The QILT 2020 results reveal declines in student satisfaction across the country but have a look at Monash U, RMIT and Uni Melbourne

Not so marvellous Melbourne: The University of Melbourne records the biggest year on year decline in the 2020 Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching undergraduate survey, released yesterday.

One of the nation’s most prestigious university recorded an overall student satisfaction score of 52.3, well below the national average of 68.4 and 25 points down on its 2019 result.

Victoria’s other Group of Eight elite institution, Monash U, also too a huge hit, rating 60.4 last year compared to 78.6 in 2019. RMIT followed, 16 points lower in 2020, to 62.1.

QUT (81.8 in ’19 and 65.8 in ’20) and Uni Wollongong (81 and 66.7) make up the five universities with the worse falls in overall student satisfaction.

The least-worse news: The lowest overall declines were for Uni Southern Queensland, Edith Cowan U, CQU, UNE and Bond U. UNSW also took small hit, down 3.2 year on year, although that was off a below-average 2019 base.

Bad, but not all over: The universal expectation is met, that undergraduate satisfaction with the quality of their student experience would decline, due to the rush to on-line study and disruption to life, especially for vulnerable international students. The 2020 positive response on the quality of the entire education experience was 68.4, down from 78.4 in 2019. And learner engagement score dropped from 59.9 to 43.2.

However, in a tribute to class-room teachers, learning designers and student support staff  everywhere, two key categories recorded less than abysmal falls. The overall score for teaching quality dropped from 80.9 to 77.6. Student support was down 3.2, to 73.7.

Dejection in the detail: The head-line numbers do not explain all of what’s occurred. While traditional DE providers did ok, others expanding on-line could have hoped for more. In some cases, this could have come down to culture, where campus-classes gone remote could not match those taught by on-line experts in the same institution. And where universities are based matters – students living in Melbourne communities suffered way more than those anywhere else.

Then there are specifics, universities big on lab-based and demonstration courses suffered – with student satisfaction down 11 per cent (82 per cent in 2019 to71 per cent last year) and universities that did worse on engagement will have taken a hit, overall just 52 per cent of students were satisfied with being able to work with their peers, down from 66 per cent in 2019. Plus the overall experience of internationals will have hurt. Just under 50 per cent reported their finances impacted on studies (20 per cent up on last year). Overall fewer international students rated their entire education experience as positive (63 per cent) than locals (70 per cent).

Take Covid-cover: There’s enough data in QILT to create a case for every institution’s circumstances and some universities will spin the results as best they can (others will do what they always do, just keep heads-down to hacks lose interest). And this year the COVID-19 disaster will make special-pleading plausible. Good-o, but it alone cannot explain why some rich and powerful institutions did badly, very badly indeed.