The student satisfaction approach is taking a beating in a lot of recent papers including the one below from the Economics of Education Review which suggests it may be at the root of a decline in standards in higher education. Clearly, much of the subjective satisfaction of students will depend on what they expect and their knowledge of the discipline and both of these can be diminished by bad teaching which then confounds the relationship between satisfaction and performance.
Using standard satisfaction metrics on their own as performance metrics in comparative exercises just doesnt seem tenable anymore given the recent literature. An approach that focuses on an agreed set of competencies that students should have picked up or an agreed set of outcomes is an alternative. Many universities and courses point to the success of their alumni as evidence of the quality of their courses but this is equally problematic due to selection.
Abstract
http://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecoedu/v27y2008i4p417-428.html
"Using data on 4 years of courses at American University, regression results show that actual grades have a significant, positive effect on student evaluations of teaching (SETs), controlling for expected grade and fixed effects for both faculty and courses, and for possible endogeneity. Implications are that the SET is a faulty measure of teaching quality and grades a faulty signal of future job performance. Students, faculty, and provost appear to be engaged in an individually rational but socially destructive game of grade inflation centered on the link between SETs and grades. When performance is hard to measure, pay-for-performance, embodied by the link between SETs and faculty pay, may have unintended adverse consequences."
1 comment:
Interesting paper.
According to Elliott and Shin (2002), universities are becoming more aware of the importance of student satisfaction due to an “increasingly competitive and dynamic educational environment, as well as numerous challenges, such as declining enrolments and a general public demanding accountability of tax dollars” Its a US paper, obviously. Nonetheless, the economic implications of student satisfaction for public spending and industry competition in the higher education sector are quite clear. From a human capital perspective, this backldrop and the possible relationship between SETS and grades could be a dangerous mix.
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