At the School of Biomedical Engineering, we prioritize the continuous improvement of our Master’s program by actively seeking and responding to feedback from our students. This ensures that our teaching, learning, and assessment methods remain effective and relevant. Our approach is tailored to address individual and collective feedback effectively.
Categories of Feedback and Responses
- Individual Matters: Issues that can be resolved on a one-to-one basis between the student and the relevant staff member.
- Straightforward Issues: Matters that are simple to address and can be resolved to the satisfaction of both students and staff.
- Suggestions Requiring Consultation: Feedback that needs broader discussion with students, staff, or both, before deciding on a course of action.
- Long-term Monitoring: Situations that necessitate monitoring over time to determine the appropriate action.
- Escalated Requests: Issues beyond the scope of the Department, School, or Division that need to be forwarded to the appropriate authorities.
- Good Practices: Identification of exemplary practices that can be shared and implemented across the department.
Sources of Student Feedback
- Course Surveys: Conducted at the end of each course to gather immediate feedback on teaching, content, and assessment.
- Exit Surveys: Collected from graduating students to understand their overall experience and gather insights for program improvement.
- Alumni Surveys: Distributed to graduates to gain feedback on how well the program prepared them for their careers and any areas for enhancement.
Key Actions from Student Feedback
- Internal Reporting: Feedback should be reported by individual staff members to Course Leaders and the School’s Quality Assurance team.
- Annual Monitoring Reports: Reflections on the feedback should be included in the program’s annual monitoring reports.
- Committee Discussions: Issues should be raised at relevant meetings.
- Follow-up Reporting: Responses from external parties should be reported back to relevant meetings.
- Student Communication: Responses should be communicated back to students, and further exploration should be conducted if necessary.
Communication of Responses – Closing the Loop
We are committed to effectively communicating our responses to the feedback raised by students. The communication strategy includes:
- Targeted Communication:
- Students who recently completed the course or program and have an interest in the outcomes.
- Current students enrolled in the course or program.
- Prospective students who may enroll in the course or program in the future.
- Methods of Communication:
- Posting updates on the School’s website and our Virtual Learning Environment (Blackboard).
- Circulating information via email.
- Providing accessible paper formats, such as departmental notice boards.
- Summary reports of discussions and actions taken.
- Analyses of survey outcomes from the current and previous years.
- Electronic Archive:
- Maintaining an electronic archive on our website and Blackboard of minutes and summary reports. This allows both students and staff to track progress over time, which is particularly beneficial for part-time or temporarily absent students.
- Ensuring accessibility for students with disabilities by providing information in appropriate formats.
By systematically addressing and responding to student feedback, we aim to enhance the learning experience and uphold the highest standards in our educational offerings. This approach is particularly effective in our program, where every student’s feedback is invaluable to our continuous improvement efforts.
