• Section 1 - Purpose and Context
• Section 2 - Definitions
• Section 3 - Policy Statement
• Section 4 - Procedures
• Sector Surveys
• Student Feedback on Subjects (SFS) and Student Feedback on Teaching (SFT) Surveys
• Student Feedback on Subject (SFS) Surveys
• Student Feedback on Teaching (SFT) Surveys
• Internal and External Occasional Student Surveys
• Record-keeping
• Section 5 - Guidelines

Section 1 - Purpose and Context

(1) These Procedures detail the mandatory process for the administration of collecting student feedback consistent with the Student Feedback Policy.

(2) These Procedures are consistent with the Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2021 (HES Framework) as the framework providing standards for Australian universities for monitoring the quality of their higher education activities and the student experience.

(3) Surveys facilitate the University's access to students’ views, including their perceptions of academic quality. However, the overuse of surveys poses several risks for the University, including:

1. Students experiencing survey fatigue resulting in disengagement from surveys
2. Low response rates leading to diminished data quality
3. Duplication of effort in administering surveys when data already exists and
4. Lack of coordinated timing of surveys resulting in over communication with students.

(4) These procedures minimise these risks by providing the framework for best practice design, collection, and management of surveys in accordance with:

1. ethical considerations, including the welfare, dignity and safety of survey participants and the reputation of the University
2. the University's Privacy Policy, Privacy Management Plan, and  obligations under privacy legislation
3. data governance across the data lifecycle, including creating, processing, analysing, preserving, accessing and re-using data.

(5) These procedures apply to the collection of all student feedback under the Student Feedback Policy including feedback collection from the University's students about the student experience of teaching, learning, curricular and co-curricular activities, through instruments such as:

1. Sector surveys (Government Endorsed Benchmarking surveys)
2. Internal Quality Assurance surveys (Student Feedback on Teaching and Student Feedback on Subjects survey)
3. Internal occasional surveys as requested by University staff and students for a specific internal purpose and administered to a defined cohort of students at a set time
4. Approved external occasional surveys as requested by an external party for a specific purpose, administered to a specific cohort of students at a set time.

Section 2 - Definitions

(6) For the purpose of these procedures, definitions that apply can be found in the Student Feedback Policy and Policy DDS Glossary, in addition to the following:

1. Register of approved collections means the University's repository of surveys.  The register is managed by Competitive Intelligence and Analytics
2. Annual timeline means the published dates for the release and reporting of Sector surveys, SFT and SFS.  The annual timeline is managed by Competitive Intelligence and Analytics.

Section 3 - Policy Statement

(7) The administering of surveys will be prioritised according to the annual timeline.

1. Ordinarily, priority will be given to Sector Surveys, followed by SFS and SFT. 
2. The conducting of internal and external occasional student surveys will be considered relative to sector surveys unless advised otherwise by the Vice-Chancellor and President, Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor or Vice-President, People and Advancement.

Section 4 - Procedures

Sector Surveys

(8) Sector surveys, where the University's participation is pertinent to institutional rankings or government reporting, will be prioritised over conducting other surveys proposed for the same time and cohort.

(9) Participation or amendments to sector surveys will be approved by the Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor.

Student Feedback on Subjects (SFS) and Student Feedback on Teaching (SFT) Surveys

(10) The SFS and SFT surveys are University-approved instruments to gather feedback from students on their learning experiences and perceptions of teaching effectiveness in taught subjects and will be designed, collected, managed and used in accordance with the Student Feedback Policy.

(11) Student feedback on subjects and teaching will be gathered using the University-approved survey instruments.

(12) Amendments to the SFS or SFT questions must be approved by Academic Senate Education Committee as per the Student Feedback Policy and provided to Competitive Intelligence and Analytics by 1 December each year for implementation in the following academic year.

(13) The annual timeline for SFS and SFT surveys will be prepared by Competitive Intelligence and Analytics and made available on the University website.

Student Feedback on Subject (SFS) Surveys

(14) SFS surveys will be run in every teaching period a subject is offered, as per the Student Feedback Policy.

(15) SFS surveys will be issued automatically. Subject Coordinators are not required to apply or request for SFS surveys to be conducted.

(16) SFS surveys will be distributed with a statement clearly indicating that students are providing informed consent, why the survey is important and how their feedback will be used. Students are also to be reminded of the Student Code of Conduct and how it relates to providing feedback.

(17) SFS surveys will be released to allow students to complete surveys in class during the relevant teaching period. Variations to the opening and closing dates in the annual timeline must be requested by the Subject Coordinator, with approval from the Dean, at least two weeks prior to the desired opening date. The request should be emailed to Surveys.

(18) Subject Coordinators as listed in the student management system will receive email notification when their subject survey goes live.

(19) Only Subject Coordinators as listed in the student management system will receive the results report for their subject on completion. This report is to be shared with all who have taught in the subject in the given term.

(20) Names, inappropriate language, discriminatory and abusive content are redacted from the subject reports as part of the processing.

(21) Subject results reports will be made available as follows:

1. quantitative reports for all subjects which meet threshold levels to all staff and students of the University
2. Third Party Providers for subjects taught within their organization
3. qualitative reports to Deans, Deputy Deans, Associate Deans and DAP's based on the subjects which are taught within programs they have a responsibility for.

(22) Aggregated School and program level data will be published on the University's public webpage.

Student Feedback on Teaching (SFT) Surveys

(23) SFT surveys will be run at least annually for every teacher unless Competitive Intelligence and Analytics are advised by the relevant Dean of special circumstances changing the timeline.

(24) SFT surveys will be issued automatically based on teaching allocations in the timetable system. A request is not required for SFT surveys to be conducted as long as teaching details are correct in the timetable system.

(25) Teachers will not be added to the SFT after the surveys have opened. Any errors in the timetable system should be reported to the Timetabling team and Surveys Team at least two weeks before the survey opening date.

(26) SFT surveys will be distributed with a statement clearly indicating that students are providing informed consent, why the survey is important and how their feedback will be used. Students are also to be reminded of the Student Code of Conduct and how it relates to providing feedback.

(27) SFT survey results will be reported to the relevant teacher via email.

(28) SFT survey results for each School will be provided to the relevant Dean via the SFT Dashboard.

(29) Names, inappropriate language, discriminatory and abusive content will be redacted from the reports as part of the processing.

(30) Aggregate results of SFT surveys relating to the relevance and quality of programs and subjects may be used by the University as per the Student Feedback Policy.

Internal and External Occasional Student Surveys

(31) These procedures apply to the conducting of occasional internal and external student surveys in accordance with the Student Feedback Policy.

(32) Requests for the conducting of occasional internal and external student surveys, approved as per the Student Feedback Policy, must provide:

1. Evidence of investigations that the data or similar data does not already exist
2. Preferred timing for conducting the survey noting that there is no overlap with Sector Surveys and/or SFS and SFT surveys
3. Evidence of investigations showing that the relevant cohort for the survey is not suffering survey fatigue increasing the likelihood of engagement with this survey

(33) The Internal and External Occasional Student Surveys Guidelines provide information on the processes for requesting these surveys.

Record-keeping

(34) Academic staff must maintain their own personal and confidential records of information relating to their teaching evaluations for use in performance review and development processes with their academic supervisor and for use when making formal claims about teaching achievements, such as in academic promotions. (refer Academic Promotions Policy).

Section 5 - Guidelines

(35) Occasional Internal and External Student Surveys Guidelines.