Student Rating of Courses in HE: further challenges and opportunities

In recent years quality assurance methods and related activities have been adopted by many institutions of higher education. Central to this activity is the questioning of students to gain their perceptions of the educational provision. This paper reviews one such method, and questions not only the ability of the student to make appropriate judgements, but also the validity of considering students within such studies as one homogenous group. Weaknesses of the system and other questionnaire‐based evaluation approaches are discussed in the context of the role of the student as customer or client. Module evaluations of undergraduate marketing students are analysed against four parameters, namely: individual grade results, admission entry criteria, gender, and academic year/level (I to III). Overall, only academic level appears to have any significant relationships with regard to student feedback, and then only on a few of the dimensions. However, the nature of the these particular dimensions appears to be independent of any material link to teaching quality. Further, they appear to be more of an indicator of resources needed by a student to work effectively, and the need for progressively more staff contact time from the lower to the higher academic level. The findings suggest that obtaining course feedback via student questionnaires will provide results, but these may not be particularly helpful in improving courses or teaching quality.