Student Experience Survey
The SES is the only comprehensive survey of current higher education students in Australia. It focuses on aspects of the student experience that are measurable, linked with learning and development outcomes, and potentially able to be influenced by higher education institutions. Information collected in the SES helps higher education institutions and the government improve teaching and learning outcomes for students.
Target population
Undergraduate and postgraduate coursework students enrolled in Australian higher education institutions
Responses
Over 165,000 undergraduate students and 88,000 postgraduate coursework students
Survey cycle
Conducted annually in August and September
2023 SES Results Summary
The overall student educational experience continued to improve in 2023 but remained below the pre‑pandemic level for undergraduate students. Postgraduate coursework student ratings followed a similar pattern, however, were slightly above the rates recorded prior to 2020, which is being driven by higher ratings from international students. These year-on-year improvements suggest that institutions have continued to adapt the teaching and learning environment for students in the post-pandemic era. The focus areas of Skills Development, Teaching Quality, Peer Engagement and Learning Resources have broadly recovered to pre-pandemic levels, but Student Support and Services has declined. For further details, see the 2023 SES National Report and data visualisation above.
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About the SES
The SES is the only comprehensive survey of current higher education students in Australia. It focuses on aspects of the student experience that are measurable, linked with learning and development outcomes, and potentially able to be influenced by higher education institutions. The survey collects information that helps both higher education institutions and the government improve teaching and learning outcomes. The SES has been administered annually since 2012.
Commencing and later year undergraduate and postgraduate coursework students enrolled in Australian higher education institutions are in scope for the SES, including both domestic and onshore international students.
Information on the ComparED website about student learning experiences is sourced from the SES, including responses from both domestic and onshore international students, at undergraduate and postgraduate coursework level. Survey results from the two most recent collection years are pooled to improve the reliability of the information. The six indicators from the SES displayed on the ComparED website each show the percentage of students providing positive feedback on various aspects of their higher education experience, including:
- Quality of entire educational experience
- Teaching quality and engagement
- Peer engagement
- Learning resources
- Student support and services
- Skills development
The questions which comprise each indicator are detailed below. 90 per cent confidence intervals are displayed to provide a measure of accuracy of the estimates. For technical details about the calculations used to score data derived from the SES, please see the document, SES Methodology for ComparED Website.
Overall quality of educational experience
The percentage of students who rated the overall quality of their educational experience positively, based on an individual question in the SES.
Teaching quality and engagement
The percentage of students who rated the quality of teaching they have experienced positively.
Peer engagement
The percentage of students who rated their engagement with learning and interactions with other students positively.
Learning resources
The percentage of students who rated the learning resources provided by their institution positively.
Student support and services
The percentage of students who rated the support and services provided by their institution positively.
Skills development
The percentage of students who rated the skills development they experienced through their studies positively.