All Ireland Society for Higher Education
| Name: | Julie Arthur |
|---|---|
| Email: | j.arthur@uq.edu.au |
| Institution: | Queensland University, Australia |
Marian Tulloch, mtulloch@csu.edu.au
The evaluation of the effectiveness of learning and teaching in higher education in universities in Australia has traditionally been an area fraught with tensions and recent macro systemic changes in higher education policy have served to increase these. The introduction of the Learning and Teaching Performance Fund (LTPF) by the Department of Education, Science and Training as part of the Australian Government's Our Universities: Backing Australia's Future reform initiative was a catalyst for both change and angst at the institutional level. To be eligible for funding universities were required to provide public web access to strategies, practices and policies relating to learning and teaching. Additionally, the aggregated results of student evaluations of subjects were to be available on websites. Student surveys were introduced in Australian universities in the early 1990s and until the introduction of the LTPF, information collected was, in most cases, only provided only to staff members with a view to improving the quality of teaching and of subjects or programs. Historically, attempts to use student evaluation data at an institutional level drew industrial action by academic staff.
This paper reflects on the challenges of institutional changes introduced in one Australian multi-campus regional university with regard to student surveys as one measure of assurance and enhancement of quality in learning and teaching. Lessons have been learned at both the corporate and academic staff levels including around the links and tensions between formal accountability processes and academic engagement with student feedback to foster effective learning environments.
Furthermore the paper discusses the implications of the elevation and adoption of student data as a quality measure of corporate performance, given the diversity of the learning and teaching provision through both face to face and distance learning modes and with a significant offshore student cohort.