The University aims to offer the best possible environment and learning experience to encourage students to perform to their full potential.
Students play a critical part in the evaluation, development and enhancement of the quality of this learning experience. Feedback from students allows the University to evaluate how its service provision is viewed by its most important group of stakeholders, namely its students. Besides providing students with an opportunity to comment on the quality of the teaching and learning environment at the University, feedback ensures that lecturers and Boards of Studies are made aware of problems perceived or encountered by students, and provides an opportunity for the conduct of self-evaluation and revision, where necessary.
The Bologna Process has put an increasing emphasis on the need for the involvement of students in the quality assurance of higher education. Student involvement requires that students act as collaborators in, rather than merely passive receivers of, teaching and learning.
During their years at University, students are asked to provide feedback both with regard to the individual study-units they are following, and also with regard to their experience at the University once they have completed the entire programme of study. This feedback is provided through the study unit evaluation survey and the end of programme survey.
The study-unit feedback survey is conducted twice a year through a questionnaire which consists of 17 close-ended questions and a free-text section which allows you to comment on any aspect you wish. You can decide to submit your feedback either before or after your assessments, and can do so either via the UM App or your e-SIMS portal.
Why is my feedback important? Your feedback and recommendations are important considerations for the Programme Review which each Department is required to undertake at annually and periodically. The Ad-hoc Sub-Committee which is tasked with reviewing a particular programme of study should take into consideration the feedback provided by students vis-a-vis each study-unit. Was the service provision satisfactory? Were any strengths and/or weaknesses identified? Have any concerns been raised by students? What actions have been or will be taken to remedy situations identified as problematic?
The study-unit is now over. Why should I still give feedback? The feedback is used by F/I/C/S to enable the university to identify good practice and areas which need improvement. Your feedback can result in a review of the teaching methodologies, methods of assessments, and/or learning material.
Is feedback anonymous? The online course evaluation system provides security and confidentiality that far exceeds that which is possible with traditional paper and pencil methods. The online format adopted is more conducive to maintaining student anonymity, since traditional paper and pencil methods require open-ended comments to be handwritten. In addition to this, students are able to provide their feedback in privacy, rather than during class time and in the presence of lecturers and other students. Once the feedback session is over the lecturers receive only a general report of the outcome and a list of open-ended comments which cannot be linked to individual responses. Download an example. [PDF]
If I submit feedback will it affect my results? Student response data is grouped together for the entire class for the purpose of data analysis. Study-units with less than 5 students enrolled are not included for evaluation. It is therefore impossible to associate comments and responses provided with any individual student.
Who has access to results and can the lecturer see the study-unit feedback? The study-unit feedback reports are made available to Deans, Heads of Departments and Lecturer/s concerned after the assessment results for the entire student cohort has been published. It is useful to note that the feedback reports summarise all the feedback submitted by students collated as percentage values. This means therefore that access to the responses submitted by individual students is not possible.
How and when are suggestions made by students taken into consideration? The outcomes/results of the study-unit feedback are presented to the Dean, Head of department and lecturers and when areas for improvement are identified the lecturer concerned is asked to indicate the actions to be taken. Whilst every suggestion is valuable, the importance of statistical significance cannot be overlooked. It is for this reason that students are strongly encouraged to submit their feedback.
Why are not all the study-units selected? / How are study-units selected? In order to avoid having to answer a large number of questionnaires, only one third of the study-units from each department are selected. These are randomly selected however the exercise is cyclical in nature and aims to ensure that all study-units would have been assessed over a period of time. Study-units which have less than five students registered on them are not included in the student feedback exercise.
What is the aim? The end-of-programme survey is a quality assurance tool that provides information about the students learning experience throughout the course. The data gathered feeds into Periodic Programme Review and is used to improve existing programmes.
How is study unit feedback obtained? For the purpose of this exercise, SurveyMonkey is used to collect feedback from students. End-of-programme feedback is conducted after publication of the students final classification and continues up until the graduation period.
Why is my feedback important? Through the end-of-programme survey, the University is able to assess the quality of the learning experience of the students and how well students feel prepared for the world of work.
Is feedback anonymous? Similar to the study-unit evaluation process, students who complete the questionnaire are not asked at any stage for their names or any other personal details. The reports which are generated through SurveyMonkey do not include any personal details and cannot be traced back to the students.
Who has access to results and how are the suggestions implemented? Results are compiled into reports which are then sent to Faculty Deans and Heads of Departments. Suggestions are considered during meetings of boards of studies to improve the programmes as part of the Annual and Periodic Programme Review.
The reports containing the general outcomes of the study-unit feedback exercises Conducted to date are available at the links below:
