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Performance in teaching
13 October 2007
Last week we received notification and congratulations, from Minister Julie Bishop, that we were allocated $1.5 million from the 2007 round of the Learning and Teaching Performance Fund. This is very good news. It confirms the message from the Good Universities’ Guide, the Australian Universities Quality Agency, and other audits that we provide an educational experience, here on the Sunshine Coast, that matches the very best available nationally. It reinforces, for our staff, that their professionalism and commitment gains national recognition. It provides substantial competitive funding that will allow the University to further develop the overall educational package it offers to its students.
In the overall ranking scheme, we were equal fifteenth nationally. This is a fantastic result in itself, however, the fact we were the highest ranked Queensland university is equally gratifying.
A university’s score or rank in the Learning and Teaching Performance Fund is a composite of three factors, student satisfaction with learning and teaching, graduate employment outcomes and attrition (the number of students not completing their degree).
We have argued, with little success, that the model used does not fairly adjust for our University on the latter two measures. With regard to graduate employment, we are at a disadvantage because the local unemployment rate is higher than the national average, the economy is not highly developed in terms of the range of employment opportunities available and until recently we weren’t offering many of the professional programs with guaranteed employment outcomes.
Our attrition rates are high not so much because students drop-out or are unhappy with the University, but they move to other universities to complete degrees not currently on offer at USC. This is particularly noticeable at the end of first year.
So in 2005, the first year of the Fund, we ranked number 2 university in Australia on student satisfaction but didn’t receive a cent! In 2006 our allocation was $500,000 a sign, perhaps, of the greater success to come in 2007.
Why the change? While it’s difficult to predict success because the Commonwealth data are based on what are often small samples and the difference between being a winner or loser may be only a couple of percentage points, USC is changing rapidly. Over the last three years we’ve offered a string of new professional degrees and this trend will continue in 2008 and beyond. These will improve our employment outcome scores, although in some cases it will be a few years until we have graduates. These degrees will also reduce attrition rates. In the past, about 25 percent of first year students indicated they would be articulating to another university to complete. This year the proportion of such students was only 11 percent. We are entering a new and exciting phase of development.
Professor Greg Hill is Acting Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Sunshine Coast.