Analysis of students' views about the quality of higher education (based on the survey results)

Olena Orzhel, K. Tryma
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Abstract

The article is dedicated to the issue of student involvement in higher education quality assurance and evaluation – a vital and highly relevant issue in today’s higher education of Ukraine. Changes instigated by the Law of Ukraine «On Higher Education» of 2014, foresee an active role of students in the formation and evaluation of higher education quality as 1) final beneficiaries, 2) interviewees and participants in accreditation of study programmes, 3) external evaluation experts during study programmes accreditation, as ruled by current legislation. Taking into account the significance of students’ role in quality assurance, it is necessary to find out: how university students interpret quality of higher education and higher education quality assurance; how students perceive their role in the formation and enhancement of higher education quality; to what extend they are ready and committed to influence and improve the quality of higher education. Accordingly, the aim of this article is to investigate students’ opinion on the quality of Ukraine’s higher education. To this end, students’ survey was conducted with the focus on the following: what is quality and quality assurance in students’ opinion; how respondents assess the quality of education in their HEI and in Ukraine in general; whether students can influence the quality of study programmes and quality of higher education; what hinders improvement of study programmes and enhancement of quality of higher education. The survey was conducted in May – October 2020; the respondents were 115 students of five Ukrainian universities (years three and four of bachelor programmes and master students) who volunteered to take part in the survey. The research resulted in the following conclusions:  1) There is no integral, holistic understanding of higher education quality among student community. Representatives of different HEIs interpret higher education quality differently, though in total 60% of respondents interpret quality as « new, relevant information and knowledge». 2) On the whole, respondents value the quality of higher education rather low: only 25% of students regard it as high. At the same time, most of surveyed students rate the quality of their study programme higher, than the quality of higher education in their university or the quality of educational services in Ukraine in general. 3) Students of different HEIs are rather diverse in their interpretation of quality assurance of higher education and choice of different means for quality enhancement. On the whole, respondents give preference to those tools that anticipate active students’ participation in quality assurance, like asking the teacher to change the manner of teaching, or leaving a complaint with student self-government, discussing the quality of teaching in a focus group, or filling in an evaluation questionnaire. 4) Students who participated in the survey demonstrated critical thinking and fair judgement of their negative impact on the quality of higher education by stating that low student motivation is the most significant factor that obstructs quality enhancement. Other factors cited by respondents include low teacher motivation, underdeveloped infrastructure at HEIs, teacher workload. 5) The positive finding of the survey is that the majority of students are confident in their capability to influence the quality of higher education in their HEI and only 21% responded they are deprived of the possibility improve higher education quality.
学生对高等教育质量的看法分析(基于调查结果)
本文致力于学生参与高等教育质量保证和评估的问题-这是当今乌克兰高等教育中至关重要和高度相关的问题。由2014年乌克兰“高等教育法”引发的变化,预见学生在高等教育质量的形成和评估中的积极作用:1)最终受益者,2)学习计划认证的受访者和参与者,3)学习计划认证期间的外部评估专家,根据现行立法。考虑到学生在质量保证中的重要作用,有必要了解:大学生如何理解高等教育质量和高等教育质量保证;学生如何认识自己在高等教育质量形成和提高中的作用他们准备并承诺在多大程度上影响和提高高等教育的质量?因此,本文的目的是调查学生对乌克兰高等教育质量的看法。为此,对学生进行了问卷调查,调查的重点是:什么是学生心目中的质量和质量保证;受访者如何评估其高等教育机构和乌克兰整体的教育质量;学生是否会影响课程的质素及高等教育的质素;什么阻碍了学习计划的改善和高等教育质量的提高。该调查于2020年5月至10月进行;受访者是自愿参加调查的乌克兰五所大学的115名学生(本科课程的三年级和四年级以及硕士生)。研究得出以下结论:1)大学生群体对高等教育质量缺乏整体的认识。不同高等教育机构的代表对高等教育质量的解释不同,尽管总共有60%的受访者将质量解释为“新的、相关的信息和知识”。2)总体而言,受访者对高等教育质量的评价较低:只有25%的学生认为高等教育质量高。与此同时,大多数接受调查的学生认为他们的学习计划的质量高于他们大学的高等教育质量或乌克兰一般教育服务的质量。3)不同院校的学生对高等教育质素保证的诠释,以及选择不同的质素提升方法,各有不同。总体而言,受访者倾向于那些预期学生积极参与质量保证的工具,如要求教师改变教学方式,或向学生自治机构提出投诉,在焦点小组中讨论教学质量,或填写评估问卷。4)参与调查的学生对其对高等教育质量的负面影响表现出批判性思维和公正判断,认为学生动机低下是阻碍质量提高的最重要因素。受访者提到的其他因素包括教师积极性低、高等学校基础设施不发达、教师工作量大。5)调查的积极发现是,大多数学生对自己影响高等教育质量的能力充满信心,只有21%的学生回答说他们被剥夺了提高高等教育质量的可能性。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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