Tapping into the wisdom of students: universities and colleges sign up for QAA pilot study

Universities and colleges are joining QAA and Statica Research to understand how the wisdom of students can help them to enhance their offer to students.

In June 2018 we published research that found a relationship between unsolicited feedback on public social media and review sites like Facebook and What Uni, and proxies for quality such as the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework and National Student Survey. Good feedback on these sites had a strong correlation with good outcomes in more traditional measures of quality.

At the time, we announced a pilot study that would explore real world applications for this data, giving higher education providers access to social media and review data in useful formats.

Six universities and a further education college have now joined the pilot programme:

• The Arts University Bournemouth
• The University of South Wales
• Bath Spa University
• Coventry University
• The Sheffield College
• The University of Birmingham
• The University of Derby

The pilots are testing the value of social media feedback areas including:

• providing unique insights into student and parental opinion, particularly on the student experience and value for money
• reducing the burden of multiple student surveys
• integrating real time feedback into course and programme monitoring
• and as a means to enhance students' education.

We'll be presenting an update on the pilots, and the learning from this innovative approach to quality, at the Data Matters conference, hosted by QAA, Jisc and the Higher Education Statistics Agency in London on 16 January 2019.