Student Feedback Surveys: Information for Students

At Swinburne, we are committed to the continuous improvement of our academic programs and services to students.  One of the ways that we measure how we are performing is to ask our students, through regular formal surveys.  This feedback is very important, and we consider students to be active participants in the evaluation and improvment of our subjects, courses and services. 

The main surveys are:

• New Student Survey (All students) NB Being redeveloped for 2009
  • This survey asks new students about their experience of recruitment, enrolment and induction and is used to improve our marketing, administration services and the information we provide to students in the induction and orientation process. 
    
    
• Student Feedback Survey (Higher Education)
  • This is a new survey in 2009, combining the old Student Feedback on Teaching (SFT) and Student Feedback on Units (SFU). The two parts of the survey (A - teaching and B - units) are reported separately to the relevant teaching staff member or unit convenor. Teaching results are used by staff as an input into individual teaching improvement and teaching portfolios, as well as for probation and promotion applications, and units results are used in the curriculum review process to improve our units.Formal improvement plans are developed for units which fall under an agreed benchmark and this is monitored through Academic Board

• Swinburne Experience Survey (All students)
  • This survey asks students about their Swinburne experience including course/program organisation, teaching and assessment, learning resources and student facilities and services including social activities. This survey has different versions for Postgraduate by Research, Higher Education, TAFE and Sarawak campus students and is used to improve our courses and programs as well as our facilities and student services.
    
    
• Graduate Destination Survey and Course Experience Questionnaire (Higher Education)
  • This survey is conducted about six months after Higher Education students finish their course and looks at employment and further education outcomes as well as satisfaction with the completed program.  It is administered by Swinburne but is overseen by Graduate Careers Australia (GCA) and the results sent to DEST (Department of Education, Science and Technology).  This information is compared to the information from other Universities and used to improve our programs and services.
    
    
• NCVER Student Outcomes Survey (TAFE) and Graduate Destination Surveys (TAFE)
  • The NCVER Student Outcomes Survey is run every two years by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) about six months after TAFE students finish their course and looks at employment and further education outcomes for students as well as satisfaction with the completed program. The results are compared to information from other TAFE providers in Victoria and across Australia and used to improve our courses and services.  The TAFE Graduate Destination Survey is run by Swinburne to gather additional information about our students after they have completed their courses.

You can also provide feedback at any time using the Stakeholder Feedback form. This can be used to alert the University to any issues or concerns you may have or to provide positive feedback where you think we are doing well.  There is a link to this form at the bottom of all Swinburne web pages under Feedback.

The surveys listed above are conducted through Evaluation Services in the Strategic Planning and Quality Unit. SPQ is located within the Chancellery and is independent of the Higher Education Faculties and TAFE Schools. All the above surveys are optional. We do collect student IDs with our surveys and this information is used to collect accurate demographic, course/program and subject information from our enrolment systems and compare the data we receive in different surveys.  We undertake to keep student information strictly confidential. Identifying student information is not passed on to any other area in the University. The information that we collect through all our surveys (without identifying information) may be used as the basis for further research and analysis to improve teaching and learning. You can learn more about privacy at Swinburne by looking at the University Privacy Statement.

If you have any questions or concerns about our surveys, please contact Lisa Bolton or Adele Drago.