Großbritannien
1. THE – Times Higher Education, Student Experience Survey
Institution und Leitung
Times Higher Education, TES Global Limited 26 Red Lion Square
London WC1R 4HQ United Kingdom
Aufgaben und Zweck
„Each year, the Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey shows the universities that shine in the way they cater for students, with familiar faces cropping up time and again. Yet this year, in a time of rapid change for higher education, the top of the table has mirrored the sector’s upheaval.”
(www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/the-student-experience-survey-2013/1/2003450.article, Stand 9.7.2014)
Auftraggeber und Finanzierung
Tageszeitung, Eigenfinanzierung; Eigenwerbung:
„THE The global authority on higher education“, „THE at the heart of the higher education debate“
(www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/, Stand 5.8.2014)
Erhebungscharakter und Durchführung
Es handelt sich um eine jährliche landesweite Erhebung, an der 111 Hochschulen (2013) teilgenommen ha-ben. Jedes Jahr werden über UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) Aufforderungen an die Studierenden verschiedener Studienjahre per Mail versendet, den Fragebogen zu beantworten. Insgesamt füllten ihn 2010 bis 2013 ca. 12.000 Studierende aus, wobei die Anzahl pro Hochschule im Jahre 2011 von 50 bis 342 variierte. Für 2012 lagen die Antwortzahlen mit 50 bis 270 etwas niedriger, für 2013 mit 50 bis 337 und insgesamt 14.300 Antworten wieder etwas höher. Eine Rücklaufquote lässt sich nicht erschließen.
Soziale Merkmale werden nicht erhoben. Die Befragung fand schon vor 2008 statt, als eine andere Gewich-tung eingeführt wurde.
„More than 14,000 full-time undergraduates took part in this year’s survey, which is an increase of about 3,000 compared with last year.
All respondents were members of YouthSight’s student panel – who are recruited via Ucas – and their views were gathered between October 2012 and June 2013.
The Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey is broken down into 21 attributes of universities, chosen by students as key indicators. Participants were asked to rate how their university performed in each of the areas using a seven-point scale. Each attribute was assigned a weight reflecting its importance within the overall student experience.
The same wording and weighting methodology have been used for the past five years, with the greatest weight applied to the attributes that correlated most to whether or not the respondent would recommend the university to a friend.
Only universities achieving 50 or more ratings have been included in the final dataset, and each university’s score was indexed on a scale from one to 100. A total of 111 institutions (102 last year) met the minimum sample threshold required based on respondents from a total of 14,300 respondents.”
(www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/times-higher-education-student-experience-survey-2014/2013333.article, Stand 5.8.2014)
„'It is highly unlikely that institutions themselves could influence the results,' Simmons says. …
More importantly, the overall sample size is large enough to generate only a small sampling error,' she ex-plains.
Each attribute is assigned a weighting. The weightings were decided by examining the factors most closely
correlated with good scores in the category 'I would recommend my university to a friend'.
The weighting methodology was reviewed in 2008 to ensure its continued suitability, and the same weighting methodology has been used for the past two years.
Students’ views were gathered between September 2009 and July 2010.”
(www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/times-higher-education-student-experience-survey/415180.article/, Stand 5.8.2014)
Fragebogen und Indikatoren
Die Fragen wurden aus Gesprächen mit Studierenden gewonnen, die beschreiben sollten, auf welche Weise Hochschulen zu positiven und negativen Erfahrungen während des Studiums beitragen.
„As in previous years, the student experience was broken down into the 21 elements chosen by students themselves as key to a good university experience.
Participants were asked to rate how their university performed in each of the areas, using a seven-point scale.
To design the survey, OpinionPanel asked 1,000 students to describe - unprompted and in their own words - how their university contributed to a positive and negative student experience.
The results from this exercise were then coded to form the 21 attributes rated by students in the survey.
'Each university’s score has been indexed to give a percentage of the maximum attainable score, allowing for more intuitive comparisons between universities,' explains OpinionPanel’s associate director, Eleanor Sim-mons.'Of course, there will be no statistical significance in the scores of similarly ranked universities. But the results are very stable year on year, and we believe are effective at highlighting where best practice occurs and where certain universities have room for improvement.'
All respondents were members of OpinionPanel’s Student Panel, a group of students recruited via the Uni-versities and Colleges Admissions Service.
A new cohort is recruited to the panel annually when Ucas sends out an email invitation. Those surveyed are in different years of their degree. …
As in previous years, respondents were not told the purpose of the poll and were unable to complete the sur-vey more than once.
OpinionPanel believes these factors mitigate against the possibility of respondents artificially inflating scores in order to improve the performance of their institution.
In addition, universities do not know which of their students belong to the Student Panel, or when invitations to take part in the survey are sent out.” (www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/times-higher-education-student-experience-survey/415180.article, Stand 5.8.2014)
Der Fragebogen ist nicht zugänglich, ein Vergleich mit dem der AG Hochschulforschung ist eingeschränkt möglich. Er enthält 21 Fragen mit sieben Abstufungen vorwiegend zu den Themen Lehre, Ausstattung, sozi-ales Leben, Unterkunft und eine zusätzliche Frage zur allgemeinen Einschätzung der Hochschule. Anhand der tabellarischen Auswertung lassen sich die Themen erschließen. Die Fragen sind seit 2011 gleich geblie-ben.
(4) Studienanforderungen, Regelungen und Prüfungen Personal requirements cared for
Fair workload
(5) Kontakte, soziales Klima und Beratung Helpful/interested staff
Good personal relationship with teaching staff Good community atmosphere
Good support/welfare
(6) Situation der Lehre und Studienqualität High quality staff/lectures
Well-structured courses Tuition in small groups
(7) Studentische Lebensformen und soziale Situation Good social life
Good extracurricular activities/societies
Good environment on campus/around university
Good accommodation Good security
Cheap shop/bar/amenities
(9) Neue Medien und Internet High quality facilities
Centralised/convenient facilities Good library and library opening hours“
Good sports facilities
(12) Berufliche Orientierungen und Arbeitsmarkt Good industry connections
(13) Politische Beteiligung und gesellschaftliche Vorstellungen Good students' union
Ergebnisse und Befunde
„Universities are working hard and succeeding in their aim to improve life for their students, as Times High-er Education’s Student ExpHigh-erience Survey results show.” (www.timeshighHigh-ereducation.co.uk/news/times- (www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/times-higher-education-student-experience-survey-2014/2013333.article, Stand 5.8.2014)
„As tuition fees are once again tripled, students will increase the pressure on their universities to deliver a high standard of academic, social and environmental experience. (17 February 2011)”
(www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/times-higher-education-student-experience-survey/415180.article/, Stand 5.8.2014)
„Indeed, all universities appear conscious of the need to prioritise the value of their student experience, espe-cially in the era of £9,000 fees. The top university is often one that has created a new sports facility or li-brary, or invested in teacher training.... But many universities are starting to compete on this now, and on the whole scores are going up.”
(www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/the-student-experience-survey-2013/1/2003450.article, Stand 8.1.2014)
„The University of East Anglia, a member of the 1994 Group of smaller research-intensive universities, has emerged in top place overall in 2012, up from sixth last year, and three institutions have made it into the top 10 for the first time.”
(www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/the-student-experience-survey-2013/1/2003450.article, Stand 9.7.2014)
Dokumente und Reports
Über den Times Student Experience Survey gibt es vor allem die tabellarischen Ergebnisse von den Jahren 2011 bis 2013. Die Tabellen zeigen – immer im Vergleich zum Vorjahr – das Ranking der gut 110 teilneh-menden Hochschulen über alle 22 Kriterien, aus denen hier die Fragen für den Vergleich mit dem Fragebo-gen der AG Hochschulforschung geschlossen wurden. Eine Diskussion der Ergebnisse in Form von Artikeln oder Berichten war nicht zu finden.
Dokumentation
THE_Student_Experience_Survey.pdf (tabellarische Darstellung 2011)
the-student-experience-survey-2013-results.pdf (tabellarische Darstellung 2012) the-student-experience-survey-2014-data-table.xls (tabellarische Darstellung 2013) Links
www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/
www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/times-higher-education-student-experience-survey/415180.article/
www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/the-student-experience-survey-2013/1/2003450.article
www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/times-higher-education-student-experience-survey-2014/2013333.article