‘We Use the Results to See Potential Development’

In June 2021, HSE University conducted its annual student assessment of the quality of degree programme management via LMS. HSE Life details the changes to the assessment procedure in 2021 and how the university works with the data obtained.

Under the traditional methodology of the survey, students used a 5-point scale to assess overall programme management according to 12 criteria, the work of particular managers according to 3 criteria, and also wrote their own comments.

For the first time, students assessed programme management not only in HSE University in Moscow, but also at the campuses in St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, and Perm. In total, about 16,500 students filled out the questionnaires (about 39–40% of the total student population). Students also left more than 3,000 written comments about the work of academic supervisors, managers and other staff members of study offices. In St. Petersburg, students also assessed and commented on the work of co-supervisors and deputy heads of degree programmes.

The results revealed both the strong and weak sides of degree programme management. The administrative staff of programme management and study offices (working with documents and student curricula) receive consistently high scores from year to year. Communication with programme managers about student requests, including personal ones, is also assessed positively. On the other hand, students are more likely to negatively assess work with feedback on programme content, information, and schedule.

Master’s students positively assess the organization of distance learning during the academic year, but would also like to receive more information about various additional opportunities at the university, as well as more involvement in university life.  Bachelor's programmes, due to their sizeable enrolment and workloads, have more issues with conflict mediation when students interact with programme lecturers.

While it is important to understand the whole picture, it is no less important to gain information about assessments and comments concerning particular programmes and the work of individual employees. This allows the university not only to build and adjust its policy for managing degree programmes and the educational process as a whole, but also to intervene in particular cases and integrate this data into quantitative management indicators.

Kristina Khamidullina
Head of the Office of Degree Programmes at HSE University in St. Petersburg

This is the first time that HSE University in St. Petersburg has participated in programme management assessment, so the obtained results and the project as a whole are of course important for us. As with teaching quality assessment, we paid special attention to the comments. Firstly, there were a lot of sincere comments expressing gratitude to academic supervisors and the managers of study offices. Secondly, it is an additional source of information for understanding systemic problems, as well as specific ones that do not require complicated solutions.

In addition, comments can contribute to the further development of programme management assessment. Every year, the university launches a large number of new services, projects, and educational opportunities implemented and developed by employees and students. Including these projects in the assessment will help us to receive up-to-date feedback and make any necessary adjustments.

Suzanne Ryan
Head of the Centre for Support and Monitoring of Degree Programmes

We are glad that programme management assessment has become an integral part of the annual assessment conducted by the Centre for Institutional Research.

For three years, we have monitored the quality of programme management at various levels—this survey helps to see both the quality of work in general and the particular characteristics of each degree programme. The administration uses the results of the assessment to work with study office managers and plan further administrative development.

We also pay special attention to the highest and lowest assessment results, encouraging the most successful employees and working with programmes whose results were below average.

It’s great that programme management assessment is expanding to other campuses, and soon we will be able to see student assessment throughout the university.

Denis A. Fomenkov
Deputy Director of HSE Campus in Nizhny Novgorod

On one hand, we teach students how to work with data and make decisions based on data, and on the other, we demonstrate how the university puts this into practice. This is a good sign. For us, programme management assessment is not a punishment tool—we use the results to see potential development and stress points and continue to proactively work with them. Special attention needs to paid to students' comments, which are always emotional and full of gratitude and a desire to make HSE University a better place. This is the first time HSE University in Nizhny Novgorod has taken part in this project, but now, thanks to the comments, we have found cases that we need to analyze in order to draw conclusions and make decisions. In general, I would like to thank the students for their feedback. It helps us to become more customer-oriented and increases loyalty, which is an important asset of the university.

Ekaterina Zagorodnova
Deputy Director of HSE Campus in Perm

We are always happy to receive qualitative and quantitative feedback from students. This is the first time that HSE University in Perm has taken part in programme management assessment. This data will help us to make more informed management decisions and strategically develop educational process management. In addition, results encourage healthy competition, thus increasing the internal motivation of programme managers and employees of study offices. At the same time, it was important for us to get not only structured information about problem areas, but also words of gratitude from students. It’s nice to see that they understand that sometimes, it isn’t easy to manage the educational process and account for numerous factors that can change from day to day.

The Centre for Institutional Research plans to develop programme management assessment as an important part of student-oriented intra-university monitoring.

Dmitry B. Efimov
Leading Analyst at the Centre for Institutional Research

If this year’s programme management assessment was developed rather extensively (due to the fact that we expanded the project from the Moscow campus to the entire university), in the future, we plan to focus on intensive development by revising the criteria and expanding the assessment list.

The experiment at HSE University in St. Petersburg involving the personal assessment of the co-supervisors of degree programmes has proved to be excellent, and we see prospects for its expansion (perhaps for the personal assessment of academic supervisors). At the same time, it is also necessary to move towards working with programme content: it is important to understand not only the quality of the processes, but also, for example, students' perception of the integrity and coherence of what they study on their programmes.

Programme management assessment, alongside general comments as part of teaching quality assessment or, for example, monitoring of final courses, provides information not only about particular academic disciplines, but also about the programme (as a product) as a whole. This is valuable to the university at all academic management levels, including academic supervisors, deans, and the vice rector.

Author: Lena Vardanyan, September 22, 2021