The emergence of contesting motives for student feedback-based evaluation in Australian higher education

Student feedback-based evaluation performs a significant social role in framing perceptions of the quality of teaching in contemporary Australian higher education. Yet its emergence is a relatively recent phenomenon, having only been in widespread application since the mid-1980s. The early manifestations of student feedback-based evaluation came with newly emerging academic development units with a motive to enhance the quality of local teaching and to afford student retention. However, new motives for assailing student feedback evolved with the rapid growth in student numbers, the introduction of student fees and heightened levels of inter-institutional competition for students. As a result, student feedback-based evaluation progressively became also a powerful proxy measure of teaching and curricula quality assurance at an individual, institutional and sectoral level [Blackmore, J. (2009). Academic pedagogies, quality logics and performative universities: Evaluating teaching and what students want. Studies in Higher Education, 34(8), 857–872. doi:10.1080/03075070902898664]. This generated critical tensions between the seminal motive of student feedback around quality improvement, and the rising quality assurances discourses, academic performance management demands and institutional marketing. In this paper, the complex social origins of these competing motives for student feedback-based evaluation in Australian higher education will be explored and analysed. It is argued this provides an important means of understanding the polarising effects of student feedback-based evaluation in Australian universities.     

Challenges to quality of English medium instruction degree programs in Taiwanese universities and the role of local accreditors: a perspective of non-English-speaking Asian country

As the numbers of international students have grown, higher education institutions in Asia have offered a growing range of English medium instruction (EMI) degree programs. But Asian governments and higher education institutions have not thought deeply about how to ensure quality of English medium instruction degree programs. At the same time, their accreditors have not been fully aware of how to establish an external quality assurance mechanism to measure the quality of these programs. This study’s main purpose is to put the quality of the EMI degree programs of Taiwan higher education institutions into the perspective of the Taiwan’s institutions and one local Taiwan accreditor. With both qualitative and quantitative approaches, a survey targeting Taiwan’s colleges and universities and interviews of Higher Education Evaluation & Accreditation Council of Taiwan international reviewers and Asian higher education experts are used to examine the challenges of EMI implementation in Taiwan universities and the role of local accreditors playing in reviewing the English medium instruction degree programs.     

Learning to Teach Offshore: Pre-Departure training for lecturers in transnational programs

The internationalisation of higher education in Australia over the past two decades has brought about dramatic changes in Australian universities. Growing numbers of international students have enrolled in Australian universities and the number of students studying offshore has also increased dramatically. While considerable material has been published on the ramifications of the increased numbers of onshore international students studying at Australian universities, there is relatively little published research on the specific challenges facing academics participating in offshore programs. The aim of this project was to examine the current pre-departure cross-cultural training taking place in the business faculties of three Australian universities in order to gain a better understanding of the adequacy of the support given to Australian academics teaching offshore. Twenty staff involved in offshore education were interviewed as part of this project, including academics with considerable offshore teaching experience, senior academic managers and cross-cultural trainers. While these institutions engage in little formal preparation for offshore teaching, a great deal of informal mentoring and briefing is taking place. We consider the implications of the new quality assurance framework for Australian universities, which requires that institutions be able to demonstrate the ways in which they ensure the quality of teaching and learning. Under this new system, universities are bound by the Australian Vice Chancellors' Committee's guidelines for the provision of education to international students. It appears that Australian universities will need to establish more formal mechanisms to ensure that offshore staff are adequately prepared for offshore teaching posts.     

From Quality Assurance to Quality Enhancement in the European Higher Education Area

This article focuses on recent trends in quality assurance initiatives, analyses how the European Higher Education Area promotes quality enhancement mechanisms and their implications for quality cultures in universities. It presents and discusses two approaches towards quality enhancement both at the institutional and programme level: 1. Quality Enhancement at programme level: the Tuning approach and 2. Scottish Enhancement-led Institutional Review. It also argues that current approaches towards quality culture are reorienting the focus from quality assurance towards contextual quality enhancement and that quality enhancement becomes the primary responsibility of universities and university stakeholders.     

Expanding higher education: institutional responses in Australia from the post-war era to the 1970s

The history of universities in the twentieth century is, at least from the perspective of growth, a massive success. Australian higher education is no exception. Prior to the Second World War, Australia had six universities and approximately 10,500 students. Now there are in excess of one million students attending 39 institutions. In each phase of student expansion, governments have sought to make universities accessible to new segments of the community, a pattern that informs contemporary social inclusion initiatives. This paper focuses on two successive periods – the 1940s/1950s and the 1960s/1970s – during which university participation expanded. Comparing two universities which were at that time very different from one another – the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales – I consider the ways both universities approached admissions to understand what each institution hoped to achieve in attracting students beyond the traditional elite. This helps move beyond government strategy and rhetoric to consider what universities believed was at stake as they enabled new students to enter their communities.     

Instruments for obtaining student feedback: a review of the literature

This paper reviews the research evidence concerning the use of formal instruments to measure students’ evaluations of their teachers, students’ satisfaction with their programmes and students’ perceptions of the quality of their programmes. These questionnaires can provide important evidence for assessing the quality of teaching, for supporting attempts to improve the quality of teaching and for informing prospective students about the quality of course units and programmes. The paper concludes by discussing several issues affecting the practical utility of the instruments that can be used to obtain student feedback. Many students and teachers believe that student feedback is useful and informative, but for a number of reasons many teachers and institutions do not take student feedback sufficiently seriously.     

(Dis)ordering Teacher Education: From problem students to problem-based learning

This paper takes issue with the 'disabling' of students enrolled in teacher education courses, perpetrated by definitions of students' learning disorders and by the structures and pedagogies engaged by teacher educators. Focusing on one case, but with relevance for similarly affected systems, the paper begins by outlining the changed student entry credentials of Australian universities and their faculties of education. These are seen as induced by a shift from elite to mass provision of higher education and the particular effect on teacher education providers (especially those located in regional institutions) of the politics of government funding and the continuing demand for teachers by education systems. While these changed conditions are often used to argue an increased university population of students with learning disorders, the paper suggests that such arguments often have more to do with how student problems are defined by institutions and how these definitions serve to secure additional government funding. More pertinently, the paper argues that such definition tends to locate the problem in individual students, deferring considerations of teacher educators' pedagogy and the learning arrangements of their institutions. The paper concludes that the place to begin addressing these issues of difficulty would seem to be with a different conception of knowledge production.     

Monitoring Trends in Student Satisfaction

Over the last decade, the assessment of student experience has gained significant prominence in Australian higher education. Universities conduct internal surveys in order to identify which of their services students rate higher or lower on importance and performance. Thus, institutions can promote highly performing areas and work on those needing improvement, while students are given an opportunity to influence decision-making in both academic and non-academic spheres of campus life. National student surveys conducted by the government aim to maintain quality assurance in the sector, benchmark outcomes, and, in some cases, reward better performing institutions. This paper outlines the findings of a study which monitored the entire student experience in a large metropolitan multi-campus university during 2005–2011. A specially designed biennial survey was repeated across the years, and completed over the period by 10,562 students from all key cohorts. This paper discusses the trends in perceived importance and performance of various university services and key issues the university has been addressing in order to enhance student experience. It concludes that: (a) the time series data provide a powerful lens into the university’s strategies, initiatives and actions which worked well and those needing further effort or adjustment; (b) it is the total experience of the university that shapes students’ judgements, not just what happens in the classroom; and (c) taking a systematic approach to student feedback, and acting on the results in a timely manner, can significantly improve student engagement and satisfaction.     

Ten years of external quality audit in Australia: evaluating its effectiveness and success

External quality audits are now being used in universities across the world to improve quality assurance, accountability for quality education and transparency of public funding of higher education. Some countries such as Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Sweden and Denmark have had external quality audits for more than a decade but there has been limited research as to their impact. This study analyses the extent to which external audits in Australia have improved quality assurance in universities over the past 10 years. The analysis is based on discussions with 40 participants in a workshop on the effectiveness of audits and the review of 60 external quality audit reports between 2001 and December 2010. The research found that while external audits have led to an improvement in systems and processes in Australian universities, they have not necessarily improved the student experience. This lack of impact on the student experience in Australia is similar to other countries, according to the literature review. This study is timely in its analysis on the effectiveness of the current improvement-led audits, as government in Australia is in the process of renewing quality assurance arrangements of higher education institutions with a focus on standards and outcomes.     

Proudly proactive: celebrating and supporting LGBT+ students in Scotland

The absence of data regarding UK university students’ sexualities and trans identities has, for too long, rendered lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT+) student communities invisible. This interview-based study aims to explore the experiences of LGBT+ students at a Scottish university, beginning to address this gap in research. This study argues that despite perceptions from staff and prospective students that universities are welcoming to LGBT+ students, and attempts from institutions to comply with equalities legislation, the reality is homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, and queer phobia creeps into students’ lives both on and off campus. This has therefore necessitated the student-led provision of exclusively LGBT+ ‘safe spaces’ to allow LGBT+ students to explore and express their identities fearlessly. In order to challenge the current campus climate, this paper thus argues that a radical shift is required in order to transform institutions to successfully support and celebrate LGBT+ campus communities, allowing universities to truly call themselves ‘proudly proactive’.     

Strengthening internal quality assurance processes: facilitating student evaluation committees to contribute

Student evaluation committees play a crucial role in internal quality assurance processes as representatives of the student body. However, the students on these committees sometimes experience difficulty in providing constructive and structured feedback to faculty in an environment characterised by a strong power differential between student and staff. This study aimed to evaluate a leadership and quality assurance training implemented for students involved in internal quality assurance. Furthermore, we explored how students give shape to their internal quality assurance role. Students from three health sciences programmes participated in a mixed methods study to evaluate the training and reflect on their internal quality assurance role. Overall, the students were very enthusiastic about the training. Qualitative data analysis indicated that in their internal quality assurance role, students: (1) harnessed the power of the entire student population; (2) tried to create focus and take charge; (3) searched for a common ground with staff, and (4) they explained how they dealt with the power differential. Providing training for students with internal quality assurance roles is a valuable endeavour. Future research needs to investigate further ways to help students to contribute to internal quality assurance processes in higher education.     

Variation in student selection within the Australian Unified National System: A case study in undergraduate business studies from Western Australia

This paper draws on data relating to the field of business studies from four Western Australian universities to illustrate differences between institutions in the Australian Unified National System (UNS) of Universities. Large differences exist between universities in the input characteristics of students which may be expected to affect student progress and presumably student outcomes. These differences have implications for issues like credit transfer where the transferring student may have come from an institution with a much lower entry criterion and presumably different learning culture.     

Quality assurance in Australian higher education: historical and future development

Higher education policies related to quality assurance are implemented in many countries. The purposes of such policies are to ensure the provision for high-quality education, university accountability and transparency in the use of public funding and meeting the needs of the diverse stakeholders. The current Australian Higher Education Quality Assurance Framework was implemented in the year 2000. It can be described that the framework has been enjoyed by universities, academics and other providers in Australia. This paper provides a brief history of quality assurance, its evolution in higher education in Australia and current changes and trends in quality assurance in other developed countries. It then provides an analysis of the success and deficiencies of the current framework used in Australia and suggestions which may be helpful in the development of the new framework. The analysis includes the thoughts of the three authors based on their experience in managing quality and reviews in seven different institutions and the views of more than 40 participants who are staff members from 25 Australian universities.     

What makes for effective feedback: staff and student perspectives

Since the early 2010s the literature has shifted to view feedback as a process that students do where they make sense of information about work they have done, and use it to improve the quality of their subsequent work. In this view, effective feedback needs to demonstrate effects. However, it is unclear if educators and students share this understanding of feedback. This paper reports a qualitative investigation of what educators and students think the purpose of feedback is, and what they think makes feedback effective. We administered a survey on feedback that was completed by 406 staff and 4514 students from two Australian universities. Inductive thematic analysis was conducted on data from a sample of 323 staff with assessment responsibilities and 400 students. Staff and students largely thought the purpose of feedback was improvement. With respect to what makes feedback effective, staff mostly discussed feedback design matters like timing, modalities and connected tasks. In contrast, students mostly wrote that high-quality feedback comments make feedback effective – especially comments that are usable, detailed, considerate of affect and personalised to the student’s own work. This study may assist researchers, educators and academic developers in refocusing their efforts in improving feedback.     

Aligning Teaching Quality Indicators with University Reward Mechanisms

Teaching quality emerged as asignificant issue in higher education duringthe 90s. This led to the implementation ofnumerous quality control, assurance andenhancement schemes as institutions attemptedto stay abreast of demands from variousstakeholders in a rapidly changing educationalenvironment. More recently, with theestablishment of the Australian UniversityQuality Agency (AUQA) in 2000, there is nowfurther impetus to review quality schemes inAustralian universities. This paper describeshow a teaching award programme may impact onplanning and review processes within universitydepartments and highlights how the alignment ofteaching award criteria with external qualityaudit requirements can lead tocross-institutional benefits for enhancing thequality of teaching.     

What contemporary work are student ratings actually doing in higher education?

It is conventionally assumed that student ratings perform a significant function in driving improvement in pedagogical practices in higher education. As a result, this form of evaluation has gradually become institutionalised in recent decades as an essential proxy for understanding teaching and course quality in universities across the world. However, with the rise of market-based models in higher education and heightened expectations for accountability mechanisms, the role and functional purpose of ratings-based student evaluation have become increasingly confused. This rising ambiguity has created strong tensions between the seminal drive of student ratings as a tool of quality improvement, and the emerging demands for its use as a transparent accountability measure for the comparative assessment of academic performativity. So are student ratings now largely a tool of quality assurance or performance measurement, or do they remain a legitimate tool for pedagogical improvement? This paper reports on a study that responded to this critical question by considering the contemporary work of student ratings in a major Australian university. The outcomes of this research demonstrate that tension between improvement and accountability motives is causing considerable confusion and discord around the role and value of the student voice. It also reveals that academics are tending to discount the often critical insights of students on the implications of their pedagogical practices as a result of the elevating institutional role of student ratings as a proxy for teaching quality. In considering these outcomes, rising levels of academic dissonance around student ratings would suggest a necessity to consider broadened evaluative strategies that are able to more effectively capture the improvement potential offered by the student voice.     

A recipe for effective participation rates for web‐based surveys

One way many universities have approached the process of better understanding and meeting the needs of their students is through student evaluations. The evaluation data provide not only diagnostic feedback but also useful information in terms of the quality of learning and teaching experiences. In an effective quality cycle, the data gathered are analysed and used to make improvements. This is often referred to as ‘closing the loop’. However, for any evaluation data to be of value an important prerequisite for ‘closing the loop’ is that response rates should be sufficiently high to be representative of the student cohort. This paper describes how a faculty within Monash University utilising only web based surveys developed a successful communication strategy to elicit staff and student participation in the unit (subject) evaluation process which achieved a response rate as high as 83.2%.     

Internationalization in the Asian Pacific: The Case of Handong Global University Facing New Challenges in a Global,Digital, and Unequal World

As Korean, Japanese, and Australian universities see declining birthrates and a tapering off of the percentage of national age cohorts heading to universities, increased enrollments of international students are being pursued. As demographic changes force these universities to attract students from abroad, the globalization trend is also an incentive to modify their educational paradigms to prepare students to become global citizens. This paradigm shift is needed given that peace and prosperity depend on increasing the capacity of people to think and work on a global and intercultural basis. Furthermore, with digital advances in information and communication technologies (ICT), student learning will be integrated through ICT confluence to bring about innovations in products, services, contents, and processes. Thus, the educational environment is changing fast and the challenges are mounting for higher educational institutions, especially for Christian universities.     

Beyond the Rhetoric: A framework for evaluating improvements to the student experience

A framework is described to assist institutions in evaluating the extent to which activities described as “quality improvements” or “quality enhancements” are likely to directly improve the student experience. The framework classifies ways of improving the student experience into “coaching improvements”, “umpiring improvements”, and “facilities improvements”, while also considering the location of improvements along a “risk avoidance—quality assurance—quality enhancement” continuum. The utility of this framework is explored through case studies of sector‐wide initiatives in Scotland and Australia. If used to stimulate internal discussion, the framework can help institutions to better balance their efforts to improve the student experience.     

eVALUate: an evaluation instrument for measuring students’ perceptions of their engagement and learning outcomes

In the current climate in Australian higher education, quality assurance in university teaching is a priority. In particular, the introduction of the Learning and Teaching Performance Fund (LTPF) has refocused attention on universities’ internal student evaluation survey instruments. This paper reports the development, validation and implementation of a new unit survey instrument which prompts students to reflect on what helps their achievement of unit learning outcomes, and to report their levels of motivation, engagement and overall satisfaction with a semester‐long course or unit of study. The instrument (eVALUate) was created from precepts reported in the research literature, current practices in evaluating teaching, and sound quality assurance practices appropriate to a university outcomes‐focused education paradigm.