Take That Maclean's

This isn't a column, but an article I am quite proud of. Enjoy:

Take that, Maclean’s
The U of O conducts their own evaluation of the student experience

by Katherine DeClerq

Published: Mar 16

IN CONTRAST TO the ever-popular Maclean’s magazine and Globe and Mail university reports, University of Ottawa surveys have discovered that students are, in fact, generally satisfied with their university experience.

The End-of-Program survey was created last fall and consists of questions regarding academic and social aspects of university life. Approximately 3,818 students in their final year of undergraduate studies took the time to fill out the survey in 2010, resulting in a 50.3 per cent response rate—one of the highest in Canada.

“The results indicated overall happiness with the quality of courses, overall happiness with the quality of the university, [as well as] some concern about the lack of availability for some courses,” explained Allan Rock, president of the U of O.

“They were pretty specific. We have provided that information to the faculties right down to course name and number so they can start looking at the gaps and providing more sections for courses.”

The purpose of these surveys is two-fold: the first being for program critique and the other acts as university life improvement.

“One crucial function of the survey is that the results are broken down into faculties and departments, and then, without revealing the identity of students, we send that to the deans and the directors. [They] interpret the results in terms of the quality of the program they offer,” said Pierre Mercier, associate VP of Institutional Research and Planning at the U of O.

The survey results are also taken to the administrative committee, consisting of Rock and the vice-presidents, so they can keep them in mind when planning the budget and university activities.

Mercier explained that these results are significantly different from those in other publications such as Maclean’s because it looks at all the variables rather than just the highest numbers.

“Maclean’s plays a bit of a trick on us. Most of the questions are on a four-point scale—very satisfied, satisfied, dissatisfied, very dissatisfied. We realize that the two categories—satisfied and very satisfied—reflect the positive side of the scale,” said Mercier.

“What Maclean’s does, [is] they realize that most Canadian universities are very good universities and that they wouldn’t see any difference if they added these two categories [together], so they rank universities only on the very top category—[very satisfactory]. And there you see some differences.”

However, not everyone is convinced that the End-of-Program survey is all together accurate. Amy Kishek, the student representative on the Board of Governors, maintains that the university still has a lot to do.

“I do wonder about accuracy,” she explained. “But I do hope they take it into consideration and incorporate it into the budget. Although the outcome shows us fairing well, I do believe it’s far less the ideal and the university has a lot to improve on.”

The university is currently in the process of comparing the 2010 data with the information obtained by previous surveys. The results have indicated that the university should focus on ensuring students are able to obtain information about their programs more easily. To do this, they have created two committees—one dealing with academic information such as registration and prerequisites, and the other concentrates on services such as residence and food.

“Maclean’s isn’t the only game in town, and while it is the most visible ... you have to go past it. That being said, I am not denying there is a problem,” noted Rock. “It’s my number one priority. It has been since I’ve gotten here.”
General satisfaction results:

How satisfied are you at the U of O?
Very satisfied 14%
Satisfied 72%
Dissatisfied 12%
Very dissatisfied 2%

How satisfied are you with your program of studies?
Very satisfied 22%
Satisfied 63%
Dissatisfied 14%
Very dissatisfied 2%

How satisfied are you with your professors’ contribution?
Very satisfied 19%
Satisfied 67%
Dissatisfied 12%
Very dissatisfied 2%