Are students getting their money's worth?
Mary Beard reflects on why 'customer satisfaction' surveys have no place in universities, and pines for the days when students could tell a professor their lectures were rubbish.
Mary Beard reflects on why universities are being consumed by "customer satisfaction" surveys.
"When you're paying up to Β£9000 a year for the privilege of being at university, you want to make it pretty clear if you feel you're not getting your money's worth", she writes.
But the deluge of forms - asking students for their views on the content, presentation, organisation of the course and the quality of the handouts will - she argues, do little to improve "the learning experience".
She admits having a "tweak of nostalgia for that old era before the tick-box, when brave students would tell their famous professors to their face that their lectures were rubbish"!
Producer: Adele Armstrong.
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A POINT OF VIEW: When students answer back
University students face a constant stream of questionnaires designed to assess the standard of their courses and check they are getting their money's worth, but is that really the point, asks historian Mary Beard.
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- Fri 30 Nov 2012 20:50Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
- Sun 2 Dec 2012 08:50Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
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A Point of View
A weekly reflection on a topical issue.
