A Department of Education survey of university students has revealed that four out of five rated their university positively for overall quality of education in 2019.
The 2019 Student Experience Survey found that 78 per cent of undergraduate students gave their experience at university a positive rating — the lowest mark in the survey’s history but within two percentage points of the highest-ever mark of 80 per cent.
Students studying rehabilitation (86 per cent), agriculture and environmental studies (84 per cent) and psychology (82 per cent) had the highest proportion of positive ratings, while dentistry (68 per cent), computing and information systems (72 per cent) and engineering (73 per cent) had the fewest students rate the course a positive experience according to the survey.
Minister for Education, Dan Tehan said the survey results were a reminder to all universities to focus on the student experience.
He said the introduction of performance-based funding for universities should incentivise them to focus on student satisfaction.
“We have made four student-centric measures the key drivers of our performance-based funding model — graduate employment outcomes, student success, student experience, and participation of Indigenous, low socio-economic status, and regional and remote students,” Mr Tehan said.
“I encourage all universities to look deeply at the results for their institution and continue to focus on how to improve the student experience.”
The 59-page survey can be accessed at this PS News link.
