Keeping Track of Students' Needs
29 October 2005
Throughout the year, every year, we conduct surveys of our
current and prospective students. Next year we will also collect
data from our past students, our alumni, of whom there are now over
3,000.
No university offers courses and support that are perfect, and
USC is no exception, so we constantly analyse data to see how we
can improve what is offered to students, whether school-leavers or
mature aged.
We need to know whether prospective university students want to
come to their local university and if not, where do they intend to
go, and what do they plan to study.
We know that most university-bound students from this region
choose USC first, if we offer their preferred area of study, but
there are still many areas we cannot offer and students are lost to
Brisbane universities, mainly University of Queensland.
Currently there are around 4500 students at USC studying for
degrees in 100 courses and we will likely lose some of them.
Despite the excellence of the degree programs we offer, the
metropolitan universities have a wider range of offerings and for 9
per cent of students the attraction of those other degrees prompts
them to leave USC, although an increasing number subsequently
return to USC because of the more personal attention they get here.
Less than 2 per cent leave because they want to go to a university
with a better reputation. It is encouraging to see students
becoming more discriminating about this dimension of the quality of
undergraduate programs, in particular, and not assuming that
'status' universities are automatically going to provide a better
program.
Most of the other reasons for leaving USC are relatively minor,
apart from those Brisbane students who want to return to study
nearer their home. There are also Coast students (1.4 per cent) who
prefer or want to try, the city lifestyle.
So, apart from not offering as wide a range of degrees as
students, and we, would like, the USC seems to be doing well in
attracting students, particularly compared with other regional
universities. It is also getting better each year at retaining
large numbers who are highly satisfied with their University
experiences. We are also improving the numbers taking up jobs on
graduation, as more courses, particularly those leading to
professional qualifications come on stream.
We are doing our utmost to broaden the range of degree courses.
I know it is a source of frustration to many Coast residents that
we are not doing so fast enough, but it needs to be emphasised that
we can only offer HECS supported courses in areas and numbers
funded by the Federal Government.
We are currently going through a growth spurt with more courses
coming on line, based on a substantial increase of 'places' offered
by the Federal Government. When further places are offered in 2007
we hope to be a beneficiary, as we have one of the best cases in
the country. With demand for USC up by 25 per cent on last year's
figures, there is a clear increase in popularity which in turn will
lead to further growth.
Professor Paul Thomas is Vice-Chancellor of University of
the Sunshine Coast