Bond, Notre Dame and Sunshine Coast get that five-star feeling

GRADUATES have given top marks to Bond, Notre Dame and Sunshine Coast universities for the quality of the educational experience they provide, in this year's Good Universities Guide 2009.

GRADUATES have given top marks to Bond, Notre Dame and Sunshine Coast universities for the quality of the educational experience they provide, in this year's Good Universities Guide 2009.

The educational experience category comprises three indicators that measure teaching quality, the acquisition of "generic skills" and overall satisfaction as measured by student surveys.

Each of the three universities scored five stars, meaning their graduates rated them higher than did graduates in similar fields in 80 per cent of other universities.

The data, the most recent available, is based on course experience questionnaires of 2005 and 2006 graduates conducted by Graduate Careers Australia.

In the case of Bond, its good marks for educational experience coincided with five-star ratings for staff qualifications, student-staff ratio, graduate starting salaries and graduate employment.

It also received the top rating for the category of positive graduate outcomes, which means the proportion of graduates who secured employment or enrolled in further study.

Another consistently good performer was the University of Wollongong, which received five stars for graduate salaries, graduate employment and positive graduate outcomes.

It scored five stars for the overall satisfaction and generic skills indicators in the educational experience category.

It also received five stars for research intensivity, which is the measure of grant funding per full-time equivalent research academic.

The guide acknowledges Wollongong's "vigorous, entrepreneurial style" and that it "prides itself on its support for undergraduates".

Predictably, the Group of Eight universities were strong performers across the guide categories.