Do you value your Imperial Degree?
Tell Felix in our new survey to determine just how much time, effort and money you think your degree is worth
Felix is launching a survey to find out of Imperial students are satisfied with their course, and see if students feel their degrees are value for money.
The "Imperial Value" survey is available until the end of term online at http://www.felixonline.co.uk/survey
A study by consumer rights organisation, Which?, has recently been making headlines over its claim that “three in ten students think their academic experience is poor value”. However, other figures showed that near 90% of students are satisfied with their course.
This study, titled “A degree of value”, as borne out of an investigation into whether the marketisation of higher education is serving students.
The increasing marketisation of higher education has been a controversial subject, with a high percentage of respondents to a recent ICU survey demanding that steps are taken to reverse the trend.
Other findings from the study included that “less than half (45%) [of the sample surveyed] feel that seminars are generally worth attending”, and “six in ten (58%) [of students who have complained to their university] were dissatisfied with the way the complaint was handled”.
Which? made demands for regulation of the sector to be enhanced, by increasing access to the government’s consumer rights ombudsman, granting the Quality Assurance Agency the right to strip institutions of their degree awarding powers, and increasing the information available to prospective students in terms of career prospects and the cost of higher education.
Whilst Which? did provide figures from the Student Academic Experience Survey for a number of institutions, including Royal Holloway (University of London) and Durham University, Imperial College was not one of those reported.
However, the report did identify vast variances in the number of teaching hours, and time taken for feedback to be returned on coursework. Some institutions were also found to provide a large proportion of feedback as a grade with no further commentary.
The chief executive of Universities UK, Nicola Dantridge, commented following publication of the report saying “The move from public funding to increased fees in England has undoubtedly led to increased expectations from students.
“The latest survey reported that 86% of students were satisfied overall with their course. It shows that universities across the UK are responding to student feedback and working hard to improve the academic experience.”
