Get a degree diploma in your hand and the Bachelor’s Graduate Survey in your inbox. This will become reality next year, when student feedback will begin to impact the University’s funding.
Students wish for more feedback from their teachers – at least according to the answers to the 2013 Bachelor’s Graduate Survey. More help would be needed especially with study planning and motivational challenges.
The issue is familiar to Lotta Viljamaa, a student of sociology who completed the Bachelor’s Graduate Survey in autumn 2014.
“We have several book examinations, and the only teacher feedback we get on them is the grade,” says Viljamaa.
“Student feedback is collected at the end of courses, but how it is used is an altogether different matter.”
As of early 2015, the Bachelor’s Graduate Survey common to all Finnish universities has turned into continuous feedback: after receiving their Bachelor’s diploma, students will receive an email request to complete the survey. Moreover, feedback from students will affect the core funding granted to their home university.
The results from the 2013 Bachelor’s Graduate Survey have now been compiled (link at the end of the story).
Feedback with euro signs in their eyes?
The 2013 Bachelor’s Graduate Survey was completed by slightly over 40% of the students graduating from the University of Helsinki. The goal is to increase the percentage, since both the number of respondents and the feedback from students will be used as criteria for future funding.
Of the 32 survey questions, 13 influence funding.
In Lotta Viljamaa’s opinion the idea of student feedback affecting university funding is not without its problems.
“There’s a risk of students giving high scores to ensure sufficient funding to their university. I believe the results should be used first and foremost to develop teaching and related matters,” she points out.
In her own degree, Viljamaa would have liked to see more contact teaching as well as instruction in group work and presentation skills, both of which are needed at work. Bottlenecks for graduation include the limited use of the examination aquarium and the length of summer and Christmas breaks.
The University is currently examining ways to use the Bachelor’s Graduate Survey results more extensively when planning instruction and supervising studies. The feedback can also be reviewed at faculty level, which makes it a good tool for individual faculties and disciplines.
“Student satisfaction surveys help universities recognise the diversity of learning and study experiences. They also make it easier to link the university and faculty management more closely to the development of teaching,” says Adviser Marja Venna from Academic Affairs.
Entertaining counter-feedback
The Bachelor’s Graduate Survey provides feedback to the University but also to students. The survey contains questions on the students’ wellbeing as well as on their attitudes to studies and their years at the university. Respondents can receive individual counter-feedback on these questions and compare their answers to those of other students.
Viljamaa found the counter-feedback to be entertaining.
“It was interesting to compare my answers to those of others,” she says. “However, I didn’t really understand what the detailed questions about my health had to do with my studies.”
Read more in the Finnish-language report on the 2013 Bachelor’s Graduate Survey results by faculty (pdf)
Text: Tiina Palomäki