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Benchmarking the quality of the undergraduate experience
27 December 2008
Every year the Canadian university system is ranked by a publication called Macleans. At USC we study these and other international rankings to ensure we are making progress comparable with similar universities on similar rankings.
A university that is of particular interest to us is the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC). It is one of a very small number world-wide that was established as a ‘greenfield’ university in the mid 1990’s, like USC.
USC was given $26 million to develop its early stages of buildings at the time, whereas UNBC received $155 million. Our operating grants and staffing complements were also markedly different, in favour of our Canadian counterpart. The local council in St George also provided a $20 million road connection between the University and the town to aid the University’s development.
Despite these critical differences in funding, there remain similarities in the ways we have developed academically and reputationally.
Just as the Good Universities Guide rated the undergraduate experience at USC as Queensland’s best public university performance, so has UNBC gained similar status in Canada.
In fact it is becoming strikingly evident that some of Canada’s smallest universities are providing the best undergraduate experience.
A recent analysis of the undergraduate experience at USC has again evidenced high levels of staff support, helpful feedback, motivating staff, promotion of team work, enhancing analytical skills, and the long list goes on. Students are the clear beneficiaries.
Both USC and UNBC have obviously acquired quality staff who put a great deal of energy and expertise into supporting undergraduate students.
An article in the same magazine illuminates the importance of this kind of teaching. A former President of a major Canadian university comments that in prestigious universities, and in some others emulating them, there has been a steady ‘creep’ toward the primacy of research and post-graduate work, deflecting attention from high quality teaching at the undergraduate level.
There is no doubt that attitudes toward a lifetime of learning can be founded or founder on the quality of the undergraduate experience.
At a time when the OECD has again emphasised the enormity of the looming shortage of skilled graduates internationally, there has never been a more important and potentially rewarding a time to consider undertaking a degree. And there is considerable evidence that in Australia, as in Canada, that universities like USC and UNBC are providing undergraduate experiences that are amongst the finest in the university sector.
Professor Paul Thomas AM is Vice-Chancellor and President at the University of the Sunshine Coast.