A quarter of students unhappy with university: study

The federal Education Department’s latest Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching data reveals that 23.3 per cent were not satisfied with the quality of their entire educational experience.

One in five students was unhappy with the quality of teaching and engagement.

Almost a quarter of university students have complained about the quality of their degree, with dentistry and veterinary students most likely to mark down the standard of teaching.

The federal Education Department’s latest Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) data, based on responses from 165,000 undergraduates students in 2023, reveals that 23.3 per cent were not satisfied with the quality of their entire educational experience.

Satisfaction rates have failed to recover to pre-pandemic levels, but are slightly higher than last year.

One in five students was unhappy with the quality of teaching and engagement, as well as skills development, in 2023.

Nearly six in 10 students were unhappy with “peer engagement’’, with one in three dissatisfied with student support and services.

But in good news for universities, the proportion of students poised to quit has fallen to 18.7 per cent – the lowest level since 2017.

Dentistry scored the lowest mark for teaching quality and engagement, with 30.7 per cent of undergraduate students unsatisfied.

In a blow to the medical and teaching workforce, at least a quarter of students in medicine, nursing and school education degrees were not satisfied with the quality of teaching.

Computing and information technology students also showed lower levels of satisfaction with university teaching, with one in four giving the thumbs-down to both skills development and teaching quality.

Overall, just 69.3 per cent of IT students, 68.8 per cent of electrical engineering students and 64.7 per cent of dentistry students were satisfied with their degrees.

Tourism and hospitality degrees showed the highest satisfaction rate of 86.6 per cent, followed by physiotherapy with 85.6 per cent, agriculture and forestry at 85 per cent, and environmental studies at 84.5 per cent.

Eighty per cent of humanities students were happy with the overall quality of their degree.

Students of business and management gave lower marks to their degrees last year, with satisfaction ratings dropping 1.6 percentage points to 75.2 per cent.

The top overall satisfaction scores went to the University of Divinity (89.8 per cent), Avondale University (89.7 per cent) and Bond University (88.3 per cent).

The universities with the lowest levels of student satisfaction were Southern Cross University (69.2 per cent) and the sandstone institutions of the University of Sydney and the University of NSW, both at 71.7 per cent.

Across all institutions, the satisfaction rate averaged 76.7 per cent overall – up from 75.9 in 2022.

Teaching quality satisfaction scores barely changed, from 80.1 to 80.7 per cent in 2023.

Among the Group of Eight universities, five scored below the average for overall satisfaction.

Monash University scored 73.1, Melbourne University 73.8 and the University of Western Australia 75.4.

The best sandstone performer was the Australian National University, with 79.4 per cent, followed by the University of Adelaide at 78.1 per cent and the University of Queensland at 77.9 per cent.

The QILT survey found that 18.7 per cent of undergraduates had seriously considered quitting their studies last year – down from 20.4 per cent during the pandemic.

Stress, mental health problems and financial difficulties were the main reasons students wanted to quit.

A lack of academic support was blamed by a quarter of the students who had considered leaving, while one in five cited boredom or a lack of interest.

The survey found 45 per cent of students cited stress levels, 44 per cent blamed mental health, and 40 per cent cited financial difficulties.

Just over a quarter said university course had not met their expectations, and at least one in three had difficulty managing the study workload.

One in nine students who considered quitting had planned to take a “gap year’’, and 9.1 per cent planned to quit to take up a job offer.

Only 6.6 per cent said the course had been too difficult, and 13.3 per cent raised quality concerns.

Women were more likely to be satisfied with their university study than men.