The Quality in Learning and Teaching (QILT) data for 2018 was released over Easter. This measures the experience that students are having at Australian universities and tertiary institutions.
The 2018 QILT data shows us that students are relatively satisfied at Australian universities, with 79% of students surveyed having a positive experience overall.
QILT and student experience
Student experience is very broad, from teaching quality to accommodation. As a term, it covers most facets of university life for students. Specifically within the QILT assessment there are 5 experience categories that students respond to, summarised below.
- Skills Development – the development of critical thinking, problem solving and communication skills.
- Learner engagement – how prepared students feel, their participation and interaction with other students and sense of belonging to the institution
- Teaching quality – how students are engaged, intellectually stimulated, assessed, directed, able to seek help and how courses contribute to their education.
- Student support – the level of academic, administrative, career and other support when starting and throughout their course
- Learning resources – the physical spaces and resources that support their learning (eg libraries, IT, classrooms, study spaces)
The top and bottom universities are shown below, according to the 2018 QILT overall results.
Undergraduate experience
Top performers
1. University of Divinity
2. The University of Notre Dame
3. Bond University
4. University of New England
5. Edith Cowan University
Bottom performers
1. Victoria University
2. Charles Darwin University
3. The University of Sydney
4. UNSW
5. University of Southern Queensland
Postgraduate coursework experience
Top performers
1. University of Divinity
2. University of New England
3. University of Southern Queensland
4. Queensland University of Technology
5. Griffith University
Bottom performers
1. The University of Western Australia
2. Australian Catholic University
3. Victoria University
4. James Cook University
5. Charles Darwin University
What is important to remember is that results vary across the 5 QILT categories, and sometimes the difference between university performance is very small. If you are interested in seeing where a university performs, head onto the QILT website and compare institutions across the different categories.
