Sectoral Initiatives under SIF
Irish Universities Study originally titled Student Feedback System
Student Feedback
The project is developing a large web-based survey system targeted at 3rd and 4th level population in Ireland and fill a vital information gap relevant to planning for individual services, institutions, government policy (the lack of such information was criticized in the EUA review). It creates, for the first time in an international context, a leading edge survey system that is designed with policy needs in mind.
The sector-wide survey is a major innovation allowing ‘raw’ scoring and deviation from sectoral averages. Results from different groups (e.g. access/international students) can be compared within/across institutions. This will transform the ability of the Irish sector to respond to student needs/concerns, placing Ireland as a leader in issues, e.g. QA/QI.
Summary
The project will use web-surveying techniques: flexible, cost effective and rapid compared to conventional methods of data gathering. A baseline module will capture demographic variables and other modules comprising student satisfaction surveys, economic expectations questions, well-being and health indicators tailored to relevant sub-groups via pre-programmed routing. The project will create a longitudinal database i.e. individuals will be followed up as they progress through the system.
The additional capacity created is a large-scale and rapid surveying capacity that will enable responsiveness on the part of the education sector to the dynamics of the 3rd and 4th level environment and help the establishment of formal, well-informed international benchmarking processes for the sector. This will be a unique–global–study with commensurate scientific implications, creating real ‘science to policy’ synergies extendable to the broader HE sector.
Administration and design by UCD Geary Institute (conducting Eurostudent 2007 survey for the HEA) and RAND Corporation in collaboration with IUA with stakeholder committee, representative of universities, Union of Students of Ireland, IUA.
Implementation Plan
Duration 3 years.
Year 1 Design and rollout of survey
Year 2-3 continued rollout, analysis/evaluation informing policy
Deliverables
Web-based survey system for 3rd and 4th level student feedback. A continuous information feed to those developing and implementing education policy in Ireland, based on innovative and rigorous survey design.
