The University of Western Australia
22nd June 2012
MEMBERS OF THE TEACHING AND LEARNING COMMITTEE
Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education) (Winthrop Professor Jane Long) – Chair
Nominee of the Chair of the Academic Board (Winthrop Professor Linc Schmitt)
Director, Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (Winthrop Professor Denise
Chalmers)
University Librarian and Director (Information Management) (Dr Mary Davies)
President, Guild of Undergraduates (Mr Matthew Mckenzie)
President, Postgraduate Students’ Association (Ms Aisling Blackmore)
Chair/Representative of each Faculty Teaching and Learning Committee:
Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts (Mr Philip Goldswain)
Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (Dr Neil O’Sullivan)
UWA Business School (Professor Philip Hancock) - Deputy Chair
Faculty of Education (Assistant Professor Elaine Sharplin)
Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics (Professor Cara MacNish)
Faculty of Law (Winthrop Professor Mark Israel)
Faculty of Life and Physical Sciences (Associate Professor Peter Whipp)
Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences (Professor Sandra Carr)
Nominee of the School of Indigenous Studies (Assistant Professor Jeromy Harvey)
BY INVITATION (STANDING INVITEES)
Mr Brian Greene, Associate Director, Policy and Planning, Information Technology Services
Dr Sato Juniper, Associate Director, Graduate Research and Scholarships Office
Professor Sally Sandover, Academic Director, Educational Strategies Office
Dr Greg Marie, Director, Institutional Research Unit
Ms Siri Barrett-Lennard, English Language and Learning Skills Adviser, Student Services
Mr Kelly Smith, Director, International Centre
Mr Mike Shearer, Head of College (Trinity)
STANDING OBSERVOR
Ms Sally Jackson, Administrative Officer, Academic Policy Services
TEACHING AND LEARNING COMMITTEE
ITEM FOR CONSIDERATION BY CIRCULAR
As noted at the Teaching and Learning Committee meeting held on 7th June 2012, the attached item
regarding the UWA Student Experience Questionnaire (UWA-SEQ) is being circulated to members for
urgent consideration and endorsement. The Chair’s recommendation and supporting documentation
is attached.
If you do not agree with the recommendations from the Chair please contact Ms Kaye MacPhersonSmith (kaye.macpherson-smith@uwa.edu.au) no later than COB 2nd July, 2012. If there are no (or a
minority of) objections by that date the item will be processed in the normal way and the
recommendation recorded as a resolution of the Teaching and Learning Committee in the next set of
minutes.
Kaye Macpherson-Smith
Executive Officer
Teaching and Learning Committee
________________________________________________________________________________
CHAIR’S PROPOSAL - UWA STUDENT EXPERIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE (UWA-SEQ) – REF: F42348
Teaching and Learning Committee (TLC) members and participants will recall it was noted at its June
meeting, that the item relating to the proposed UWA in-house Student Survey (the Student
Experience Questionnaire (the UWA-SEQ)) would be circulated for members’ consideration and
endorsement as soon as its consideration by the Assessment and Evaluation Standing Committee
(AESC) had been finalised. The AESC has now completed its consideration, the outcomes of which
have been minuted for your information (Attachment A).
1
Attachment A provides:
 An extract from the minutes of a meeting of the AESC held on 16 May 2012, as ratified by
circular on 15 June 2012 (A1 – A2).
 The paper entitled Mapping of TESQA Reporting Requirements with the Proposed UWA –
Student Experience Questionnaire (UWA-SEQ) Data Collection and Student Survey
Reporting (A3 – A6).
 The Final Structure and Approach for the UWA - Student Experience Questionnaire (UWASEQ) paper (A7 – A62) which includes: proposed recommendations for the way forward with
the student survey (A10); the Option A version of the questionnaire (A11 – A16) as
recommended for adoption; and, Option C as recommended for adoption as a separate
measure of the ‘student experience of support’ by way of student services (A30 – A38).
It is noted that one member of the AESC has not endorsed the proposed timing of the in-house
survey (mid-second semester), on the understanding that it will clash with the new national University
Experience Survey (UES), whose timing is unconfirmed at this stage. This feedback is provided as
Attachment B. A further issue raised was that students would perceive their strong objection that the
survey was too long had not been addressed. Members are advised this issue would be addressed by
the proposed recommendation to separately administer the academic and student services
components of the UWA-SEQ.
By way of background, in considering this item TLC members are reminded of the following:
 The survey is the result of the recommendations of the Student Academic and Cohort
Experience Working Party chaired by the PVC (Education) in 2011, which recommended a
September 2012 in-house survey to glean vital information from students concerning their
experience of New Courses;
 that recommendation was accepted by the University Education Executive for action;
 the proposed timing of the survey was subsequently further agreed by the Senior Deputy
Vice-Chancellor in mid-March 2012.
TLC members’ endorsement of the Chair’s recommendation is required by circular, to facilitate its
further and final endorsement by a small review team as requested by the Future Framework
Implementation Committee (FFIC), and the UWA Education Executive, by August 2012. Background
information was provided to members in the June Teaching and Learning Committee agenda, to
assist in preparation for this item.
Members may also recall that by this stage, the survey has been circulated widely by the Centre for
the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL), and TLC members. Feedback was provided by a
number of staff and student cohorts within and beyond faculties, including student focus groups. The
process has been highly iterative within a necessarily short period and changes, where feasible given
the agreed primary specifications, have been incorporated into the survey.
Members are reminded that administration of the national UES in the second half of 2012 was known
at the time that the need for an in-house survey was widely agreed. The timing of the UES
notwithstanding, the finalisation of the internal UWA-SEQ item is pressing, if we are to garner data
about New Courses from 2012 onwards. The appearance of the UES in the year of the introduction of
the New Courses and our vital need to survey student responses to it is unfortunate, and potentially
administratively challenging, but unavoidable.
Members are advised that should the University Executive determine that the previously agreed
timing for the UWA-SEQ be revised in light of later UES developments, this change may occur.
In the meantime, progression of the UWA-SEQ through the University’s committee system to ensure
that we have a reliable, meaningful and valid survey ready to administer in Semester 2, remains the
specific task with which the TLC has been charged.
The Chair would like to thank members in anticipation of their speedy consideration of this important
item via circulation.
2
The Chair recommends:
That the following recommendations, contained in the paper “Final Structure and Approach for the
UWA - Student Experience Questionnaire (UWA-SEQ)” be endorsed:
1. The Option A version of the questionnaire be adopted as the UWA-SEQ.
2. The University administers a separate, extended, comprehensive range of student services
questions to measure “student experience of support”, in alternate years to the UWA SEQ or
at intervals as determined by the relevant groups involved in the provision of Student Services
(Option C).
3. The University provides incentives to the student body for participating in the survey as a way
to promote the survey and increase response rates.
4. The survey be:
- launched within a specified period (late August/first week September 2012)
- administered by the process recommended above and detailed in this paper.
5. CATL prepare the reports for dissemination.
6. That re-administration of the survey in 2013 be reviewed in light of the experience of
administering the survey in 2012 and informed by the National UES and revised CEQ (if
applicable).
3