91

October 2018

ARTICLES

What do recent graduates think about their student experience at university?

Dani Torrents - Senior advisor of Internationalisation and Knowledge Generation Department

Determining the level of student satisfaction with the quality of their experience at university is a necessary condition for improving programmes of study. In response to this need, AQU Catalunya has coordinated an annual satisfaction survey since 2015 aimed at graduates who have just completed an undergraduate degree. The survey captures their opinions on their experience and asks them to make honest comments about their degree studies and the university they studied at.

The survey represents the collective voice of the students and is a source of highly valuable information for identifying strengths and areas for improvement in their formative process. The appreciation and analysis of these indicators are expected to play an important role for the universities in the definition of enhancement measures for undergraduate degrees that will impact directly on both current and prospective students.

AQU Catalunya has now produced the first report on graduate satisfaction from the findings of the surveys of graduate cohorts that completed their studies between 2015 and 2017 at the seven public universities and four private universities in Catalonia. With over more than 17,000 responses, which accounted for 22% of the study population, the results are therefore robust and reliable.

The main conclusions of this first report, amongst others, are as follows:

Overall graduate satisfaction with degree studies

  • Graduate student satisfaction with courses at Catalan universities was rated at 7.
  • According to field of knowledge, the graduates with the highest level of satisfaction were from Experimental Sciences and Health Sciences (7.5), whereas those least satisfied were from Engineering and Humanities (6.7), although the reasons for the lower level of satisfaction in these 2 disciplines were different.
     

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Satisfaction with the learning outcomes

  • The university system was rated at 7 in the three skills areas covered: personal (self-directed learning, solutions to emerging problems, critical analysis), professional skills and communication skills.
  • Graduate satisfaction with their learning outcomes was higher than the other aspects that were analysed .
     

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Satisfaction with student support services

  • University libraries (rated as 7.1) and virtual teaching and learning environments (7.0) are the flagship of the services offered by the university system in Catalonia.
  • Student feedback (5.2) is the service with the most room for improvement .
     

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Satisfaction with the teaching and learning process

  • Tutorials, course coordination and the systems used for assessment were the aspects of teaching and learning rated the lowest, with around 5 out of 10, while teaching staff was the most highly rated (6.4). In spite of the fact that the indicators linked to the teaching and learning process were rated the lowest, they were all given a pass rating by graduates.
  • According to field of knowledge, the lowest score was given to Engineering, which failed as far as satisfaction with tutorials is concerned and also has a lot of room for improvement as regards teaching methodology, work load and teaching staff. Half of all graduates in Humanities were dissatisfied with curriculum structure and the coordination of courses, which continue to be an ongoing challenge .
     

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Strong points and weak points according to the field of knowledge

  • Humanities: the library service and communication and personal skills acquired by graduates stand out very positively. However, course coordination (4.9) continues to be an issue, as well as satisfaction with the majority of indicators in Arts higher education programmes and Fine Arts.
  • Social and Legal Sciences: although this discipline is very heterogenous as regards strong and weak points, the overall level of satisfaction was average in general, with few unsatisfactory or high ratings.
  • Experimental Sciences: satisfaction with the facilities and virtual campus stand out. The system used for assessment however only satisfied 3 out of 10 graduates.
  • Health Sciences: the strong point in Health Sciences is the professional orientation of skills acquired (internships and placement, acquisition of professional skills, etc.). In some subjects, however, graduates were dissatisfied with course coordination and work load.
  • Architecture and Engineering: the majority of graduates in this field were dissatisfied with the teaching and learning process (a rating of 4 out of 10), and tutorials (4.1) is an urgent matter to be dealt with. IT in this discipline stood out over and above others.
     

Does university satisfy everybody alike?

  • The university satisfies practically everyone alike. There are no significant differences in terms of socio-demographic characteristics and the path of admission as regards graduate satisfaction with their studies. The level of satisfaction of those who worked while studying (study and work combined) however was slightly lower than the mean. 
 

First degrees (bachelors) are robust programmes of study

  • The procedures for designing and assessing proposals for new programmes of study (ex-ante accreditation) have proved to be sufficient for the quality assurance of new proposals, with satisfaction with curricular structure being rated at 6.3. It can therefore be said that first degree (bachelor's) programmes are robust programmes of study.
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