Predictors of timely doctoral student completions by type of attendance: the utility of a pragmatic approach

Federal government changes to the funding of doctoral students have focused the attention of university management on their completion rates. The aims of this paper are to inform the allocation of institutional resources in a manner that improves the likelihood of timely doctoral completions and to highlight a process that can also be used for analyses of other key indicators of progression and attrition. The analyses and model development used national data readily available to all universities, which are collected in a standard approach through the Graduate Destinations Survey (GDS). The findings show that the most important variable for timely completion was attendance (full-time compared with part-time), whereby in terms of full-time equivalent (FTE) years of study, part-time students were far more likely to complete quickly than full-time students. For the full-time students, the key predictors of timely completion were residency, field of study and English-speaking background (ESB). The timeliness of part-time students was predicted by field of study and ESB. This study confirms that there is considerable variation by discipline for timely doctoral completions. The pragmatic application and prospective test of the derived models present a variety of opportunities for research student administrators. For example, those full-time students scoring highly represented a concentration of timely graduates more than 7.5 times higher than the lowest-scoring group - almost an order of magnitude of difference. In short, university management could gain tremendous value from more widely using the data available.

A model of student satisfaction : international postgraduate students from Asia

The internationalisation of higher education remains one of the major challenges faced by universities with the increasing mobility and rising expectations of a highly diversified student community worldwide. With the competitiveness of the industry, universities will need to focus on factors influencing student satisfaction to improve service quality where required. This paper draws on the theory of cognitive dissonance dealining with disconformation of expectations that results in customer satisfaction and using structural equation modelling, investigates factors that influence satisfaction of international postgraduate students from Asian countries studying in Australia and concludes with strategic implications for universities.

Investigating sample bias in student evaluations of teaching

Student evaluations of teaching have increased in importance to universities in Australia over recent years due to changes in government policy. There has been significant debate in the literature as to the validity and usefulness of such evaluations and as to whether students who respond to the evaluations are indeed representative of the student population. A potential invalidating issue is self selection in the evaluation process. In this paper, we consider student evaluations of a large first year business statistics subject that had 1073 eligible students enrolled across four campuses at the time of the evaluation. The study is based on the 373 students (34.8%) who responded to the survey, and their final results. The evaluations were open for a period of six weeks leading up to and just after the final exam. The study looks in detail at the student population identifying such attributes as gender; home campus; course of study; domestic/international; Commonwealth Supported Place/full fee paying, etc. and then mapping these results to those of the students who responded to the survey.

A comparison of student evaluation of teaching with student performance

This study measures the evaluation of teaching given by students against their final outcomes in a subject. The subject in question had an enrolment across four campuses of 1073 students at the time of the evaluation and is a statistics subject that is core (i.e. compulsory) to several undergraduate business degrees. This study is based on the 373 students (34.8%) who responded to the survey, and their final results. The evaluations were open for a period of six weeks leading up to and just after the final exam. The study matches the responses to the question “This unit was well taught” to final outcomes, in an attempt to ascertain whether there is a link between student evaluation of teaching and performance. The analysis showed that for the students who self -selected to complete the survey:

· Students who perform well in the subject generally give higher scores than lower performing students.

· The same general pattern prevailed when other secondary factors were taken into account, such as, when the evaluation was completed, campus and gender.

· The timing of when a student completes the evaluation seems the most important of these secondary variables.

· In general, students who submitted their evaluations after the exam gave higher ratings if they eventually obtained a pass grade or better, and lower grades if they failed.

What's the difference and where is the evidence? Investigating student teachers learning about literacy in a school based vs university based experience

This paper is in response to increasing national and international interest in the role of university teacher education programs in preparing pre-service  teachers in the area of early years literacy. The most effective manner to  facilitate this learning in teacher education is however not known and much debate exists about the merits of university-based versus school-based  approaches. It is within this context that the authors of this paper conducted a study that investigated student teachers learning about literacy through two different approaches both with distinctive design features. The first approach offered student teachers a school based experience, adopting a two hour micro-teaching model in a preparatory classroom; the other, a mainstream university based approach where students attended a tutorial for two hours. These two approaches were then compared for factors that student teachers articulated through a written survey. In analysing the data, two main findings emerged; firstly from the student teachers’ perspective, choice of approach resulted in improved learning and secondly, from the researchers’ perspective that student teachers placed in the school based approach emerged with a deeper understanding of the complexity of literacy teaching in general.

Student learning orientations : are there differences between age and gender?

The increasing diversity and mobility of students have challenged universities, world over, to review educational courses and delivery to provide a more satisfying learning environment to students. The continuous improvement of the 'quality' of teaching and learning is one of the key goals of universities endeavouring to fulfil their obligations as learning institutions. Using a revised SPQ2F instrument (Biggs, 2003, Biggs and Leung, 2001), this exploratory study undertakes a comparative analysis of the age and gender differences in the learning orientations of two groups of tertiary students in an Australian University. The results indicate that there are no significant differences in the learning orientations of students but on average they seem to demonstrate deep learning than surface learning although they may differ in terms of the learning contexts.

The student experience of working in teams online

The research reported here is part of a project undertaken at a large Australian university in late 2005. The overall aim of the project was to identify the characteristics of student learning in an online environment. A university-wide student survey was conducted to ascertain student views of online learning and also of online teaching as part of the project. In the survey students were asked questions about their experiences of team work in online environments. The student perceptions of teams and team work are the focus of this paper.

The findings from the survey indicated that students appreciated the opportunity of working in diverse teams. They supported the view that their opinions were valued in such teams. Student views of how teaching should be conducted in units with online teams were also expressed. Concerns about team interactions, technological barriers and communication and cultural issues were also raised. The implications for teaching with online student teams are presented and discussed.

An online student portfolio for the development and assessment of engineering graduate attributes

An online student portfolio was evaluated as a means for engaging students with the concept of graduate attributes, and for documenting student attainment of graduate attributes. Students rated the portfolio system as easy to use, and indicated that it helped them to appreciate the skills and knowledge they had developed.

Teachers' professional ethics and student relationships : how do these connect?

Formal statements about 'professional ethics' for teachers have become part of the current standards and accountability regime. Such codes of conduct serve many purposes: to define acceptable principles of personal and professional relationships; as a set of protocols by which teachers' conduct may be judged both within and outside the profession; as a political exercise to reassure the wider community of the high expectations held by the teaching profession; and importantly, to provide teachers with a guide in their interactions with students. While relationships with students, particularly those that will enhance learning outcomes, are cited often in teachers' codes of professional ethics, how teachers make ethical decisions concerning students is far less studied and understood. What frames of reference are available to ensure that decisions are (and are seen to be) right, fair and just? How might such ethical frameworks be examined?

Ghosts in the machine : student participation and grade attainment in a web-assisted social work course

For many social work educators, the debate about whether social work education should be delivered using online technology has, as a result of institutional imperatives, moved on to how best this can be done. In this article, the process of designing and delivering part of a social work course using asynchronous online discussion is described and reflected upon. Student participation in the online environment is also compared with final course grades and the findings discussed in relation to existing literature. Recommendations for the future delivery of social work courses using online technology emerging from this discussion are offered.

Reviewing the reviewers : has the education review unit contributed to improved student learning outcomes?

This article looks at the contribution the South Australian Education Review Unit (ERU). It provides a perspective from a secondary school that has undergone and ERU review. It describes ERU procedures and methodology, explains what happened with the Le Fevre High School review, and 'reviews the reviewers' and answer the question posed in the article title.