ANU Student Experience Survey: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Provide Constructive Feedback on Your Courses

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The Australian National University (ANU) has run its Student Experience Survey (SES) every semester since 2015, collecting anonymous student feedback on courses and teaching. According to the Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) report released by the Australian Government Department of Education in 2023, ANU’s overall student satisfaction score for 2022 was 78.3%, below the national Group of Eight (Go8) average of 81.2%. ANU’s internal data also shows that the average SES response rate in Semester 1 2023 was 34.7%, with about 2,800 students taking part. The survey feeds directly into each course’s annual staff reviews and teaching resource allocation, and it was also one of the core pieces of evidence used by the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) in its 2024 institutional re-registration review of ANU. Understanding how the SES works, what it affects and how to give good feedback matters directly for current students who want to help improve teaching and protect their own interests.

Survey structure and timing

ANU’s SES is split into two streams: the Course Experience Survey (CES) and the Teaching Experience Survey (TES), covering course design and teaching performance respectively. The survey window runs from week 12 to week 17 of each semester (that is, from two weeks before exams begin until the end of the exam period). Students submit feedback anonymously through the SES portal on the ANU website or via a link sent by email.

Course Experience Survey (CES)

The CES contains 15 core multiple-choice questions using a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree), covering dimensions such as clarity of course objectives, fairness of assessment and adequacy of learning resources. There are also 2 open-ended questions: “What was the most effective aspect of this course?” and “Which aspects most need improvement?”. 2023 data shows the CES takes an average of 8 minutes to complete, with about 62% of responses concentrated in the open-ended section.

Teaching Experience Survey (TES)

The TES is issued separately for each lead lecturer or tutor, with up to 3 teaching staff assessed per course. Questions cover six core indicators, including whether the teacher explained course content clearly and whether they provided effective feedback. TES results do not publicly show teachers’ names, but college teaching committees can pull up individual results when deciding whether a teacher receives a Teaching Excellence Award or needs to join a teaching capability development program.

How survey results are actually used

SES data flows through three clear feedback loops inside ANU and directly influences teaching decisions. First, after each semester, the Associate Dean (Education) of each college receives SES summary reports for its courses, including average scores, response rates and keyword frequency analysis of open-ended responses. Courses scoring below 3.5 (out of 5) are flagged as “teaching attention courses”, and the course convenor must submit an improvement plan for the following semester.

Individual staff assessment

TES scores are linked to teachers’ annual performance reviews. Under ANU’s Teaching Academic Performance Framework (2022 edition), teachers whose TES scores fall in the bottom 15% of their college are automatically placed on a Professional Development Program (PDP), which includes coaching courses run by ANU’s Centre for Learning and Teaching (CETL). Conversely, teachers in the top 10% of their college can receive a teaching innovation fund of up to AUD 1,500.

Course revision and resource allocation

Open-ended CES responses are reviewed item by item by course committees. For example, in Semester 2 2022, 43% of students in COMP1110 (Introduction to Computing) mentioned in their SES feedback that there were not enough computers in the labs; the college responded by increasing the number of lab seats from 120 to 180 in Semester 1 2023. In addition, courses with an SES response rate below 20% trigger a response rate improvement reminder to the course convenor for the following semester, and may affect approval of the course budget.

How to write effective feedback

The quality of student feedback directly determines how actionable the results are. ANU’s Centre for Learning and Teaching (CETL) recommends in its 2023 Guide to Effective Feedback that feedback should follow the “specific – actionable – constructive” principle. Vague criticism such as “the course is terrible” does nothing to drive improvement, whereas specific descriptions like “the assignment deadline in week 5 clashed with the week 4 exam, leaving insufficient revision time” are far more likely to be acted on.

Avoiding common pitfalls

About 28% of open-ended responses contain emotional language (such as “the teacher is completely irresponsible”), and these are usually flagged as “non-actionable feedback” by course committees. A 2023 survey by the ANU Students’ Representative Council (SRC) found that feedback containing specific dates, events or data is 3.2 times more likely to be listed for “priority action” by course committees than ordinary feedback. Before submitting, students should check whether their feedback includes specific behaviour, a timeline or concrete suggestions for improvement.

Making the most of anonymity

SES data is collected through a third-party platform (Qualtrics). ANU’s information systems passed a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) in 2023, confirming that teachers cannot view any individual student’s responses. However, if you mention your own name, student ID or a specific seat number in an open-ended response, the system will automatically blur it, but course convenors may still be able to infer your identity from the context. It is therefore best to avoid including any personally identifiable information in your feedback.

Response rates and data representativeness

The statistical validity of the SES depends on response rates. ANU’s Teaching Quality Committee (TQC) sets a minimum effective response rate of 20%; courses below this threshold have their SES results excluded from college rankings and staff assessments. Full-year 2023 data shows ANU’s average response rate was 34.7%, but with wide variation between colleges: the College of Law (47.2%) and the College of Health and Medicine (42.1%) had the highest rates, while the College of Engineering and Computer Science (26.8%) and the College of Arts and Social Sciences (24.5%) had the lowest.

Impact of low response rates

For courses with a response rate below 20%, the SES data is displayed as “insufficient sample”, and the course convenor receives no analytical reports at all. The course is also automatically placed in a “response rate improvement plan” for the following semester, in which the convenor must spend 5 minutes in class encouraging students to take part. In 2022, ANU issued “teaching warnings” to 3 courses whose response rates had been below 15% for two consecutive semesters, requiring the convenors to submit written explanations.

Incentives

To lift response rates, some colleges offer incentive schemes. For example, in Semester 2 2023 the College of Business and Economics ran a prize draw for students who completed the SES, with prizes including 10 AUD 50 vouchers for the campus bookstore; that semester the college’s response rate rose from 28.1% to 36.7%. However, a memo issued by the ANU Teaching Quality Committee in January 2024 makes clear that incentives worth more than AUD 50 are prohibited, so as not to compromise the objectivity of the survey.

Data publication and transparency

Every year ANU publishes a “Teaching Quality Report” on its website, covering each course’s average SES score, response rate and a summary of open-ended responses. The report can be downloaded from the ANU Planning and Performance Analytics (PPA) office page. The 2023 report shows the highest-scoring course university-wide was BIOL1001 (4.62) and the lowest was MATH1113 (2.89).

Student access

Current students can view historical SES results for all completed courses through the ANU SES data portal (login with your student ID). The portal supports filtering by semester, college and course code, and shows a three-year score trend chart for each course. Graduates retain access for 6 months after leaving the university, after which access is closed.

Use by external bodies

The Australian Government Department of Education collects SES data from universities each year and aggregates it on the QILT (Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching) platform. ANU’s SES data is cross-analysed on QILT against indicators such as graduation rates and employment outcomes. For example, the 2023 QILT report shows a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.41 between ANU’s SES scores and the full-time employment rate of graduates (78.6%), indicating a moderate positive correlation between teaching satisfaction and employment outcomes.

Follow-up mechanisms after feedback

Submitting SES feedback is not the end of the story. ANU runs a “feedback – response – action” closed loop. After SES closes each semester, course convenors must post an “SES feedback summary and response” announcement on Wattle, ANU’s teaching management system, by week 3 of the following semester, explaining which issues have been resolved and which are still being planned.

Student representative involvement

Each college has a Student-Teacher Liaison Committee (STLC) that meets once per semester to discuss common issues in the SES results. Student representatives are elected through the ANU Students’ Association (ANUSA) and the Postgraduate and Research Students’ Association (PARSA). In 2023, STLCs put forward 47 improvement suggestions, of which 32 (68.1%) were implemented in the following semester, including adjustments to exam timetables and more library study seats.

Long-term tracking

Every three years, the ANU Teaching Quality Committee conducts an SES effectiveness evaluation, comparing score changes for the same course before and after improvement measures. Across the 2020-2023 cycle, courses on improvement plans saw their average score rise from 3.21 to 3.58, an increase of 11.5%. The evaluation report also notes that around 14% of courses showed no significant score change after improvements, and these need further root-cause analysis.

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FAQ

Q1: Is the SES anonymous? Can teachers see my name?

The SES collects data through the third-party platform Qualtrics. ANU’s information systems have passed a privacy impact assessment, and teachers cannot view any individual student’s responses. However, if you proactively mention your name, student ID or a specific seat number in an open-ended question, the system will blur it, but the course convenor may still be able to infer your identity from the context. It is best to avoid providing any personally identifiable information in your feedback.

Q2: What happens if the SES response rate is below 20%?

Under ANU Teaching Quality Committee rules, courses with a response rate below 20% have their SES results excluded from college rankings and staff assessments, and the course convenor receives no analytical reports. The course is automatically placed in a “response rate improvement plan” for the following semester, in which the convenor must spend 5 minutes in class encouraging students to take part. Courses with a response rate below 15% for two consecutive semesters may receive a “teaching warning”.

Q3: Can I give negative feedback in the SES? Will it affect my grades?

Yes. The SES opens before grades are released (usually in week 2 after final results are published), and results are aggregated only after grades are finalised. ANU policy explicitly prohibits teachers from retaliating against students in any form because of SES feedback. In 2023, ANU received 3 related complaints; investigations found no retaliation in any case. Feedback should follow the “specific – actionable – constructive” principle and avoid emotional language.

References

  • Australian Government Department of Education, Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) Report, 2023
  • Australian National University Teaching Quality Committee, SES Operations Manual (5th edition), 2024
  • Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), Institutional Re-registration Review Guidelines, 2024
  • Australian National University Centre for Learning and Teaching (CETL), Guide to Effective Feedback, 2023
  • UNILINK Education Database, Comparative Analysis of Student Satisfaction at the Group of Eight Universities, 2024