PTES 2014

Update

• 112 Expressions of interest to date

(97 EoIs in 2013 of whom 89 took part)

• Earliest launch date: 3 February

• Latest launch date: 30 April

• Live benchmarking: mid May

• Last possible close date: 19 June

• Benchmarking stable: 20 June

• Benchmarking reports: mid July

Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey 2014

www.heacademy.ac.uk/ptes

Dweud eich

DweudRydym ni eisiau sicrhau bod myfyrwyr

uwchraddedig yn cael y profiad gorau

posib.I wneud hyn mae angen i ni

wybod eich barn, beth rydym yn

gwneud yn dda, ac a oes unrhyw beth y

gallwn wneud yn well. 

ADD YOUR WEB ADDRESS HERE

• PTES has been significantly revised for 2014 after research and sector-wide consultation;• Analysis of previous PTES results to explore how

well scales were working;• Consultation on topics to be included in new

survey;• Interviews with 77 taught postgraduates,

representing a broad range of students, from across 11 Universities;

• Final recommendations discussed by the PTES advisory group.

Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey Revised

What PTES 2014 covers

• In addition to 13 NSS questions, including overall satisfaction, PTES covers:• dissertation / major project;• higher level skills, including creativity and

research skills;• student engagement, including working with

peers, workload, course challenge, and independent learning;

• support and guidance, including induction and careers.

What PTES 2014 coversMy confidence to

be innovative or creative has developed during my course

This was not particularly problematic. Most students could relate to the two concepts in one way or another. Although many thought that being innovative related more to science subjects and being creative to the arts, all could find examples of how they had been innovative or creative even if they were not on these types of programmes, for example, by focusing on a new area of investigation for an essay or dissertation – ‘I came up with a research proposal, innovation is part of it.’

Extract from the report “Cognitive Review of Survey Items at Postgraduate Level” by CooperGibson Research, 2014

What PTES 2014 covers

• There are 18 attitudinal questions that can give fairly clear trend data…• The change in direction of the scale, with agree

options now to the left, makes a positive trend likely;

• Existing questions in teaching & learning (5), assessment & feedback (3), dissertation (3), organisation & management (3), and resources (3);

• Questions on support for learning and subject specific resources have changes to wording that may make a significant difference to response.

What PTES 2014 covers

• In addition to the 37 attitudinal questions, PTES gathers information on:• student motivations to choose the course they

did, and perceptions of information that helped them decide;

• key demographics e.g. age, mode, employment;• support for understanding English;• the amount of time they have been out of study

and how they are now funding their studies.

What PTES 2014 covers• In addition to 60 closed questions/items, PTES gathers student comments on:• comments about each topic e.g. on assessment

and feedback;• the most interesting or exciting part of their

course;• the one thing they would like to improve;• how institutions could better provide information

to help course decisions.

Changes to PTES

• Discussion• How do the changes

impact on your

communication to staff

and students?

• Have you had any

feedback from staff?

• Should we be doing

anything now to

support your analysis?

Raising

Response

Rates

1. Personalise emails and make them informal;

2. Publicise what you have done in response to student feedback;

3. Use a hyperlink that passes the student to the survey directly from the email.

3½. Send lots of emails…

Three rules for getting good response rates

Raising Response Rates the institutional view

Raising Response Rates

Discussion: How could you, or

do you plan to…

1. Monitor response rates and

encourage inter-department

competition;

2. Use hyperlink URLs and

personalised emails;

3. Publicise what you have done in

response to feedback.

Getting

PTES up

and running

• Why add bespoke questions?• Get feedback on issues specific to your

institution• Drill-down into areas of concern identified in

PTES 2013• Get feedback on recent enhancements and

initiatives• Continue monitoring trends for questions no

longer in PTES• Engage staff and students’ union in the design of

the survey

Institutional questions

• However:• Bespoke questions are not benchmarkable• They will add to the survey completion time• They will add to the work involved in analysis

and reporting• Ideally, questions should be tested prior to

inclusion

Institutional questions

• Possible areas for consideration:• Application process• Teaching consistency and workload• Specific learning resources provided at your

institution• Student support services• Employer engagement• Expectations• Importance of aspects of provision• Would you recommend this course/institution to

a friend?

Institutional questions

Institutional questions

• Discussion::

• How many

institutional

questions do you

use?

• What questions

have you found

useful?

• What are the main

difficulties you have

found?

The Support Tool

• Benchmarked data available via BOS from mid-May;• Comparison to pre-set benchmarking groups;• Basic tables of results;

• Standard Benchmarking Reports via HEA from mid-July;• Detailed by subject statistical analyses;• Include custom benchmarking groups for

additional cost.

Benchmarking for 2014

Pre-loading

data for

PTES 2015

• Why?• Would make the survey much shorter;• Institutional data more reliable;• Course specific benchmarking

• How?• Formatted data could be loaded via survey

platform;• Formatted data could be sent to HEA;

• When?• Survey platform changing for 2015 could

make this possible as part of survey process;• Increasing demand for change.

Pre-loading data into the survey

More information?

 

Email:

surveys@heacademy.ac.uk

Phone: 01904 717 500 (ask for the Surveys Team)

Website:

www.heacademy.ac.uk/ptes-home