Responsible officer: Deputy Vice-Chancellor
Designated officer: Director, Office of Learning, Teaching and Research
Council approval: C03/57, 7 October 2003
Last amended: Council C06/83, 15 August 2006
Related policies:

• Performance Planning and Review Policy
• Promotion for Teaching and Research Staff Policy  

Overview

The academic profession upholds the values and practices of constructive criticism, self-criticism, peer review and ethical professional conduct. This applies to all aspects of academic work, including teaching. This policy commits the University to a systematic approach to evaluation and improvement of teaching, and a system of student feedback on teaching, that are firmly based on these values and professional practices.

Policy

1. Application of the policy

The term “lecturer” is used throughout this policy and associated documents. In this policy and associated documentation, the term “lecturer” refers to staff of the University in their teaching role in all contexts, including lecturing, tutoring, conducting seminars and workshops, demonstrating and so on. The policy applies to all lecturers who have a full time or fractional appointment and casual staff delivering lectures or conducting tutorials for a semester or more.

2. International standards

2.1 The University of the Sunshine Coast pursues international standards of excellence in learning and teaching. The University’s approach to the evaluation and improvement of teaching plays a major role in the pursuit of these standards.

3. Evaluation and improvement of teaching

3.1 Evaluation and improvement of teaching is a process of systematic reflection undertaken by lecturers in relation to their teaching practice. It is a process of self-evaluation for the purpose of continuous improvement of teaching.

3.2 Evaluation and improvement of teaching involves commitment to the future of a discipline, field, or professional area, engagement with the body of knowledge regarding learning and teaching in higher education, particularly in that discipline, field or professional area, and the collection and use of feedback on teaching from a range of sources.

3.3 The University expects all lecturers to have a systematic approach to the evaluation and improvement of their teaching and undertakes to provide the necessary support.

3.4 Evaluation and improvement of teaching is also an institutional responsibility. Therefore, the University compiles and analyses learning and teaching performance data and routinely applies them to improvement processes.

4. Purpose

4.1 The purposes of this policy on evaluation and improvement of teaching are to:

• Encourage and support reflective practice among lecturers
• Help maintain and develop the quality of learning and teaching in the University, and
• Gather evidence that may be used to demonstrate quality teaching

5. Feedback on teaching

5.1 To help achieve these purposes, the University encourages lecturers to collect and respond to feedback on their teaching from colleagues and peers, and requires lecturers to collect and respond to feedback on their teaching from students.

5.2 The University acknowledges that students are able to provide useful feedback to assist in the process of staff evaluating their teaching.

6. Student feedback on teaching

6.1 To support lecturers in collecting and responding to student feedback on teaching, the University provides a system entitled Student Feedback on Teaching (SFT). SFT includes a student feedback instrument and a standard process for collecting feedback, processing the information, and reporting results to individual lecturers.

6.2 The SFT instrument is flexible in that it contains 10 standard items and enables lecturers to add up to a further 10 items from an extensive, thematic item bank.

6.3 In order to maintain staff and student confidence in the system and meet high standards of professional ethics, the SFT process is confidential, anonymous and secure, and results are provided to lecturers after student results have been finalised for that teaching period.

6.4 SFT is a confidential process and all staff are obliged to respect this.

7. Operating conditions of student feedback on teaching

7.1 All lecturers are encouraged to collect and respond to feedback on teaching from a range of sources.

7.2 All lecturers are encouraged to collect and respond to student feedback at least once in every semester in which they teach and are required to do so at least once per year.  [Note that the requirement that all course coordinators ensure that student feedback on courses is collected, using SFC, at least once each year the course is conducted has been suspended until 24 February 2010].

7.3 All lecturers will use SFT to collect and respond to student feedback on teaching at least once per year. [Note that this requirement has been suspended until 24 February 2010].

7.4 Casual lecturers with contracts for periods of less than one semester are invited to use SFT.

7.5 Lecturers may use additional instruments for gathering further student feedback on their teaching.

7.6 Individual lecturers are responsible for initiating SFT, but the Dean of the faculty, or the Head of School to which a lecturer belongs, or the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, may initiate SFT on behalf of a lecturer.

7.7 Individual SFT results are provided to the individual lecturer who initiates SFT. Individual SFT results, not including the results of optional items, are provided to the Dean of the faculty, or the Head of School to which the lecturer belongs. In addition, Heads of School will, at their discretion, provide these results to program and course coordinators. The Deputy Vice-Chancellor will be given access to individual SFT results, not including the results of optional items, upon request.

7.8 Individual lecturers have the right to provide the Dean, the Head of School and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor with a written statement in relation to results obtained from SFT and the Dean, the Head of School and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor are obliged to consider any such statements.

7.8 SFT results, aggregated at the level of courses, programs, faculties and the University as a whole, will be used by the University for quality assurance purposes. This data will be treated confidentially in instances where individual results may be identified.