceeds seamlessly between a physical or virtual classroom and a continuously refreshed <a href="https://ceea.ca/about-e-core/">online resource library built with open-access resources</a>. Instructors would not individually create new versions of the course each year, freeing them to <a href="https://hbr.org/2020/03/what-the-shift-to-virtual-learning-could-mean-for-the-future-of-higher-ed">mentor challenge-based learning</a>. </p>
<p>Experiential and lab learning is now possible online. </p>
<p>For example, in the faculty of engineering at McMaster, we have collaborated with the educational innovation company <a href="https://www.quanser.com">Quanser</a> to develop software that brings <a href="https://www.eng.mcmaster.ca/news/mcmaster-and-quanser-partner-lead-virtual-lab-innovation-canadian-engineering-education">interactive and immersive lab experiences</a> to students through virtual reality and gaming platforms. This fall, first-year engineering students will learn technical skills in virtual labs and apply them as part of a team in a virtual design studio. They’ll then collaborate with team members to address unique design challenges in areas such as autonomous vehicle design.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H6Z3MWV5jLA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">McMaster engineering video.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Right now, universities are undertaking such efforts independently. Political support and leadership are urgently required to encourage institutions to collaborate, produce and share virtual content. Developing multiple versions of the same subject matter is wasteful. Collaborations will yield more content and a greater variety of instruction for different learning styles.</p>
<h2>Engage students through virtual experiences</h2>
<p>The success of graduates depends on three ingredients — <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/public-sector/improving-student-success-in-higher-education.html">how they are taught</a>, <a href="https://www.gallup.com/education/194264/gallup-alumni-survey.aspx">how they are mentored</a> and <a href="https://brighterworld.mcmaster.ca/articles/why-learning-from-experience-is-the-educational-wave-of-the-future/">what they experience</a>. The shift to remote learning and social distancing has upended this recipe.</p>
<p>Even before the pandemic, <a href="https://www.gallup.com/services/176768/2014-gallup-purdue-index-report.aspx">only a fraction of students made use of the wide range of curricular and extracurricular experiential learning opportunities</a> offered on campuses. Now, to overcome constraints posed by distance, scheduling and convenience, these are provided online, a template that bodes well for supplementing future face-to-face engagement. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.eng.mcmaster.ca/programs/ember">New online programs</a> are already enhancing the <a href="https://news.ok.ubc.ca/exchange/2018/08/30/introducing-ubc-101-online-orientation-for-new-students/">academic preparation of incoming students</a>, offering them experiences and easing their social transition into virtual teams and groups. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Bikes in a bike share are seen on a rack." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354236/original/file-20200823-14-1332t51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354236/original/file-20200823-14-1332t51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354236/original/file-20200823-14-1332t51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354236/original/file-20200823-14-1332t51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354236/original/file-20200823-14-1332t51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354236/original/file-20200823-14-1332t51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354236/original/file-20200823-14-1332t51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students at McMaster University participated in a Change-A-Thon in June, and some teams proposed ways to increase revenue and expand ridership in a city bike share program.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">(Joey Coleman/Flickr)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Students are learning to create <a href="https://www.eng.mcmaster.ca/macchangers-change-thon#June-2020-Projects">solutions that mitigate the social and economic impact of the virus</a>. </p>
<p>As students become more involved in <a href="https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2020/07/troubleshooting-the-pandemic-engineers-pitch-innovative-solutions-to-help-address-covid-19">addressing the complexity of the pandemic</a>, they are also being trained to address other seemingly intractable challenges, such as climate change, clean water, affordable housing, widespread rapid transit and ubiquitous cybersecurity.</p>
<h2>End the credit hour</h2>
<p>American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie’s plans to establish a free pension system for post-secondary educators in 1906 led to a model that translated the contact time between an instructor and a learner into a <a href="https://www.carnegiefoundation.org/blog/the-carnegie-unit-revisited/">measure of instructor workload</a>. Even today, we measure workload through that credit hour model, but also use it to <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/09/05/credit-hour-causes-many-higher-educations-problems-report-finds">link “seat time” to a student’s learning and academic progression</a>. </p>
<p>University curricula are created by stacking courses that typically involve three credit hours of instructor workload. With blended learning, where part of the instruction is asynchronous, the credit hour is no longer a surrogate for instructor workload or student learning. Now, student transcripts emphasize academic progress through mastery of credit hours. </p>
<p>This offers the opportunity to reconsider what is conveyed by the conventional academic transcript. The transcript should better reflect the learning, competencies and skills gained by the student, mirroring <a href="https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/google-plan-disrupt-college-degree-university-higher-education-certificate-project-management-data-analyst.html">developments in professional fields</a> where <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/future-ontarios-workers-how-microcredentials-can-be-vital-part-post-pandemic-recovery">micro-credentialing has emerged</a> as a way to reflect the kind of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03098265.2016.1154932">nimble and transferable skills that are most useful in today’s workplaces</a>.</p>
<h2>Broader support for students’ futures</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354240/original/file-20200823-24-78yw0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354240/original/file-20200823-24-78yw0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354240/original/file-20200823-24-78yw0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354240/original/file-20200823-24-78yw0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354240/original/file-20200823-24-78yw0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354240/original/file-20200823-24-78yw0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354240/original/file-20200823-24-78yw0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students are facing pandemic-related challenges.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Chris Montgomery/Unsplash)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With job and financial losses, many more students can no longer afford higher education. Work opportunities like co-ops and internships that provide students with important professional competencies and skills have been scaled back by employers. Some students face food and housing insecurity, have poor health and wellness and require better digital access and devices. </p>
<p>University emergency student aid is <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/july-2020/cutting-post-secondary-budgets-during-covid-a-bad-move/">limited</a>. To nurture future talent, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-universities-donors-amass-millions-in-grants-for-students-struggling/">some philanthropists have generously donated</a> and governments must continue to <a href="https://www.univcan.ca/media-room/publications/pre-budget-2021-submission-investing-in-universities-for-a-sustainable-covid-19-recovery/">help vulnerable learners thrive and support a bold reimagination of higher education</a>.</p>
<h2>Renew a commitment to listening</h2>
<p>The pandemic has the power to humble us all and open our eyes and ears in new ways. We have been disoriented by COVID-19 and forced to listen more, empathize and fully imagine how to serve the needs of our students, employers and communities. </p>
<p>Faculty, supported by offices of teaching and learning, are finding new <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-when-teaching-during-a-disaster-students-need-to-be-partners-136695">ways to weave student concerns into course design</a>. We must continue to <a href="https://forum.academica.ca/forum/leading-the-way-through-leaders-in-canadian-postsecondary-discuss-covid-19">listen carefully as we design curricula and teaching for the future</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144052/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ishwar K. Puri works for McMaster University, is past chair of Engineering Deans Canada, the national organization of the deans of all accredited engineering programs, and trains students through funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and Mitacs.</span></em></p>Before the pandemic, only a fraction of students made use of the wide range of curricular and extracurricular experiential learning opportunities, but through online engagement that can change.Ishwar K. Puri, Dean of Engineering and Professor, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1006032018-08-08T20:08:34Z2018-08-08T20:08:34ZWhy some veterans feel alienated on campus and how universities can help<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230522/original/file-20180803-41338-1n6r7m8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C0%2C1019%2C680&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Discipline, leadership and time management are some of the positives veterans say they bring to their studies. But not everyone has a chance to demonstrate these.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/44693311@N05/15892238135/in/photolist-qdkSHM-ha2Ag6-9pZycd-ar5aZd-nLkeWE-aikuZT-bRxfra-bX314o-bRxhS6-aiouvL-ar3LHs-9pYPdY-8g3nSc-UvJ6r7-8UxkpF-ar3wmL-ar2TTi-ht7dBp-7HVkvw-9wbG1B-pVUu4i-ar2uei-aUyvXM-bX2Esb-ar1qip-azjskM-9obcus-rc1Qtv-mJXUqJ-7mWFLM-28Z7vwc-nmdj86-hzuMH5-5xE5gj-aUyvRD-9pM58L-TatzfX-htCYa6-7zG9o4-8e2akB-aAx7Fp-p6ABHm-21Fgy3W-pFLBKn-nyg9Wo-8Vm6FG-d1ibP-bAGhA3-aHpmFP-8ViAgD">rekrsoldier/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Some veterans say they find campus alienating, don’t feel they belong and fail to disclose their military status when they enrol, according to one of the first snapshots of Australian veterans’ experience of university.</p>
<p>While most veterans <a href="https://www.latrobe.edu.au/cheedr/publications">we surveyed</a> were satisfied with their university experience, our research highlights what universities need to do to better, from admission to completion. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/six-ways-to-improve-equity-in-australian-universities-61437">Six ways to improve equity in Australian universities</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Why this matters</h2>
<p>The transition to civilian life is often difficult for the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Foreign_Affairs_Defence_and_Trade/VeteranSuicide/Report/c06">5500 or so</a> military veterans discharged from the Australian Defence Force (ADF) each year.</p>
<p>As the <a href="https://www.minister.defence.gov.au/minister/marise-payne/media-releases/safer-australia-budget-2018-19-defence-overview">defence budget</a> climbs towards 2% of GDP, more young veterans will transition to civilian life. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bringing-the-war-home-the-rising-disability-claims-of-afghanistan-war-vets-56021">Bringing the war home: the rising disability claims of Afghanistan war vets</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Veterans face relatively high rates of <a href="https://create.piktochart.com/output/21845816-veteran-employment-report-final-conflict-copy">unemployment</a>, <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Foreign_Affairs_Defence_and_Trade/VeteranSuicide/Report">disability and mental health risks</a>. One pathway to new careers and financial independence is through higher education. </p>
<p>The Australian Department of Education and Training collects no specific data on the number of veterans enrolled in higher education or their success, retention and outcomes.</p>
<p>We surveyed 240 university student veterans with the <a href="http://www.asva.org.au/">Australian Student Veterans Association</a>. </p>
<p>Most were in their 30s or 40s, male and about one-third had a disability, impairment or long-term medical condition that may affect their studies.</p>
<h2>Access is the first hurdle</h2>
<p>Although many veterans earn both military and civilian qualifications from their military service, including diploma-level awards, few universities provide credit for these.</p>
<p>Veterans are not considered one of the <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/node/45221">six equity groups</a> in Australian higher education. They typically receive no admission bonus points, special consideration, or recognition of prior learning for their service.</p>
<p>An exception is <a href="https://www.qtac.edu.au/">Queensland</a>, where all universities agree to equate military service to an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR). Under this system, different types/length of military service are given entrance ranks.</p>
<p>We also found that veterans were unlikely to: feel prepared for study; receive support from their institutions to settle into study; or see orientation activities as relevant and helpful.</p>
<h2>What does success look like?</h2>
<p>Once enrolled, most student veterans surveyed felt positive about university life. 94% would recommend university to other veterans. </p>
<p>One respondent noted:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>University is very challenging and gives you a huge sense of achievement when you finish. Also helps you move forward and realise that your military service doesn’t necessarily define you.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Veterans also identified strengths they brought to study. These included discipline, leadership and time management. These skills were perceived as central to academic success, particularly given student veterans are relatively likely to have family responsibilities and/or a disability.</p>
<p>The presence of student veterans on campus can also benefit other students. As one student noted:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… the skills and attributes developed in the ADF will make you very competitive at an academic institution. The values and life experience you bring will also benefit all around you.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Isolated and unappreciated</h2>
<p>Despite these strengths, many student veterans do not feel a sense of belonging on campus. Some of our respondents felt isolated, and many felt university culture was not respectful or appreciative of military service. Only one third of respondents disclosed their military status to their institution.</p>
<p>One fifth of respondents were not comfortable discussing their military experience at university. Nearly one third felt their university was not “veteran friendly”. One student advised:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>(Try) not to get involved with political conversations as many students who haven’t served, and haven’t seen the world, hold very immature viewpoints and don’t understand how veterans think.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What can we do better?</h2>
<p>Universities could recognise military service at admission. Institutions could work with tertiary admissions centres to equate service to ATAR levels, as agreed by the Queensland universities. This process alone would lead to a substantial increase in student numbers. </p>
<p>More broadly, universities could introduce financial support for student veterans, including bursaries, fee waivers and scholarships. Identifying veterans on university enrolment forms would enable demographic, success, and completions data to be collected.</p>
<p>The Australian Student Veterans Association has chapters on several university campuses. Expanding those chapters and other support groups would provide valuable resources and peer networks. Better promotion of disability services, counselling and other services would also help.</p>
<h2>Let’s harness diversity</h2>
<p>Our research confirms that veterans often enter university with life experiences, strengths, and perspectives different from those of other students (and staff). </p>
<p>This diversity can create high social and academic value. A diverse student body can provide a <a href="https://www.aacu.org/publications-research/publications/making-diversity-work-campus-research-based-perspective">stimulating and creative intellectual environment</a>. As such, it has the potential to improve the university experience of all students.</p>
<h2>Invest for the future</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.benefits.va.gov/gibill/forevergibill.asp">US</a>, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/enhanced-learning-credits-further-and-higher-education-scheme-changes">UK</a> and <a href="http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/services/transition/education-training-benefit">Canada</a> all invest significant resources in supporting military veterans to access and succeed at university.</p>
<p>This investment has been shown to have financial benefits overseas. For instance, US veterans with bachelor degrees earn an average <a href="https://ivmf.syracuse.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/I-AM-A-POST-911-Student-Veteran-REPORT.pdf">US$17,000 more each year</a> than their non-veteran counterparts.</p>
<p>Similar benefits are likely in Australia given the <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/graduate-winners-assessing-the-public-and-private-benefits-of-higher-education/">typical financial advantage</a> of graduates.</p>
<p>But more than a financial gain for individual veterans, access to and success at university for veterans is an equity issue. </p>
<p>The difficulties of transition to civilian life are well documented. By accepting more veterans, universities could assist this transition while simultaneously improving the learning experience of all students. </p>
<p>Higher education should be accessible to those who have served in the defence of the nation.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The authors wish to acknowledge advice and support from Matthew Sharp, co-founder of the Australian Student Veterans Association, and Matthew Wyatt-Smith, CEO, Australian Student Veterans Association.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100603/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Harvey received funding from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs through the Supporting Younger Veterans grant program.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa Andrewartha received funding from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs through the Supporting Younger Veterans grant program.</span></em></p>While many military veterans do well on campus, not everyone feels welcome or their views matter. Here’s what universities can do better.Andrew Harvey, Director, Centre for Higher Education Equity and Diversity Research, La Trobe UniversityLisa Andrewartha, Senior Research Officer and Senior Project Coordinator, Centre for Higher Education Equity and Diversity Research, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/867562017-11-27T19:09:50Z2017-11-27T19:09:50ZUniversities are failing their students through poor feedback practices<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193018/original/file-20171102-26478-1k773b5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For many students, the experience of teacher-led feedback is underwhelming or negative, and they are effectively left to their own devices.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Educators and students often struggle to learn from each other through the use of feedback. Our research into feedback practices has found that students and staff find feedback practices largely unsustainable, de-motivating and without opportunity for improvement. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.routledge.com/Feedback-in-Higher-and-Professional-Education-Understanding-it-and-doing/Boud-Molloy/p/book/9780415692298">Researchers generally describe</a> current feedback practices as lacking in detail, difficult to understand, ambiguous or simply unusable. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.graduatecareers.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Graduate-Course-Experience_20151.pdf">2015 Graduate Course Experience</a> surveyed over 93,000 students within four months of their graduation. It reported that while close to three quarters of graduates felt the feedback they received was helpful, 16.3% could not decide if the feedback was helpful, while a further 9.7% found the feedback unhelpful. Clearly something is wrong when a quarter of our graduates indicate feedback is not working.</p>
<p>The Australian Government funded Feedback for Learning <a href="http://feedbackforlearning.org">project</a> surveyed 4,514 students and 406 staff across two universities. It revealed that while students are generally satisfied with their feedback, there are a number of cohorts, or practices, that need attention. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194120/original/file-20171110-29324-bs30i1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194120/original/file-20171110-29324-bs30i1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194120/original/file-20171110-29324-bs30i1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194120/original/file-20171110-29324-bs30i1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194120/original/file-20171110-29324-bs30i1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194120/original/file-20171110-29324-bs30i1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194120/original/file-20171110-29324-bs30i1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided/The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Feedback underpins students’ effective decision making, and is the basis for improving learning outcomes. Despite heavy financial investment by universities, student experience of feedback continues to be less than desirable, especially for already “at risk” students. Many academics operate with misconceptions about feedback that inadvertently add to the problem. If we are to improve we need to seek out best practices and gain a clearer vision of what feedback should be. </p>
<h2>Feedback is not ‘given to’ or ‘done to’ the learner</h2>
<p>In higher education, the concept of feedback is commonly misunderstood. For example, many academics and students assume that feedback is a one-way flow of information, which happens after assessment submission and is isolated from any other event. In addition, academics and students often feel that the role of feedback is merely to justify the grade. A further misunderstanding is that feedback is something that is done by academics and given to students. These beliefs are deeply held in academic culture. </p>
<p>In contrast, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Feedback-in-Higher-and-Professional-Education-Understanding-it-and-doing/Boud-Molloy/p/book/9780415692298">leading</a> <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03075071003642449">researchers</a> <a href="https://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/download/ng/file/group-4/n3469-the-black-box-of-tertiary-assessment---john-hattiepdf.pdf">in the field</a> <a href="http://srhe.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02602938.2013.795518">argue</a> that feedback is not a simple input. Instead, it is a process in which information about the quality of a student’s performance is engaged with by the student, and leads to a change in future work or learning strategies. Ultimately, academics need not be involved at all. </p>
<p>The shift from a teacher-centred perspective also provides a valuable opportunity to re-position the academic as just one actor within the feedback process. Indeed, feedback comments can be from, and instigated by, a variety of sources, including the evaluator, peers, and the learner. </p>
<h2>Feedback must have impact</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193015/original/file-20171102-26462-4vukrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193015/original/file-20171102-26462-4vukrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=705&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193015/original/file-20171102-26462-4vukrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=705&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193015/original/file-20171102-26462-4vukrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=705&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193015/original/file-20171102-26462-4vukrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=886&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193015/original/file-20171102-26462-4vukrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=886&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193015/original/file-20171102-26462-4vukrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=886&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Effective feedback practices require us to look for impact.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In contexts other than education, such as technology or biology, feedback is not an input but rather a process within a system. For example, if a blood vessel is damaged, platelets cling to the injured site and release chemicals that attract more platelets, eventually forming a blood clot. In this system, feedback regulates or optimises the output. Applying this metaphor to higher education, feedback can be usefully understood as a process within our complex teaching and learning system, rather than something that needs to be given to an actor in the system. </p>
<p>Under these circumstances, feedback can be identified by its regulating effect or impact. With this in mind, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Feedback-in-Higher-and-Professional-Education-Understanding-it-and-doing/Boud-Molloy/p/book/9780415692298">Boud and Molloy</a> argue that assessment feedback also should be seen to require some action or change to occur. </p>
<p>In other words, any information without effect is just information. Anything else is a waste of our time. </p>
<h2>Feedback should come before submission</h2>
<p>Feedback is a process in which information about the quality of a performance leads to a change in student work or learning strategies. Arguably, for the most useful impact, feedback should occur prior to the final submission of assessment. This means we are challenged with finding ways to elicit student performance early, and to facilitate feedback that then leads to improved submissions</p>
<p>In response to this, we might consider carefully designing a series of assessments that are connected by well-planned feedback. However, it is useful to note that the initial performance does not need to be the submission of assessment - it could be in the form of a variety of tasks that expose the student’s understanding or skills that may elicit feedback from a variety of sources. </p>
<h2>Feedback as teaching</h2>
<p>For many students, the experience of teacher-led feedback is underwhelming or negative, and they are effectively left to their own devices. In other words, many students learn despite us. However, feedback is arguably the most important form of interaction we can muster as teachers. Effective feedback requires us to seek out and judge the qualities of student performance, and to craft information and responses to have an impact. In addition, we need to find ways to monitor the impact of those interactions. </p>
<p>Most educators agree that feedback is potentially valuable. However, there is considerable push-back at the thought of greater investment in feedback practices, because it adds to an academic’s already heavy workload. This response is understandable if we persist with the assumptions that feedback is something we “give” to students as a secondary practice of, and costed in relation to, assessment grading.</p>
<p>A counter-argument is that we need to re-conceive of feedback in higher education to be a form of teaching just as important as lectures and tutorials. Feedback also doesn’t need to be teacher-centred. Peer, self and automated systems of feedback are well recognised as sustainable models.</p>
<h2>Feedback design</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193014/original/file-20171102-26483-1489qyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193014/original/file-20171102-26483-1489qyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193014/original/file-20171102-26483-1489qyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193014/original/file-20171102-26483-1489qyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193014/original/file-20171102-26483-1489qyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193014/original/file-20171102-26483-1489qyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193014/original/file-20171102-26483-1489qyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Feedback practices generally can’t be replicated across all contexts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While there is a growing body of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?as_ylo=2013&q=assessment+feedback&hl=en&as_sdt=1,5&as_vis=1&lookup=0">literature</a> surrounding feedback, there continues to be little agreement on the best approach. Certainly, there is no single feedback strategy or model that has been shown to work across all contexts. This is a significant problem for the higher education sector. </p>
<p>The way teachers, students and institutions interact vary in every instance. This includes policy, workload pressures, academic and student culture, and other broader socio-political issues that can significantly influence what might otherwise be regarded as effective feedback strategies. It is no wonder that simple strategies of feedback cannot be replicated successfully from one context to another. </p>
<p>This leaves us with a simple but frustrating truth – every educator needs to engage in feedback practices with an inquiring mind, prepared for repeated development of their own practices.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86756/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Support for this research has been provided by the Australian Government Department of Education and Training. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Government Department of Education and Training.
The project team includes: Professor David Boud, Associate Professor Phill Dawson, Dr Michael Phillips, Professor Elizabeth Molloy, Dr Tracii Ryan and Ms Paige Mahoney.
More information can be found: <a href="http://feedbackforlearning.org">http://feedbackforlearning.org</a> </span></em></p>Despite heavy investment by universities, student experience of feedback higher education continues to be less than desirable, especially for at-risk students.Michael Henderson, Associate Professor in Educational Technologies, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/600312016-06-09T10:19:13Z2016-06-09T10:19:13ZPower to the students: how the nature of higher education is changing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125740/original/image-20160608-3509-718bty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Robert Kneschke/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A large majority of UK undergraduates are satisfied with their university course, according to the results of an annual survey of 15,000 full-time students. But the <a href="http://www.hepi.ac.uk/2016/06/09/students-demand-better-value-money-nine-10-students-not-want-higher-fees/">2016 student academic experience survey</a> found perceptions of “good value for money” are in decline, indicating that students are becoming more demanding. </p>
<p>This year, only 37% of students felt they get value for money at their university, compared to 53% in 2012. And 86% do not want to see higher student fees, even where an excellent experience can be demonstrated.</p>
<p>Measuring the student experience is a central theme in the Conservative government’s new higher education <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/523546/bis-16-265-success-as-a-knowledge-economy-web.pdf">white paper</a>, where students are regarded as consumers. The proposed reforms include the creation of a new industry regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), with a remit to act in the interests of students by ensuring competition and choice as well as assessing quality and standards across higher education. </p>
<p>But the reforms go much deeper than merely rebranding a sector agency – they involve several serious measures designed to give students, as consumers, much greater control.</p>
<h2>Putting excellence into practice</h2>
<p>This can be seen in the creation of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/teaching-excellence-framework">Teaching Excellence Framework</a> (TEF), which will give more power to consumers by helping applicants make a more informed choice. The TEF results seek to provide comparable information on the quality of teaching at different universities, which has not been available in the past. </p>
<p>Asking universities to report on the quality of their teaching, the support they offer students and the employability of their graduates not only provides information for consumers, it also encourages universities to make performing well on these issues a much higher priority. </p>
<p>Following consultation on a <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-teaching-excellence-framework-will-work-50323">green paper</a>, the full TEF has been moved back one year to allow lessons to be learned from a pilot year. Allowing universities to make additional above-inflation increases in undergraduate fees based on TEF results has been moved even further into the future. This means large variations in fees between universities won’t emerge for several years.</p>
<p>New metrics are being developed for later years of the TEF, including a new dataset using tax records to show actual <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-your-choice-of-degree-means-for-your-future-earnings-57760">graduate earnings</a>. Pilots within certain disciplines will be undertaken to help the TEF drill down to the level of individual subjects. </p>
<h2>Fast tracking</h2>
<p>The white paper is accompanied by two technical consultations. The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/teaching-excellence-framework-year-2-technical-consultation">first</a> deals with the details of the TEF, explaining how it will eventually be extended to taught postgraduate courses, for example. The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/accelerated-courses-and-switching-university-or-degree-call-for-evidence">second</a> explores the viability of two other schemes to increase student choice: accelerated courses and switching universities.</p>
<p>Accelerated or <a href="http://www.topuniversities.com/student-info/choosing-university/fast-track-degree-programs">fast-track</a> courses are typically <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/higher/university-challenge-does-a-two-year-degree-make-more-economic-sense-2037887.html">two-year degrees</a>, where a traditional three-year degree is completed in two years by attending over the summer. The government wants the higher education sector to offer more flexibility and appreciate that all students may not want the standard three-year undergraduate experience.</p>
<p>Since <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/student/into-university/applying/are-two-year-degrees-the-future-796034.html">their introduction</a>, the demand for two-year degrees has remained relatively small; although this may be because the current choice of courses available is quite limited. Accelerated learning <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/aug/03/vince-cable-two-year-degrees">has been criticised</a> and <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03075079.2010.520698">questioned</a> by those who argue it means fewer opportunities for reflection that fosters a better understanding of a subject. Two-year degrees have been condemned by <a href="https://www.ucu.org.uk/media/3722/UCU-policy-briefing-Two-year-degrees-Feb-10/doc/ucupolicybrief_2yrdegrees_feb10.doc">campus trade unions</a> who describe them as “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10195353">sweatshops</a>” for university teachers.</p>
<p>The government also wants to see how the <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-it-be-easier-for-students-to-switch-university-mid-degree-59714">process of switching</a> universities could be made easier. The TEF results may be useful for applicants who are yet to make their choice, but they aren’t useful for students already studying whose personal circumstances <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/11390399/University-students-facing-unlawful-course-changes.html">or course</a> may have changed if they cannot easily “vote with their feet” and go elsewhere.</p>
<h2>Power to switch</h2>
<p>The government wants a system where the money follows the student, enabling students to switch universities rather than being locked into one place. To make this work, they envision a “credit transfer market” where students can take credit from their existing university to another that better fits their current needs.</p>
<p>Even if the number of transferring students was small, a credit transfer market would increase the power of students as consumer by challenging the entrenched idea that university choice is a “one-off purchase”. Another reason the government wants to do this is because it foresees a situation in the new marketplace where some providers may close down. Ensuring the stranded students affected can complete their degrees elsewhere needs to be considered.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125744/original/image-20160608-3492-16dlm03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125744/original/image-20160608-3492-16dlm03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125744/original/image-20160608-3492-16dlm03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125744/original/image-20160608-3492-16dlm03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125744/original/image-20160608-3492-16dlm03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125744/original/image-20160608-3492-16dlm03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125744/original/image-20160608-3492-16dlm03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the US, switching course is common.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/shawncalhoun/11360545156/sizes/l">shawncalhoun/flickr.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the US, <a href="http://www.collegetransfer.net">student transfers</a> are the norm, and the numbers are on the rise. A <a href="http://nscresearchcenter.org/signaturereport9/">recent report</a> found that over one third of students who began their studies in 2008 transferred to a different institution at least once. Out of these students, almost half changed their institution more than once. But the US context is quite different to English higher education. For example, the Wisconsin system of community colleges and universities is one entity where credit has common currency and students move from associate to bachelor degrees. </p>
<p>Yet Australian higher education, which is more comparable, shows how it is possible to make transfers between universities easier by having <a href="http://www.aqf.edu.au/aqf/about/what-is-the-aqf/">a national framework</a> and more visible and straightforward policies within each institution. </p>
<p>The reforms show the government’s resolute determination to achieve greater competition and choice in higher education. These are reforms that seek to shift the balance of power to ensure the higher education sector delivers what students wish to receive, rather than what universities wish to offer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60031/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Gunn receives funding from Worldwide Universities Network, the British Council (administering the Newton Fund), the UK Higher Education Academy, the United Kingdom Political Studies Association, the New Zealand Political Studies Association and the UK Quality Assurance Agency. Andrew Gunn concurrently holds visiting academic positions internationally. </span></em></p>What students want is becoming more important than what univerisites want to teach them.Andrew Gunn, Researcher in Higher Education Policy, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/491452015-11-09T19:18:54Z2015-11-09T19:18:54ZThe rise of China: a threat or opportunity for Australian universities?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100722/original/image-20151104-21235-zxi5ym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">China's higher education sector is gaining strength. Should we be worried?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There has been <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/international-students/universities-face-competition-from-china/story-fnahn4sk-1227562513492">lots of discussion</a> in the media around the rise of China and the potential threat it poses to Australian higher education – not least given that education in Australia is a big driver for the economy as the third-largest export earner.</p>
<p>But is there really cause for concern?</p>
<p>There is no doubt that China’s higher education sector is gaining strength. </p>
<p>Over the past five years, Chinese universities have started to rise up the world university rankings. They have done this while charging significantly <a href="http://www.topuniversities.com/student-info/student-finance">lower tuition fees (around US$1,000 per year) compared</a> with competing countries such as the UK (US$13,430), the US (US$9,139), Australia (US$4,770 to US$7,960 depending on the course) and Canada (US$4,534).</p>
<p>While Australia is one of the countries that <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-07/adam-bandt-research-development-spending-claim-checks-out/5789134">spends the least</a> on research and training – in 2013 just 0.441% of GDP was spent on research – China is investing heavily in research. China’s GDP spend on education increased from 3.93% in 2011 to 4.15% in 2014.</p>
<p>China is also <a href="http://www.moe.edu.cn/srcsite/A07/moe_737/s3877/201511/t20151102_216985.html">upgrading its technical training system</a> and programs. It recently announced a three-year action plan to promote technical and professional training.</p>
<p>Like most university sectors around the world, China is also planning to increase its number of international students in the drive to be globally recognised. </p>
<p>The government has introduced a 10-year plan to increase international student numbers from 265,090 in 2010 to 500,000 by 2020. It aims to increase degree and diploma students from 107,432 to 150,000 in that time.</p>
<p>Australian universities may well be concerned about the effect the rise in Chinese universities will have on the demand for Australian courses as Chinese students account for 30% of the Australian international student population.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101213/original/image-20151109-16242-86gscn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101213/original/image-20151109-16242-86gscn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101213/original/image-20151109-16242-86gscn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101213/original/image-20151109-16242-86gscn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101213/original/image-20151109-16242-86gscn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101213/original/image-20151109-16242-86gscn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101213/original/image-20151109-16242-86gscn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chinese students account for 30% of the Australian international student population.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A threat or opportunity?</h2>
<p>On the surface this may be seen as a threat. But is there a different way to look at it? </p>
<p>Australia has five universities ranked in the top 100 universities in the world, according to the <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2015/reputation-ranking#!/page/1/length/25">2015 THE World Reputation Rankings</a>. Mainland China has just two. </p>
<p>Australia <a>accounts for 3.9% of the world’s research output</a> with only 0.3% of the world’s population.</p>
<p>Its work and immigration opportunities are an extra incentive for students who are seeking assurances on quality, safety and affordability, along with the geographic proximity and similar time zones.</p>
<p>A big factor in student recruitment for universities is the support on offer for international students. </p>
<p>The attractiveness of international study is easily lost when students complain of communication problems, poor teaching facilities, lack of access to current technologies, and low levels of accommodation and student welfare assistance. </p>
<p>The global student is looking for a 21st-century education and lifestyle – and China’s restrictions on the use of social media, such as Facebook, and platforms, such as Google, are increasingly powerful disincentives for prospective international students. </p>
<h2>How can Australia make the most of these changing times?</h2>
<p>It is time for Australian universities to embrace these potential threats as challenges, and to provide a better, more inspiring university experience. </p>
<p>Despite China’s rise, it <a href="http://www.bossacn.org/cn/xingyezixun/liuxuedongtai/20150518/104.html">is still likely</a> that Chinese students will want to study abroad. And China’s continuing economic growth will enable more Chinese families to send their children to study overseas. </p>
<p>Over the next decade many universities will face serious long-term decisions about how to stand out through their use of technology, blended learning and partnerships with industry and other tertiary providers. </p>
<p>The challenge for Australian universities will be how to distinguish themselves from other international universities. </p>
<p>To achieve this, a greater understanding of the international student experience is critical, such as through institutional partnerships, exchange programs and recruiting international staff.</p>
<p>A sheer focus on money could be detrimental for Australia’s long-term appeal to international students. </p>
<p>The Chinese government has taken a strategic perspective on internationalisation and regards international students as a strategic resource that will assist the country in its reform agenda as it continues to open up to the world. </p>
<p>Australian students are encouraged to study in China and participate in the many exchange programs. </p>
<p>Students from Australia currently account for around 1% of the international student population at Chinese universities. Encouraging a larger number of Australian students to study in China will lead to closer relationships and more interest in study opportunities in Australia. </p>
<p>Diversifying where we recruit international students from – for example, South America, Africa and the subcontinent – is also essential, especially for developing long-term diverse learning communities within Australian universities. </p>
<p>Australia has a huge opportunity to continue to grow its higher education reputation across the world and particularly in China. </p>
<p>We just need to increase investment and spend more wisely to keep the lead in our strong research areas – and also ensure excellent student support and mutual cultural awareness.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49145/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Chinese universities have started to rise up the world university rankings, increase their investment in research and grow their numbers of international student. Should Australia be worried?Zuocheng Zhang, Senior lecturer in TESOL education, University of New EnglandStephen Tobias, Head of School of Education, University of New EnglandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/488382015-10-27T11:19:36Z2015-10-27T11:19:36ZUga the Bulldog, Handsome Dan and why university spirit matters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99223/original/image-20151021-15440-1y0fif3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Getting into the spirit at Temple University. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Aspen Photo/Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Head to Yale and you’ll meet <a href="http://www.yalebulldogs.com/information/mascot/handsome_dan/index">Handsome Dan</a>. At Boston College, you’ll find <a href="http://bceagles.com">Baldwin the Eagle</a>, and at the University of Georgia, <a href="http://www.georgiadogs.com/widecontent/uga.html">Uga the Bulldog</a>. Across American college and university campuses, mascots are used to help create that distinct “spirit” that has become such a fundamental part of a US college education. </p>
<p>In the UK, this sense of university “spirit” is hard to find. But our ongoing research indicates that UK universities could benefit from fostering a stronger sense of spirit: it could improve students’ academic engagement and help improve their overall university experience. </p>
<p>Creating a distinct spirit is deeply rooted in US college education. The sporting reputation of universities is central to this and each institution has its own mascot, representing the traditions, values and beliefs of the school. </p>
<p>Many US universities communicate and cultivate this spirit through initiatives that emphasise the importance of a sense of community and belonging. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99320/original/image-20151022-7999-y2k7bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99320/original/image-20151022-7999-y2k7bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99320/original/image-20151022-7999-y2k7bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99320/original/image-20151022-7999-y2k7bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99320/original/image-20151022-7999-y2k7bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99320/original/image-20151022-7999-y2k7bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99320/original/image-20151022-7999-y2k7bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Baldwin the Eagle, mascot of Boston College.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lorianne DiSabato/www.flickr.com</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the University of California, the <a href="http://calspirit.berkeley.edu/about.php">Cal Spirit groups</a> engage students in activities that uphold the university’s traditions and sense of spirit, including <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/spiritweek">“spirit weeks”</a> and <a href="http://fanindex.usatoday.com/2015/10/24/the-top-10-fight-songs-in-college-football/">fight songs</a> – songs that have become synonymous with sports teams and are sung at games. At other universities, events such as homecoming games, tailgating (where people have a meal round the back of a car near a sports stadium), cheer-leading, parades and proms bind students together and create a strong community feeling.</p>
<p>At Emory University, it is the unofficial mascot, Dooley, the biology lab skeleton, who rules. For one week every spring, students celebrate “Dooley’s Week” and the campus is transformed into a place of fun and games. Ajay Nair, senior vice president and dean of campus life, explains that “Dooley is our life blood”.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5LhEVEra_v0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Beware of Dooley.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>University-branded merchandise is also central to students expressing their sense of belonging. It is not uncommon to see US students walking around campus dressed head-to-toe in clothing bearing their university’s name or logo. This commitment and loyalty to the university also extends to students’ family members who proudly flash university logo bumper stickers or sweatshirts. In the UK, on the other hand, university merchandise is rarely seen as more than a piece of memorabilia or a gift. </p>
<h2>What builds spirit</h2>
<p>In our study, we explored the presence and impact of university spirit at a UK and a US university. We conducted observations and focus groups with students who also took photographs capturing what university life meant to them. </p>
<p>To understand what it means for a place to have a spirit, we drew on the Roman concept of <em>genius loci</em>, the “guardian divinity of a place”. Today, the phrase is more commonly translated as “<a href="http://larwebsites.arizona.edu/lar510/encounter/sence%20of%20place.pdf">the spirit of the place</a>”, reflecting somewhere’s particular atmosphere, quality and character. </p>
<p>We found that at both universities, the physical environment, including libraries, cafes, sports centres and student clubs, was a crucial part of their students’ experience. </p>
<p>But our research also showed that a strong sense of university belonging is also driven by other, softer factors, including how positively students feel about their institution, whether they want to be associated with it, the value of their relationships with other students and academic staff, the opportunities that exist for them to participate in activities both on and off campus, and their eagerness to stay in touch with the university after graduating. </p>
<p>At the US university, students felt part of the university and expressed a strong sense of belonging: this was their university – now and after graduation. </p>
<p>The UK students, however, saw their university more as an institution to attend, and then eventually leave behind. There was a tendency for them to feel disconnected from their environment; they mainly came to campus to attend classes and did not engage in many extracurricular activities. Many students worked part-time and accessed much of their learning material via the university’s online learning environment. </p>
<p>The US students felt proud to be part of their university and showed it by purchasing merchandise bearing the university’s logo or sporting mascot. They wore these items on campus and especially at sporting events. </p>
<p>For the UK students, merchandise largely was seen as memorabilia. One student said: “I think I would get something before I leave, just like memorabilia, but not for functional use.”</p>
<h2>Cultivating a cycle of pride</h2>
<p>We argue that having a distinct “spirit” and making students feel they belong is important for all universities. It positively affects <a href="https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/what_works_final_report_0.pdf">students’ academic engagement</a> as they feel more connected across subject areas and programmes. Our research found that where there is a strong sense of university spirit, students are more open to network, learn from each other, and work in cross-discipline teams. These are <a href="http://www.ncub.co.uk/reports/global-graduates-into-global-leaders.html">essential skills</a> in a globally-connected work environment.</p>
<p>In the UK, we found that graduates don’t often express belonging once they leave their university and studies have shown that many are <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/four-in-10-students-dont-think-their-degree-was-worth-the-money-survey-finds-10336398.html">dissatisfied with their university experience</a>. This means that UK universities are losing out on the benefits of the “cycle of pride”, whereby proud graduates turn into proud alumni and continue to give back to their alma mater through shared business connections, time, recruitment, recommendations or funding. UK universities, facing <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/hefce-reveals-%C2%A3150m-cut">further public funding cuts</a>, could learn something from their US counterparts whose alumni network is a lucrative source of fundraising. </p>
<p>To create pride, belonging and university spirit, UK universities need to go beyond their current focus on the <a href="http://www.thestudentsurvey.com/about.php">National Student Survey</a> and league table rankings. More attention should be given to cultivating the values, traditions and beliefs that truly will bind students and their universities together – now and in the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48838/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Hall Webb works at the University of West Georgia, where the US study for this article took place.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mike Cooray and Rikke Duus do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>UK universities should take note from US colleges and cultivate more of a university spirit.Rikke Duus, Senior Teaching Fellow in Marketing, UCLMike Cooray, Faculty, Strategy and Innovation, Ashridge Business SchoolSusan Hall Webb, Associate Professor & Director of Business Education, University of West GeorgiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/451732015-08-03T11:32:56Z2015-08-03T11:32:56ZMonitoring who attends class is pointless unless it counts towards students’ grades<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90302/original/image-20150730-25736-s42js6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Not everyone is here, but I'll begin. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lecture via wavebreakmedia/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>University lecturers rarely get 100% of students turn up to every lecture. Nor do we expect them all to. Those who have got up, travelled to campus and made their way to class are clearly the most motivated and interested in their education. Good attendance rates can indicate that a lecturer is good at teaching – or perhaps that they have secured a good time slot, not too early on a Monday or too late on a Friday. </p>
<p>In a world of student visas and loans, universities are now under greater pressure to show that the students who say they attend university actually do. Monitoring of attendance has traditionally been done at checkpoints throughout the year, such as registration and exams. But now universities are <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/634624c6-312b-11e5-91ac-a5e17d9b4cff.html#slide0">trialling different ways of monitoring</a> how students spend their time, made easier at institutions <a href="https://theconversation.com/snooping-professor-or-friendly-don-the-ethics-of-university-learning-analytics-23636">such as the Open University</a> where much of the course material and interaction is online. </p>
<p>As more universities experiment with electronic monitoring systems, I think more should be done to link attendance to the way the module is taught. Students need to know that if they don’t turn up, there will be an impact on their grade at the end. </p>
<p>If we promote students as adults who are active in their education, I think universities are heading in the wrong direction if they institute policies of attendance monitoring that gives birth to Big Brother. It shouldn’t be anybody but the student who is responsible for his or her class attendance.</p>
<h2>Ways to watch</h2>
<p>There are some instances in which participation in a class or session is mandatory – such as laboratories in science courses or ensembles in music courses. However, the majority of students whose university careers are built around lectures and seminars have to rely on intrinsic motivation to propel them into the classroom. </p>
<p>There are a <a href="http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?reload=true&arnumber=6266137">multitude of ways</a> to track student attendance that do not necessarily link up with how much they actually participate once they get there. One US university came under fire a few years ago for introducing <a href="http://www.rfidjournal.com/articles/view?7628">radio-frequency identification (RFID) trackers</a>, built into students ID cards, to track their attendance.</p>
<p>Attendance monitoring can be linked to academic consequences. <a href="http://www.ncl.ac.uk/students/progress/Regulations/SPS/Attendance/studentFAQ">Newcastle University’s student progress policy states</a> that there are different levels of reprimand depending how many times a student is absent. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If there are continued absences you may be called to a meeting … In very extreme cases an academic unit may invoke unsatisfactory progress regulations. In very rare cases the university may withdraw students who are not attending their classes. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>But this kind of strategy does not address the classroom component of the module. Students are busy, and by looking at the handbook they can see what is required for each module. The expectation might be that they need to show up for every session but the reality is that your marks come from exams and essays, not attendance in class. One example of this is from the <a href="https://www.uclan.ac.uk/students/study/attendance_monitoring.php">University of Central Lancashire</a>, which states in the frequently asked questions section of its attendance monitoring policy that “decisions regarding your academic performance will be based on the assessments submitted and marked”. </p>
<h2>Make attendance a requirement</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90304/original/image-20150730-25762-1j4dtlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90304/original/image-20150730-25762-1j4dtlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90304/original/image-20150730-25762-1j4dtlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90304/original/image-20150730-25762-1j4dtlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90304/original/image-20150730-25762-1j4dtlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90304/original/image-20150730-25762-1j4dtlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90304/original/image-20150730-25762-1j4dtlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">No carrot, no stick.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Carrot via Lisa S. / www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The introduction of <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/cracking-down-on-skipping-class-1421196743">retention monitoring systems</a> appeals to universities that want to increase the percentage of students graduating within a certain timeframe. We tell the students to swipe their ID card or tick a box when they enter the classroom and we tell them that we are tracking their attendance. What we don’t tell them is that this is a situation where the university has no carrot and no stick. </p>
<p>On a course-by-course basis, module leaders are able to decide on the required assessments – and participation and attendance can be built in if approved and quality is assured. But most universities have no carrot here, because for many courses, if a student has access to the right course material and reading lists, it’s still possible to pass the assessment without turning up to lectures or seminars. No lecturer that I am aware of will deny a student a copy of the presentation if they miss class and most lecturers post class materials on the university learning management system. </p>
<p>Students who miss a session don’t get the context of the lesson and how it relates to the bigger picture of the module or course. Yes, students are paying for this education and yes they should be able to choose whether they attend class or not. This does not mean that the lecturer should have to juggle or sing and dance to get students to show up; but it does mean that there have to be meaningful expectations of attendance that match up with the results and teaching of a module. </p>
<p>The days of the sage on the stage are over: the teaching methods of active learning and problem-based learning mean students have come to expect that the pedagogy of the lesson is linked to the participation. Let them be the freethinking adults we assume them to be and make their own decisions about whether or not to attend sessions. But make it count towards their grade too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45173/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dana Ruggiero does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Students need to have an educational incentive not to skip class, rather than just being scare of Big Brother.Dana Ruggiero, Senior Lecturer in Learning Technology, Bath Spa UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/451972015-07-28T05:22:37Z2015-07-28T05:22:37ZAs they compete to lay on the best student experience, universities mustn’t forget the academic one too<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89781/original/image-20150727-7650-lv0vk6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Don't leave university without acquiring some knowledge. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Student in library via Ditty_about_summer/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The proposal for a Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/jo-johnson-unveils-teaching-ref-plans">announced</a> by universities and science minister Jo Johnson in early July that would recognise “excellent teaching” and “make good teaching better” has been met with consternation among some in the higher education sector. Once the TEF is introduced, the government <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/osborne-signals-rise-9k-fee-cap-tef">has indicated</a> it might allow the highest-scoring institutions to raise tuition fees in line with inflation. </p>
<p>But other universities may have to do more with less. Johnson will be aware of the financial realities that has just led <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/newsarchive/2015/Name,104720,en.html">his department to ask</a> the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to make £150m savings from university teaching budgets over the next two academic years. HEFCE chief executive Madeleine Atkins says that, despite the cuts, it will keep trying to support <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/newsarchive/2015/Name,104720,en.html">“excellence in research, learning and teaching and a high-quality student experience”</a>. </p>
<p>What is distinctive and unique about the 21st-century university is just this focus on the student experience. Research by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa on “<a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/01/18/study_finds_large_numbers_of_college_students_don_t_learn_much">academically adrift”</a> students has highlighted the shift within institutions’ priorities away from academic matters towards a concern with the personal, moral and social lives of students.</p>
<p>A marker of the change that has occurred is the competition between institutions to be seen as the “<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/11519905/Top-universities-for-student-experience-the-list-in-full.html">best university for student experience</a>”. This has been reinforced through the proliferation of student satisfaction surveys across university life. </p>
<h2>Safety, not experimentation</h2>
<p>It is part of a wider, profound change within universities which really began in the late 1990s and has gradually come to regulate spontaneous student activities, often with a desire to ensure that they are “responsible” and take place within “safe spaces”. Before then, students took more risks and were unashamedly independent. If they made mistakes, they dealt with them themselves as part of growing up and wanted minimal or no help from the university. Students may still do some of these things but the atmosphere has changed: the emphasis is now on student safety rather than experimentation.</p>
<p>This <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/infantilised-students-and-staff-rapped/402376.article">infantilised conception of students</a> has also spread to some students unions. Alongside banning many things or groups they feel might offend or upset students, they also organise <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/feb/06/safe-space-or-free-speech-crisis-debate-uk-universities">safe</a> and protective activities for students in parallel with the university bureaucracies. As a result, it has become hard to separate student unions from university management: neither of them treat students as adults. </p>
<p>Students unions, like university managers, often award certificates to the “most <a href="http://www.wlv.ac.uk/about-us/news-and-events/latest-news/2014/june-2014/award-for-inspirational-lecturer.php">inspirational</a>” lecturer and monitor the quality of “<a href="https://www.bathstudent.com/pageassets/education/events/SSLC-2014-PoLIS.pdf">feedback</a>” in order to improve the student experience.</p>
<h2>Content vs process</h2>
<p>This is the context in which the TEF will be introduced and it is likely to strengthen the shift towards making university teaching mere edutainment. </p>
<p>There are some units and centres aimed at developing learning in universities who believe in the importance of <a href="http://business.brookes.ac.uk/research/pedagogy/">innovative pedagogues</a> and who will probably embrace the TEF. But they are beleagured: they often have a hard time influencing the practices of most lecturers who are, rightly in my view, more interested in the content than the process of teaching.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89819/original/image-20150727-7668-1irr960.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89819/original/image-20150727-7668-1irr960.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89819/original/image-20150727-7668-1irr960.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89819/original/image-20150727-7668-1irr960.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89819/original/image-20150727-7668-1irr960.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89819/original/image-20150727-7668-1irr960.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89819/original/image-20150727-7668-1irr960.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It doesn’t matter how you teach, the content is the same.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABBYDOG/www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For all the possible structural similarities between the TEF and the bureaucratic and stultifying process for measuring research excellence called the <a href="http://www.ref.ac.uk/">Research Excellence Framework</a> (REF), there is little comparison to be made between the two. The REF has gone some way into dividing universities and their academics into those institutions which are research-active and those which are relatively inactive. The TEF will go further and could consolidate the reorientation of universities around students, rather than knowledge.</p>
<p>The TEF won’t seem like a dangerous idea. It will be presented by universities as a rich opportunity to experiment with different ways of teaching. And as a real opportunity for student-centred institutions to celebrate their successes in teaching. They will want to do this in ways that are far more pedagogically radical and innovative than what they view as the old-fashioned, elitist and undemocratic traditions of lecturing and <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-oxbridge-tutorials-still-the-best-way-to-teach-students-how-to-think-44250">Oxford-style tutorials</a>. </p>
<p>But despite the fact that students will be treated as if they were hapless and hopeless and in need of flashier forms of teaching, students are no different than they used to be. Some may be turned off by this new trend and walk away. But tragically, many will only see the effects of this move towards “edutainment” much later, when they are what Arum and Roksa call “adults adrift”: when the damage is done and they discover that what they needed to develop as autonomous individuals who can be successful in their adult working lives was an “academic experience”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45197/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The proposal for a Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) announced by universities and science minister Jo Johnson in early July that would recognise “excellent teaching” and “make good teaching better…Dennis Hayes, Professor of Education, University of DerbyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/396762015-05-14T05:07:29Z2015-05-14T05:07:29ZFive ways universities have already changed in the 21st century<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81379/original/image-20150512-22571-uwzkm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lots has changed, but not this. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Students graduating by michaeljung/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Global higher education underwent a period of remarkable change in the first 15 years of the 21st century. Five key trends affecting universities around the world illustrate how, despite increased access to information, our understanding of higher education remains limited. </p>
<p><strong>1. More people are going to university</strong></p>
<p>Since 2000, participation in higher education has increased significantly. UNESCO figures for enrolment in tertiary education show that globally, <a href="http://data.uis.unesco.org/index.aspx">participation rose</a> from 19% in 2000 to 32% in 2012. While the proportions enrolled vary between countries and regions, the increases are pretty much universal. For example, tertiary enrolment in Sub-Saharan Africa has doubled from 4% to 8% over this period.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81375/original/image-20150512-22563-lwb4ej.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81375/original/image-20150512-22563-lwb4ej.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81375/original/image-20150512-22563-lwb4ej.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81375/original/image-20150512-22563-lwb4ej.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81375/original/image-20150512-22563-lwb4ej.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81375/original/image-20150512-22563-lwb4ej.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81375/original/image-20150512-22563-lwb4ej.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81375/original/image-20150512-22563-lwb4ej.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The percentage of those who left secondary five years ago who go on to tertiary education.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the increases in participation have been seen everywhere, there have been differences between countries in terms of who is going to university. The <a href="http://www.oecd.org/education/eag.htm">OECD Education at a Glance 2014</a> provides figures for the relative likelihood of participation in higher education for those whose parents engaged in tertiary education and those whose parents did not.</p>
<p>In Italy and Poland you are 9.5 times more likely to attend tertiary education if your parents did, whereas in South Korea and Finland, the proportion is a little over one. The UK and US have among the highest ratios: young people with parents who attended tertiary education are over six times more likely to enrol. These figures show large differences in how equal the expansion of higher education has been across the world and do not appear to relate to differences in tuition fees. </p>
<p>Beyond easy generalisations about the ways in which social hierarchies operate in different national cultures, we are not much closer to understanding the origins of this disturbing variation. </p>
<p><strong>2. People are travelling further afield</strong></p>
<p>While the figures on the proportion of tertiary students enrolled show clear increases, they are slightly misleading because they divide the total number of students by the total number of school-leavers in a country. This means that the proportions can be over or underestimated by the inclusion of international students (both incoming and outgoing) and the proportion of mature students. For example, <a href="http://www.iie.org/%7E/media/Files/Services/ProjectAtlas/Website%202014/Project-Atlas-Trends-and-Global-Data-2014.ashx?la=en">the US and Western Europe</a> are net importers of students, while Sub-Saharan Africa and south and west Asia are net exporters. </p>
<p>According to the OECD, the number of students studying abroad <a href="http://www.iie.org/%7E/media/Files/Services/ProjectAtlas/Website%202014/Project-Atlas-Trends-and-Global-Data-2014.ashx?la=en">more than doubled</a> from 2.1m in 2000 to 4.5m in 2012. While most of the host nations for these international students have remained the same over this period, the one exception is China. It did not figure as a host nation in 2000, yet by 2012, 8% of international students studied there, putting it third behind the US and UK.</p>
<p>The relative impact of these students is different depending on the size of the higher education system in question. In the US, over 800,000 international students make up only 4% of their student population, while the UK has <a href="http://www.iie.org/%7E/media/Files/Services/ProjectAtlas/Website%202014/Project-Atlas-Trends-and-Global-Data-2014.ashx?la=en">around half the number</a> of international students but they make up 20% of the student population. </p>
<p>In the UK, this has led to stories <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2594935/There-Chinese-students-postgraduate-courses-English-universities-British-students.html">about international students dominating particular courses</a>, but we are still in the process of understanding the impact of differing proportions of international students on teaching and learning cultures in universities.</p>
<p><strong>3. The rise of the student experience</strong></p>
<p>As the number and mobility of students have increased, so has the range of experiences that students are offered: from the limited and passive experience of a poorly-designed <a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/mooc-students-passive-study-suggests/2012939.article">Massive Open Online Course</a> (MOOC) to students engaging as partners in <a href="https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/engagement-through-partnership-students-partners-learning-and-teaching-higher-education">the design</a> of their curricula and teaching and learning experiences. </p>
<p>This focus on students’ experience has been an important corrective to traditional teacher-focused approaches to teaching in higher education. However, the danger is that highlighting the “student experience” has obscured the essential role that students’ engagement with knowledge plays in the transformative potential of higher education. It is <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-the-race-to-turn-higher-education-into-a-market-were-ignoring-lessons-from-history-35792">knowledge</a> that changes students’ understanding of themselves and the world. </p>
<p><strong>4. Quality of teaching under scrutiny</strong></p>
<p>As the focus on student experience has increased, so has the intensity of scrutiny on the quality of teaching. In Europe, this has been partly informed by <a href="http://www.ehea.info/">the Bologna process</a>, designed to harmonise higher education systems across Europe. Positions in national and international higher education league tables have become a dominant way of representing this quality. Their attraction is understandable: they travel across a number of contexts and audiences, have resonance for prospective students and their families, employers, policy makers, academics and universities, and international bodies. </p>
<p>However, their shortcomings are <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-do-world-university-rankings-actually-mean-32355">equally obvious</a>: they tend to involve unrelated and incomparable measures that are brought together into a single score by algorithms and weightings that lack any statistical credibility. Crucially, the stability at the top of the league tables reinforces privilege: higher status institutions <a href="https://theconversation.com/hard-evidence-is-oxford-biased-against-state-students-18979">tend to take</a> in a greater proportion of privileged students. </p>
<p>League tables strongly and wrongly suggest that students who have been to these institutions have received a higher quality education. But this distorts our understanding of teaching, making it about history and prestige rather than about the ways in which students are given access to powerful knowledge.</p>
<p><strong>5. The impact agenda</strong></p>
<p>Since the turn of the millennium, there has been an increasing expectation for research to bring a benefit to the society that funds it. This is now a standard element of research funding in the European Union and South Africa. </p>
<p>While it is very reasonable to expect research to lead to wider social benefits, the particular approach that has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-impact-of-impact-on-the-ref-35636">taken to measure this impact</a> has been distorting. The focus on how individual projects impact on societies shows a basic misunderstanding of the way in which research has an impact.</p>
<p>Individual research projects contribute to collective bodies of knowledge in a discipline or professional field. It is these bodies of knowledge that lead to impact, not individual studies. Despite this, we now have myriad <a href="http://impact.ref.ac.uk/CaseStudies/">impact case studies</a> purporting to show the changes single studies have wrought, giving us much more information about impact but potentially obscuring our understanding of the relations between knowledge and society. </p>
<h2>A mixed blessing</h2>
<p>The greater amount of information we have about higher education around the world is a mixed blessing. The measurement and monitoring processes that generate and communicate this information – such as university league tables – <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-do-world-university-rankings-actually-mean-32355">distort</a> what is considered valuable about higher education. </p>
<p>The danger is that the individual, durable and stable elements of higher education that can be easily measured are given a greater value than those that are collective, complex, changing and country-specific. In the face of this, we need to reassert a focus on the communal creation and sharing of knowledge that global universities contribute to the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39676/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Ashwin has received funding from the UK Economic and Social Research Council, the UK Higher Education Academy, the Higher Education Funding Council England, the Scottish Funding Council, and the European Union. He is a member of the Governing Council of the Society for Research into Higher Education.</span></em></p>As more people around the world head to university, the quality of teaching and research is coming under tighter scrutiny.Paul Ashwin, Professor of Higher Education, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/361832015-04-29T14:53:53Z2015-04-29T14:53:53ZLet’s ban PowerPoint in lectures – it makes students more stupid and professors more boring<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78938/original/image-20150422-1863-1ui3dw9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Is the next slide more interesting?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lecture via Matej Kastelic/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Any university teacher who does not harbour a painful recollection of a failed lecture is a liar. On one such occasion, I felt early on that I had lost the students entirely: those who hadn’t sunk into comatose oblivion were listless and anxious. Ungracefully, I threw myself even deeper into my PowerPoint presentation to save me from total ruin. Years later, I can still hear myself reading aloud the bullet points from the overhead and see myself turning around to the students to sell these points to them.</p>
<p>Luckily, I have no recollection of what the students thought of it, but my most painful memory is the experience of boring myself. When that happens, it is time to change one’s ways. That’s why I’ve led a move to ban PowerPoint from lectures. </p>
<p>There are a host of possible reasons for a lecture going wrong: a badly planned course, inadequate preparation, feeling uninspired on the day, disengaged students, a crowd that’s too big, a poorly designed auditorium. To this bulleted list of catastrophes comes PowerPoint. </p>
<p>The physical face-to-face lecture is potentially a complex and open event where the students, the readings, the lecturer and a case-based or theoretical problem interact. A PowerPoint presentation locks the lecture into a course that disregards any input other than the lecturer’s own idea of the lecture conceived the day before. It cuts off the possibility of improvisation and deviation, and the chance to adapt to student input without veering off course. </p>
<p>This is usually what makes such presentations so painfully boring: while it quickly becomes evident to the audience where the presenter is going, he or she has to walk through all the points, while the audience dreams that the next slide might be more interesting.</p>
<h2>Not fit for teachers</h2>
<p>Yet, to be interesting and relevant in a lecture, teachers need to ask questions and experiment, not provide solutions and results. Unfortunately, PowerPoint is designed to provide just that. Originally <a href="http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2012/06/102745695-01-acc.pdf">for Macintosh</a>, the company that designed it was bought by Microsoft. After its launch the software was increasingly targeted at business professionals, especially consultants and busy salespeople. </p>
<p>But during the 1990s it was adopted more generally by corporations as it became part of the Microsoft Office package, which explains the executive summaries, one-liners, ubiquitous “deliverables” and action plans. Its way into academia was then helped by the increased pressure on faculties to deliver more teaching and the increased demand from a more diverse student population to be more concretely guided through the jungle of knowledge.</p>
<p>As it turns out, PowerPoint has not empowered academia. The basic problem is that a lecturer isn’t intended to be selling bullet point knowledge to students, rather they should be making the students encounter problems. Such a learning process is slow and arduous, and cannot be summed up neatly. PowerPoint produces stupidity, which is why some, such as American statistician Edward Tufte have said <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20140415121014/http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html">it is “evil”</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, new presentation technologies like <a href="http://prezi.com/">Prezi</a>, <a href="http://www.sliderocket.com/">SlideRocket</a> or <a href="http://bartaz.github.io/impress.js/#/bored">Impress</a> add a lot of new features and 3D animation, yet I’d argue they only make things worse. A moot point doesn’t become relevant by moving in mysterious ways. The truth is that PowerPoints actually are hard to follow and if you miss one point you are often lost. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78937/original/image-20150422-1863-1migj4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78937/original/image-20150422-1863-1migj4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78937/original/image-20150422-1863-1migj4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78937/original/image-20150422-1863-1migj4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78937/original/image-20150422-1863-1migj4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78937/original/image-20150422-1863-1migj4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78937/original/image-20150422-1863-1migj4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nobody peer-reviews a PowerPoint.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lex-photographic/16697351820/sizes/l">Lex Photographic/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On top of this comes the ambivalence of what’s in those bullet points. In my presentations, the text on slides are really just my private and often hastily written down thoughts. Unlike my other published and peer-reviewed work, no one has seen or criticised my PowerPoints. Yet the students perceive my bullet points as authoritative, and they would often quote them in their assignments instead of going through the toll of finding the meaningful points in the real texts from the course. </p>
<h2>Free from PowerPoint</h2>
<p>While successfully <a href="https://theconversation.com/facebook-fight-why-we-banned-laptops-ipads-and-smartphones-in-lectures-32116">banning Facebook</a> and other use of social media in our masters programme in <a href="http://www.cbs.dk/en/study/graduate/msc-in-business-administration-and-philosophy">philosophy and business</a> at Copenhagen Business School, we have also recently banned teachers using PowerPoint. Here we are in sync with the US armed forces, where <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/world/27powerpoint.html">Brigadier-General Herbert McMaster banned it</a> because it was regarded as a poor tool for decision-making. We couldn’t agree more, although we do allow lecturers to use it to show images and videos as well as quotes from primary authors. </p>
<p>Apart from that, the teachers write with chalk on the blackboard (or markers on the whiteboard). Contrary to what PowerPoint allows, the chalk and blackboard enable us to note down points from the students alongside and connected to the points that we ourselves develop. Most universities are actually defending Microsoft’s monopoly by stealth, by architecturally letting the projector and PowerPoint take precedence over other technologies such as the blackboard. </p>
<p>Of course, lifting the uneasy burden of PowerPoint off the teacher’s shoulders places higher demands on planning. Yet, while at our masters programme we as teachers have a clear plan in terms of what should happen every minute of the lecture, the exact content should remain variable and open-ended. In order to support interaction, the students sit with visible nameplates, also introduced in the first lecture of the course last year. This way less active students can be called upon to expand on the concepts and connections growing on the blackboard, either from their seat or by coming to write on it. </p>
<p>In all my years of using PowerPoint the traditional way, students unvaryingly complained about not getting the slides in advance of the lecture. Today, the students don’t mention the lack of PowerPoints at all – they only call for a better order on my blackboard. They are right, but contrary to the rigid order of a PowerPoint presentation, the blackboard order can actually be improved in real time.</p>
<p>Without the temptation of PowerPoint, lecturers have nothing but the students to fall back on. That seems like a much more promising turn of events.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36183/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bent Meier Sørensen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Reading bullet points off a screen doesn’t teach anyone anything.Bent Meier Sørensen, Professor in Philosophy and Business, Copenhagen Business SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/344372014-11-19T13:28:49Z2014-11-19T13:28:49ZCan England ever return to an era of free higher education?<p>It is now as close to a consensus as makes no difference that the current regime for funding higher education in England through high fees paid by students – or repaid by some graduates – is bust. Lord Browne’s assertion when he launched his <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/31999/10-1208-securing-sustainable-higher-education-browne-report.pdf">2010 review of the higher education system</a> that his new “market” represented a paradigm shift was always bombastic. Shrill claims by the Coalition government and its former universities minister David Willetts that it was putting “<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/putting-students-at-the-heart-of-higher-education">students at the heart of the system</a>” have now turned to ashes.</p>
<p>But there is <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-five-options-for-student-tuition-fees-that-politicians-have-to-choose-from-32847">no consensus</a> about what should replace the current regime. The Conservatives dream of total privatisation with no cap on fees, and the expensive student loans book off-loaded by the state. Labour mumbles about reducing the cap to £6,000 but offers no guarantee it would provide the extra public expenditure needed to plug the gap. The Liberal Democrats keep their heads well down – and who can blame them after <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/8123832/Nick-Clegg-admits-breaking-tuition-fees-pledge.html">their U-turn</a> on the promise to abolish fees entirely. There is little sign of politicians, of any party, riding to the rescue.</p>
<h2>No going back?</h2>
<p>The only thing that everyone in the mainstream political parties seems to agree on is that there can be no going back to “free” higher education as it existed for almost half a century until New Labour broke the taboo and introduced modest fees in the wake of the <a href="http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/dearing1997/dearing1997.html">1997 Dearing</a> report. </p>
<p>Free education is now seen as a pipe-dream. Politicians agree that what fiscal room that might exist now or in the future, and is not needed to fund voter-friendly tax cuts, should be used to support the National Health Service and other deserving public services, not to subsidise the higher education of the pampered middle classes. They, of course, overlap with much praised “hard-working families” – it’s so confusing.</p>
<p>To avoid the inevitable conclusion that the only alternative to charging students or graduates for their higher education is to fund it through general taxation, people tie themselves in knots, devising ever more complicated schemes. <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-can-defuse-the-student-loan-time-bomb-30990">Graduate taxes</a>, tax-deductible fees, hypothecated taxes… At times it feels a little like medieval astronomers doing everything possible to avoid having to admit that the Earth revolves round the Sun, rather than the other way round, by coming up with ever more bizarre calculations.</p>
<h2>NUS roadmap makes good sense</h2>
<p>So the National Union of Students deserves to be congratulated for publishing its <a href="http://www.nus.org.uk/Global/Roadmap%20for%20Free%20Education%20report.pdf">roadmap</a> for “free” higher education. Once the possibility of a return to a tax-funded system is accepted, it seems to make such obvious good sense. As the NUS argues, it is a good deal for students and for the country. Students took to the streets on November 19 to campaign for a return to free education. </p>
<p>In England, students are now likely to graduate with more than £40,000 worth of debt. So, even before they start work, they are saddled with mini-mortgages. No one knows what the longer-term effects of such levels of debt will be on students from poorer backgrounds, although it is hardly likely to encourage them – however generous the bursaries on offer are. Nor is it certain what the impact will be on subject choice. </p>
<p>But we do know the new high fees regime is already having a significant effect on the behaviour of institutions through high-pressure “sales” pitches, guaranteed “success” and perhaps an over-investment in “signature” buildings and hotel-style student residences. Good teaching is getting shunted aside by a nervy preoccupation with the <a href="https://theconversation.com/tick-box-surveys-arent-the-only-way-to-measure-student-satisfaction-28780">“student experience”</a>.</p>
<h2>Status quo unsustainable</h2>
<p>We also know the new high fees regime is a spectacularly bad buy for taxpayers, as <a href="http://www.policyconnect.org.uk/hec/home">another new report</a> by the expert Higher Education Commission has shown. Nearly half of the outlay on state-backed loans to pay the higher fees will never be recovered. Despite the claim by Willetts that this will only become an issue in the distant future, it is actually a burden in the here and now. Publicly generated resources from taxes and borrowing are being used to fund loans and so are not available to be spent elsewhere.</p>
<p>But the most decisive argument in favour of funding higher education out of general taxation is positive not negative. It is a first-rate investment. The <a href="http://www.oecd.org/edu/skills-beyond-school/Education%20Indicators%20in%20Focus%206%20June%202012.pdf">Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has calculated</a> that for every pound invested by the state in higher education, three additional pounds of national income are generated – a three-for-one offer that far exceeds even the most laundered rates-of-return claimed for big projects such as HS2.</p>
<h2>Where the money could come from</h2>
<p>But two rather than three cheers for the NUS roadmap. It makes all these killer points – but then flinches. “Free” higher education should be paid out of general taxation, hopefully on a more progressive basis – good. But this is to be achieved by taxing not “us” but someone else – not so good. The NUS floats all kinds of things – a financial transfer tax, increases in corporation and inheritance tax… with increases in income tax very much a last resort. </p>
<p>The problem is not that the rich shouldn’t pay more tax – of course they should. It is that in 21st-century England tax aversion is an unchallengeable fact. That has to be challenged – head-on and boldly.</p>
<p>Compared with many other European countries, especially Scandinavia, less of the cost of maintaining our public services is now paid for by direct taxation with more paid for by indirect taxes and borrowing. This shift, which began under Margaret Thatcher, was deliberate of course, to make it easier to bribe the electorate with “visible” tax cuts. The effect, also deliberate perhaps, has been to undermine the fiscal foundation of all public services – and to make it much more difficult to sustain “free” higher education.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34437/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Scott has received funding from a range of organisations in the past including the Leverhulme Trust and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. He is a trustee of the Higher Education Policy Institute and the Council for Defence of British Universities, and Chair of the Council of the University of Gloucestershire.</span></em></p>It is now as close to a consensus as makes no difference that the current regime for funding higher education in England through high fees paid by students – or repaid by some graduates – is bust. Lord…Peter Scott, Professor of Higher Education Studies, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/287802014-07-07T10:25:20Z2014-07-07T10:25:20ZTick-box surveys aren’t the only way to measure student satisfaction<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53049/original/jgp63gyf-1404469759.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Happy at the end - but what about on the way through?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/51975360@N02/5966591793/sizes/l">pigeonpie</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s come as a surprise to many in higher education: students are increasingly satisfied with their experience of English university. A <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/newsarchive/2014/news87666.html">new report</a> published by the Higher Education Funding Council for England has analysed data collected from 2m students over the last nine years for the National Student Survey (NSS). </p>
<p>Overall, students are 5% more satisfied than they were a decade ago – with most improvements coming in the amount of academic support, assessment and feedback and university organisation. The survey also broke down the groups that have been the most and least satisfied: black African students were more satisfied overall than white students. But black Carribean students were less so.</p>
<p>When it comes to subject, those studying to be vets are some of the most satisfied, compared to students of mass communication, who are the least satisfied.</p>
<p>The findings are surprising in the context of two contradictory but common perceptions. First, they fly in the face of much anecdotal evidence I’ve heard that indicates students are less satisfied as a direct consequence of having to pay £9,000 a year fees for their studies. Second, and again anecdotally, some staff working in higher education think university managers use poor results in the NSS to browbeat their staff. What it suggests to me is that a different approach to gathering student feedback is necessary.</p>
<h2>No longer ignored</h2>
<p>It seems clear that the NSS has forced institutions to take student feedback about their experience seriously. Many of us can recall the days when students’ opinions were held to be of little consequence. Often, students were seen as a barrier to getting on with proper work, rather than people to be consulted. Today, the student voice through feedback surveys is regarded with a greater degree of attention.</p>
<p>By the 1980s, feedback from students was being collected assiduously on every aspect of their experience. But nothing was being done with it – perhaps because it was not seen as important. Only a few institutions, such as the <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13538320308164?journalCode=cqhe20#.U7aoXNFOVwE">University of Central England</a>, had clear and effective processes where student feedback, collected annually, informed improvements to the institutional environment.</p>
<p>The NSS is currently being reviewed, and an <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/rereports/year/2014/nssreview/#d.en.87657">independent report</a> has been published into its design. But we are yet to have to see what changes if any will be made. </p>
<p>Yet there are problems with the survey. In particular, it has created a league table that is built on very faulty basis of a customer feedback survey. Huge falls in position on the (quite small) league table are often the consequence of very small changes to aggregate scores. At a more local level, academics often complain that students condemn programmes without having fully attended or engaged.</p>
<h2>Ask me now, not at the end</h2>
<p>The NSS is also problematic because it is principally a summary evaluation of student experience at the end of degrees – little can be done to improve the experience of individuals who are moving on. Research in my own institution is beginning to indicate that evaluation processes that take place at strategic points with a view to enhancing the student experience of a programme are much more popular than end-of-course evaluation questionnaires. Both staff and students are often cynical about what they view as “tick-box” processes.</p>
<p>What increasingly emerges as a problem in discussions about the NSS is that it focuses on students’ experience of a programme, and not on wider issues. Evaluation of particular course modules within my own university shows that surveys are felt to be largely a waste of everyone’s time, simply because what works best at this level is dialogue between students and staff. </p>
<p>Instead of a series of post-course surveys, I would recommend a radical (but in fact rather old) solution. Scheduled discussion sessions between staff and students, managed well, can be far more effective in stimulating change than a questionnaire survey.</p>
<p>This is not to argue that large scale surveys have no place in modern higher education. Experience of implementing student feedback surveys during the 2000s has shown me that they work well at institutional level if they pick up on the wider student experience of the institution and are used to improve issues of concern. This cannot be done at national level, because each institution is different. So a survey works better when it is relevant to the needs and experience of the students themselves.</p>
<p>A dual solution of dialogue between staff and students and a large scale survey at institutional level has worked before at several universities and continues to do so across Europe. For example, this has worked well at the University of Lund in Sweden, which used the University of Central England model from the early 1990s. </p>
<p>Sadly, our continuing enthusiasm for university league tables of all kinds in the professional and popular press may mean that we are likely to be lumbered with variations of the NSS for years to come. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28780/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Williams received funding from the Higher Education Academy.</span></em></p>It’s come as a surprise to many in higher education: students are increasingly satisfied with their experience of English university. A new report published by the Higher Education Funding Council for…James Williams, Senior Researcher, School of Social Sciences , Birmingham City UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/270412014-05-28T11:49:18Z2014-05-28T11:49:18ZWhat do students deserve? Concerns mount over quality of expanding higher education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49550/original/v8zpfp59-1401190821.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We stumped up, now we get to stamp. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-143536204/stock-photo-rubber-stamp-marked-with-quality-control.html?src=k_-UVQkrr7CSR_RuQ6VBWw-2-36">Stamp via filmfoto/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent <a href="http://www.unialliance.ac.uk/blog/2014/05/21/quality-of-uk-he-will-be-number-one-issue-during-expansion/">University Alliance report</a> on quality in higher education brings into sharp focus one of the major issues facing contemporary UK higher education: how we ensure that the sector maintains its reputation for quality in a period of dramatic change. </p>
<p>The report rightly highlights the complexity of higher education today. Not only do universities compete against each other to recruit students but new “providers” offer alternative study routes. Programmes are now offered by further education colleges and by an increasing array of private businesses. The increasing number of technological options to study has made quality even more difficult to assure.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/may/21/london-college-funding-students-cannot-learn">recent investigation</a> by The Guardian into private “cashpoint colleges” with largely empty classrooms has made this even starker, and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/may/22/watchdog-investigate-private-colleges-potential-misuse-millions">triggered an investigation</a> by the National Audit Office.</p>
<p>In a context where potentially unlimited numbers of students now expect to pay unprecedented sums in tuition fees, institutions see potential for making a lot of money. It seems unlikely that things will become simpler any time soon, so it is vital for the students to be able to guarantee the quality of the programmes that they follow.</p>
<p>The report is right to highlight the need for recognised definitions of quality in the sector, but we must be careful not to reinvent the wheel. Key definitions were identified over 20 years ago by Lee Harvey and Diana Green during their government-funded <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0260293930180206#.U4RvaCjb6xU">Quality in Higher Education</a> project, definitions which have remained influential ever since. </p>
<p>Harvey and Green noted that quality can be excellence, what is up to standard, fitness for purpose and value for money. But they added a fifth definition which is particularly pertinent to an educational setting. Quality is about transformation: good quality assurance should be a learning process in which staff and students learn through dialogue how to do things better.</p>
<h2>Take student feedback seriously</h2>
<p>At the heart of the anxieties in the University Alliance report is the “student experience”, by which we normally mean “their experience of the programme of study”. Sometimes this also includes their wider experience of life at university. If students are paying such vast sums in tuition fees, it seems vital that they are able to make good choices.</p>
<p>This has been a concern of policy makers since the late 1990s: A committee led by <a href="http://www.ihep.org/assets/files/gcfp-files/HEFCEQA.pdf">Ron Cooke</a> met in 2001 to identify the public information needs of higher education. At the core of this debate was the concern that potential students and their parents needed to be able to make informed choices about where to study, bearing in mind that they were now paying tuition fees of £1,000 a year. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49552/original/gctrt5sr-1401191286.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49552/original/gctrt5sr-1401191286.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49552/original/gctrt5sr-1401191286.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49552/original/gctrt5sr-1401191286.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49552/original/gctrt5sr-1401191286.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49552/original/gctrt5sr-1401191286.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49552/original/gctrt5sr-1401191286.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49552/original/gctrt5sr-1401191286.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Student experience is not all about grades.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nottinghamtrentuni/9236357457/sizes/l">Nottingham Trent University</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of the major achievements of the Cooke Committee was the recognition at the highest levels of institutions that students’ feedback had to be taken into account in the quality assurance process. </p>
<p>Cooke highlighted experience at several institutions where annual large scale student feedback surveys were used effectively. Students are major stakeholders in higher education and their collective voice should help inform change in the sector.</p>
<p>However, the main result of the Cooke Committee was the <a href="http://www.thestudentsurvey.com/">National Student Survey</a> (NSS). One of the (many) criticisms of the NSS is that it is based on typical customer surveys in which students rate items rather than how they feel they have engaged with their programme. </p>
<p>Now a new Higher Education Policy Institute and the Higher Education Academy <a href="http://www.hepi.ac.uk/2014/05/21/hepi-hea-2014-student-experience-survey/">survey of student experience</a> has shown that students are less satisfied with their time in higher education than previously thought – partly because they are not getting quite what they expect from their time in higher education.</p>
<h2>Student arbiters of quality</h2>
<p>The key issue here, then, is student engagement, a term that has become a bit of a cliché but important all the same. Engagement, like all buzzwords, is a vague term, but goes back to what is at the heart of UK higher education debates: how to engage and involve students in a way that is fulfilling for both them and the staff.</p>
<p>In practice, this means that engaged students are those who work in partnership with academic staff to address issues facing learning and teaching, and even in the most daring cases, to develop the curriculum. It is a conversation between student and learner.</p>
<p>In the increasing number of institutions that implement student partnership programmes, experience seems to be overwhelmingly positive. For example at Birmingham City University, where I teach, <a href="http://www.bcusu.com/learning/academicpartnerships/saps/">students are paid to engage in partnerships</a> with staff on a range of projects, including developing teaching materials in the media school. For staff, student partners have enabled them to do things they had neither time nor resources to do before, even to see things from a different perspective.</p>
<p>The overall message of the University Alliance report is clear: there needs to be a greater standardisation of higher education quality assurance mechanisms across the burgeoning sector, overseen by the Quality Assurance Agency. But we still need to be clear that at the heart of quality assurance within higher education needs to be a focus on the transformation of all students, staff and institutions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27041/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Williams received funding from the HEA to explore student perceptions of assessment (2008) in response to concerns about low scores in the NSS. Between 2002 and 2009, he was part of a team that implemented student feedback surveys at a number of UK universities.</span></em></p>The recent University Alliance report on quality in higher education brings into sharp focus one of the major issues facing contemporary UK higher education: how we ensure that the sector maintains its…James Williams, Senior Researcher, School of Social Sciences , Birmingham City UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/221172014-01-29T02:20:06Z2014-01-29T02:20:06ZHow can we prepare university students for the real world?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39400/original/j7cvzqvx-1390194792.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many Australian university students are not satisfied with the quality of the education they are receiving.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>New students entering university this year will embark on a path that will require a great deal of emotional and financial investment. The pay-off they expect is not just the experience or entry-level skills and knowledge, but also the chance of a better future for themselves and their families.</p>
<p>But a recent <a href="http://www.acer.edu.au/ausse/reports">report</a> by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) shows that our universities are failing to deliver the higher education experience that students are demanding, especially in providing professional capabilities that will equip them for their careers.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.acer.edu.au/ausse/australasian-university">Statistics</a> from the 2012 Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE) show that only 37% of students in later years believed their experiences had contributed very much to their development of work-related knowledge and skills. Only 27% felt strongly that their studies have prepared them to work effectively with others. Just 24% felt their studies have contributed very much to their ability to solve complex, real-world problems.</p>
<p>Some results from the 2012 Graduate Course Experience Survey are just as problematic. Nearly half of all bachelor graduates felt university staff seemed more interested in testing what they had memorised than what they had understood.</p>
<p>In other words, the “ramp” we are giving our students may not launch them very far at all when it comes to their employment prospects. We need to do better than teaching students to memorise information if we are to give them the best chance to succeed.</p>
<h2>What is the sector doing about it?</h2>
<p>Universities are well aware of the work to be done here, with increasing interest in the idea of the <a href="http://www.capstonecurriculum.com.au">capstone learning experience</a> in undergraduate degrees. While there are probably as many variations of capstones as there are capstones, they are broadly defined as final-year learning experiences that require students to synthesise knowledge and skills gained over the degree.</p>
<p>This leaves a lot of scope to deliver more of the same. Poorly designed capstones attempt to test all the knowledge that has been delivered in the course, or micro-manage tasks to the point that students make no decisions of substance and are trapped in a lock-step process. </p>
<p>Both approaches, of which there are many examples in Australian higher education, simply confirm students’ dependency on us and fail to deliver the experience that students need.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39376/original/53vht58f-1390189107.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39376/original/53vht58f-1390189107.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39376/original/53vht58f-1390189107.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39376/original/53vht58f-1390189107.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39376/original/53vht58f-1390189107.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39376/original/53vht58f-1390189107.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39376/original/53vht58f-1390189107.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A well-designed capstone can provide students with knowledge and skills relevant to the real world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Well-designed capstones, on the other hand, share a common toolbox of learning activities involving relevance, complexity and independence. They require students to deal with complex situations as they would in industry or research.</p>
<p>Students take on a challenge and plan how they are going to tackle it; figure out what they don’t know and what to do about it; set the schedule and work with others; and deal with things that go wrong by fixing them. </p>
<p>Great examples include those such as the graduating project in Arts at Victoria University. Students from across disciplines select a problem or issue, and then define and complete an in-depth project that extends the skills and knowledge that they have learnt throughout the degree. </p>
<p>Some students work with community groups, others work on projects defined by an awareness of an issue and grounded in research. Throughout the process they have to negotiate and make decisions, and take responsibility for their learning as well as the ethical dimensions of working with others. </p>
<p>In education these are not new concepts. They build on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquiry-based_learning">inquiry-based education</a> movement of a century and the work-based learning experiences of a millennia. These experiences build capabilities that make all the difference: intelligent responses to challenges, creativity, responsibility and resilience.</p>
<h2>Capstones: something worth sharing</h2>
<p>All of these things, of course, can also happen in any active learning experience at any level. Progressive school education operates on just these principles.</p>
<p>Capstones are different because they build on high-level knowledge and skills acquired over a degree. They can rigorously test whether students can integrate and manage all the skills, knowledge and capabilities they have acquired, and whether they can do so in context. </p>
<p>Great capstones can drive student aspiration and, as a result, retention. An exciting challenge in the final year can be something that students look forward to – and fight to stay for – especially if it gives them a springboard to the ambitions they hold.</p>
<p>Pragmatically (or cynically, depending on your point of view), great capstones also have an almost immediate effect on graduate satisfaction. The most recent experience students have makes a big difference to their perception of whether the degree was worth doing at all. </p>
<p>Capstones demonstrate the point of a degree. They build a bridge between the course and post-graduation. They also provide graduates with concrete examples of what they can achieve independently that can be shown to prospective employers.</p>
<p>The challenge facing universities is to make the most of the opportunity that great capstones provide. It takes time and money to do it right, but it is less than the cost of having students graduate feeling disappointed and unprepared. If we are doing this at all, we owe it to our students and ourselves to do it well.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22117/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Support for the development of this article has been provided by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching through a National Senior Teaching Fellowship. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching.</span></em></p>New students entering university this year will embark on a path that will require a great deal of emotional and financial investment. The pay-off they expect is not just the experience or entry-level…Nicolette Lee, Associate Professor Tertiary Education Research and Associate Director, Tertiary Scholarship, Centre for Collaborative Learning and Teaching, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.