Higher Education response to Stage 1 of the Learning and Teaching Performance Fund

Edward Palmer and Geoffrey Crisp, the University of Adelaide, South Australia

This paper aims to investigate the response of higher education institutions to stage 1 of the Learning and Teaching Performance Fund, specifically the condition stating “Evidence that student evaluations of subjects are publicly available on the University's website.” A list of all universities and other self accrediting higher education institutions was obtained from the Australian Government education web site. Each of the web sites hosted by these institutions was visited for information using a pre-determined method. Whilst many universities provide publicly available versions of aggregate information, the definition of “publicly' has been treated rather liberally. The people who may find this information of most use, current and prospective students, have been largely ignored. This paper suggests that universities should provide information on course evaluations not only in a central section but associated with the general course information.