The Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT)
website provides prospective students with relevant and transparent information about Australian higher education institutions from the perspective of recent students and graduates.
One of the most interesting things about the data released this week is that it appears to confirm something that I have long suspected, that there is little if no correlation between between institutional prestige and university entrance scores and actual student experiences.
The tables below compare aggregate rankings between NSW’s non-metro universities and the Universities of NSW and Sydney. I'm sorry that the tables are so messy.
Table One shows the percentage of students who rated their experiences positively against various indicators. While there is some variation in the answers to the various questions, the non-metros generally score better than the more prestigious Sydney institutions, with the University of New England ranking first.
Table One: Student Experience - Undergraduate
|
Charles Sturt University |
Southern Cross University |
University of New England |
University of New South Wales |
University of Newcastle |
The University of Sydney |
National Average |
Overall quality of educational experience
|
77.6%
(77.1% -78.2%)
8463responses |
78.2%
(77.3% -79.0%)
3598responses |
83.3%
(82.5% -84.0%)
3994responses |
76.0%
(75.5% -76.5%)
14290responses |
82.5%
(81.9% -83.0%)
8125responses |
76.4%
(76.0% -76.9%)
14350responses |
79.9% |
Teaching quality
|
80.3%
(79.7% -80.8%)
8371responses |
81.2%
(80.3% -82.0%)
3557responses |
84.5%
(83.8% -85.2%)
3965responses |
77.5%
(77.0% -77.9%)
14063responses |
83.4%
(82.9% -84.0%)
8052responses |
79.6%
(79.2% -80.0%)
14092responses |
81.5% |
Learner engagement
|
67.8%
(67.0% -68.7%)
4574responses |
62.0%
(60.7% -63.2%)
2521responses |
66.5%
(65.0% -68.0%)
1492responses |
65.2%
(64.7% -65.7%)
14278responses |
58.9%
(58.2% -59.6%)
8044responses |
60.3%
(59.8% -60.8%)
14321responses |
64.2% |
Learning resources
|
84.6%
(83.9% -85.2%)
5809responses |
84.0%
(83.1% -85.0%)
2774responses |
87.6%
(86.5% -88.6%)
2201responses |
83.0%
(82.6% -83.5%)
13327responses |
88.2%
(87.8% -88.7%)
7716responses |
81.0%
(80.6% -81.5%)
13487responses |
85.2% |
Student support
|
74.3%
(73.6% -75.0%)
7329responses |
76.1%
(75.1% -77.1%)
3166responses |
80.2%
(79.3% -81.1%)
3346responses |
66.4%
(65.9% -67.0%)
11636responses |
75.1%
(74.3% -75.8%)
6828responses |
58.7%
(58.1% -59.3%)
11709responses |
72.0% |
Skills development
|
78.9%
(78.3% -79.4%)
8220responses |
81.5%
(80.7% -82.4%)
3495responses |
78.4%
(77.5% -79.2%)
3888responses |
77.9%
(77.4% -78.4%)
13697responses |
81.7%
(81.1% -82.3%)
7902responses |
79.4%
(79.0% -79.9%)
13683responses |
81.2% |
\
Table Two looks at measures of graduate satisfaction. There is a little more variation here, although again the non-metros do a little better, with the University of New England a clear first.
Table Two: Graduate Satisfaction - Undergraduate
|
Charles Sturt University |
Southern Cross University |
University of New England |
University of New South Wales |
University of Newcastle |
The University of Sydney |
National Average |
Overall satisfaction
|
79.7%
(78.7% -80.7%)
3081 responses |
81.1%
(79.7% -82.5%)
1401responses |
87.0%
(86.1% -87.9%)
1991responses |
80.2%
(79.5% -80.8%)
6645responses |
83.2%
(82.4% -83.9%)
4127responses |
79.3%
(78.4% -80.1%)
4695responses |
82.2% |
Teaching scale
|
65.6%
(64.4% -66.8%)
3090responses |
70.3%
(68.7% -71.9%)
1405responses |
71.7%
(70.5% -72.9%)
1992responses |
63.3%
(62.5% -64.0%)
6670responses |
69.5%
(68.6% -70.4%)
4140responses |
61.4%
(60.4% -62.4%)
4703responses |
68.0% |
Skills scale
|
79.1%
(78.1% -80.1%)
3088responses |
82.5%
(81.2% -83.9%)
1404responses |
85.2%
(84.2% -86.1%)
1992responses |
82.1%
(81.5% -82.7%)
6666responses |
87.6%
(87.0% -88.3%)
4136responses |
80.9%
(80.1% -81.7%)
4698responses |
84.1% |
Table Three looks at graduate employment. The results are interesting, but need to be interpreted with some care.
There is a considerable range in the proportion of graduates who go onto further full time postgraduate study from just 6.1% at Charles Sturt to 29.9% at the University of Sydney. Excluding these two as outriders, the percentages range from 14.7% at UNE to 17.9% at UNSW.
The figure for full time employment is the % of graduates available for full time work who were in full time work four months after graduation. The median salary figure is the median for those graduates in full time employment. Charles Sturt had the best full time employment record followed by UNE and then UNSW.
The overall employment number includes those in full time employment plus casual and temporary. Some of the second appear to be also included in the full time study category.
Table Three: Graduate Employment - Undergraduate
|
Charles Sturt University |
Southern Cross University |
University of New England |
University of New South Wales |
University of Newcastle |
The University of Sydney |
National Average |
Full-time employment
|
83.9%
(83.1% -84.7%)
4031responses |
68.0%
(66.2% -69.8%)
1319responses |
77.3%
(76.0% -78.6%)
1871responses |
76.4%
(75.6% -77.2%)
5381responses |
68.4%
(67.4% -69.3%)
4431responses |
70.4%
(69.3% -71.4%)
4171responses |
69.5% |
Overall employment
|
93.9%
(93.4% -94.4%)
4721responses |
86.9%
(85.9% -88.0%)
1724responses |
88.7%
(87.8% -89.5%)
2293responses |
89.0%
(88.5% -89.5%)
6151responses |
90.5%
(90.0% -91.0%)
5226responses |
87.3%
(86.7% -88.0%)
5285responses |
88.6% |
Full-time study
|
6.1%
(5.7% - 6.6%)
4944responses |
16.4%
(15.4% -17.4%)
2069responses |
14.7%
(13.8% -15.5%)
2596responses |
17.9%
(17.3% -18.4%)
7419responses |
17.1%
(16.5% -17.6%)
6066responses |
29.9%
(29.2% -30.6%)
7032responses |
21.6% |
Median salary
|
$60,000
($59,900 -$60,100)
2850responses |
$57,000
($55,400 -$58,600)
759 responses |
$60,000
($59,300 -$60,700)
1217responses |
$60,000
($59,400 -$60,600)
3321responses |
$57,000
($56,400 -$57,600)
2546responses |
$56,000
($55,200 -$56,800)
2444responses |
$56,000 |
I have yet to dig into the detail at subject level where the pattern is more varied. Still, the apparent absence of any correlation between between institutional prestige and university entrance scores and actual student experiences remains interesting.
5 comments:
Table 2 is particularly interesting. Satisfaction after graduation seems to me to be worth having.
I've never found these league tables very easy to interpret. Whenever I've known something about them, I've seen about a million holes in them. For example, when I went through law school, if you wanted to be a solicitor, you had to go to College of Law for half a year after that. If you were lucky you might get into the first course; if you weren't, you waited for the second. Some people got work in the intervening period; some already had full-time employment; others went off for a big trip around the world. Can you imagine what sense the graduate employment statistics made of that?
I agree with you, marcellous. After all, I have been complaining about the use and abuse of league tables for a long while!
I do think that the satisfaction measures and especially Table Two as noted by Winton do provide a useful measure. However, I note that one of my twitter colleagues commented that perhaps the satisfaction levels for regional students was higher because they started with lower expectations! Or, conversely, that of city students lower because they started with higher expectations.
Given the prevalent use of league tables in marketing that so feature the metros because of the way they are structured, something that distorts the marketplace, the new numbers as "official" numbers are quite a useful corrective.
This should be hugely reassuring for those vitterinary wallahs from Canberra - surely?
kvd
Perhaps not for those regulatory scientists who have degrees and gone to Canberra in the first place and who do not want to move, kvd. But perhaps for future students in regulatory science who go to UNE. It's interesting. APVMA seems to have been struggling for a while to get staff. There doesn't appear to be any university level training in Canberra in the field, so have persuade people to go there May well be a better position when UNE is graduating.
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