Student feedback: can do better – here’s how

I continually take courses of one sort or another in my line of work it is essential. What is really concerning is the feedback. Actually work is not marked at all , all the student receives sometime later is a few paragraphs which are merely generalised comments and not attached to any particular line or paragraph of work. The feedback is negative and does not address the stated aims of the course or marking system seen in the course handbook. What really is missing is someone like an OFSTED inspectorate to assess the teaching work of the university. Currently universities shout loudly they are a 5* this that or the other, setting aside manipulation of the REF system based on a handful of research papers for a moment, this we know about. What happened to the assessment of teaching? It is currently non existent, yet that is precisely what the student is paying dearly for. The student is not paying for that researcher to go on a jolly for 6 months to do more research, good for their career and meaningless to everyone else.. Finally the system where universities self label themselves wonderful has to stop. I was asked to respond to the postgraduate student survey. The EMail said up to that point only 10% of students had bothered to respond to the survey. One week later we were to learn that 71% of students thought that Keele University Law Department was wonderful. The question becomes how many students actually took part? This self labelling is at best misinformation. I put it that figures such as recruitment and retention properly audited would be a better test. Further I would argue that the lack of staff qualified in English Law coming from the professions in this country is a problem. Far too many came from other countries where another system of law is in place. This is not what I paid my hard earned cash for. I wanted English Law well taught by professionals in touch with institutions in this country. I did not receive that. What I found was an idiosyncratic ideological take on Human Rights. That would be fine if that was your only interest. My interest was about how institutions handle English law, Rules and Regulations and how we have to deal with the same on a day to day basis. Where are the contradictions and how does that affect people like you and me. The Law Department had absolutely no interest in this whatsoever. I was even supplied with a nice man from Japan to be my supervisor who openly said he did not understand what I was writing about - he did speak English with a heavy foreign accent and I did wonder how he was going to manage a technical paper on laws, rules and regulations surrounding the management of Bovine Tuberculosis in England. The problems are just compounded, never mind the questionable ethics of misrepresenting a course. I completed the thesis now published, but I had to rely on another Professor from another university who had not been paid a penny for her time, time she gave generously. SHAME on you Keele Law Department. I will of course not be recommending you to my students. There you go feedback.