Excellent Faculty Outcome with 2005 Monash Experience Questionnaire Results

The Monash Experience Questionnaire measures the experience of current undergraduate and coursework postgraduate students at Monash University. It was first administered in 2003. A second administration occurred in 2005. The MEQ has eight major scales that ask students about their perceptions in relation to the quality of teaching, the extent to which they feel they acquired generic skills, the level of support they received while at Monash, and so on. The MEQ results are important because they are likely to be an important predictor of the Course Experience Questionnaire results. The CEQ is administered throughout Australia to students subsequent to their having graduated from their degrees. The results of the CEQ are an important determinant of the amount of money then allocated to universities by the Federal Government under the Learning and Teaching Performance Fund.

At a plenary session of the Senior Management Summit held last week, the Faculty of IT was singled out as one of three faculties that had substantial improvements between the 2003 and 2005 administrations of the MEQ. The top improver was the Faculty of Education (appearing in the top three for 7 of the 8 scales), and the second equal top improvement came from the Faculty of Information Technology and the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Science (both appearing in the top 3 on 5 of the 8 scales).

The Faculty started from a fairly low base with the 2003 MEQ results, and the 2005 results indicate it still have some way to go with achieving high scores on all the MEQ scales. Nonetheless, the improvement in the MEQ results that has occurred over the last two years is a wonderful outcome. It reflects the hard work of many colleagues in the Faculty during this period. In particular, thanks to Kim Styles, Lyn McGie, and the School Managers for their outstanding work.