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Week 42: The University Experience Survey
A new survey is helping to inform student choice and support continuous improvement in Australian universities.
The University Experience Survey (UES), funded by the Commonwealth Government and conducted by ACER with the University of Melbourne’s Centre for the Study of Higher Education and the University of Western Sydney, is the first of its kind to survey current university students about their university experience.
As UES project director Ali Radloff explains, the objective of the UES – surveying close to 115 000 students – is to inform student choice and support continuous improvement in Australian universities.
‘Unlike other large scale national surveys in higher education, the UES investigates the experience of current students – in terms of engagement, teaching quality, support and the development of their knowledge and skills,’ says Ali, a Research Fellow in ACER’s Higher Education research program.
To obtain responses from more than 100 000 students, staff in the Higher Education research program worked closely with staff across the organisation. Ali and Mandy Stephens, Senior Marketing Consultant in ACER’s Corporate Marketing and Communications team, developed a range of strategies.
One of the strategies involved YouTube videos, complete with talking dogs, an aspect of the project that brought together the diverse skills of ACER staff. ‘ACER’s Mark Butler wrote the scripts for this, while Lisa Norris produced and directed,’ Mandy explains.
‘The campaign, which included a raft of other communication materials developed by ACER’s team in Project Publishing, Marketing and Communications, illustrates the extraordinary skill set we have within ACER.
‘Students in universities are being surveyed frequently, so our strategy was to work with each university to identify incentives suited to particular student populations. We needed to address the particular policies and capabilities of 40 universities, so the campaign strategy was to customise the medium where possible in order to reach as many students as possible. Social media played a large role in helping us achieve this.
‘We worked closely with student unions and associations to prompt students to “check their inbox”, and “have their say” and with the National Union of Students and the Council of International Students Australia to raise media awareness.’
The project also called on the expertise of ACER’s Psychometrics and Methodology research program, and the team in Information Technology. ‘The UES project is a terrific example of ACER’s collaborative capacity,’ says Ali. ‘Ling Tan in Melbourne and Rajat Chadha in Delhi developed a robust sampling framework, working closely with David Rainsford, David Tran, Jafar Lie and Scott Haines in Information Technology so that the survey could be delivered securely online.
‘The UES really drills down into the student experience, and provides universities with quality data to inform their programs to maintain and improve outcomes for all learners.’
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Week 52: State of the art psychometric and statistical analysis
Week 51: Assessing civics and citizenship
Week 50: International research into teaching and learning
GOAL 1
Learners and their needs
every learner engaged in challenging learning opportunities appropriate to their readiness and needs
GOAL 2
The Learning Profession
every learning professional highly skilled, knowledgeable and engaged in excellent practice
GOAL 3
Places of learning
every learning community well resourced and passionately committed to improving outcomes for all learners
GOAL 4
A Learning Society
a society in which every learner experiences success and has an opportunity to achieve their potential
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Pursuing Quality and Equity through Evidence
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