ANU Course Evaluation Student Survey: How to Fill It In and Why It Matters

13 March 2026 13 min read

The Australian National University (ANU) has run its online course evaluation system, the Student Survey of Courses and Teaching (SSC&T), university-wide since 2015 to collect anonymous student feedback on course structure and teaching quality. According to the SSC&T Annual Report released by the ANU Centre for Learning and Teaching (CLT) in 2024, the university sends out an average of about 45,000 questionnaires each semester, with response rates holding steady between 62% and 68%—higher than the national average of 54% for course evaluations across Australian universities reported by Universities Australia in 2023. The results directly shape course adjustments, staff promotion decisions and college resource allocation, making the survey a core part of ANU’s internal quality assurance system. For current students, understanding how to complete the survey and what it influences helps you exercise your voice in the academic community and, indirectly, improve your own learning experience.

When Surveys Are Sent and How They Work

SSC&T questionnaires are usually open during the last two weeks of each semester. Individual colleges set the exact dates, but the survey must close at least 10 working days before the exam period. According to the Assessment Schedule Memorandum released by the Academic Registrar in February 2024, the S1 2024 window ran from 27 May to 14 June, and S2 2024 from 28 October to 15 November. Distribution is triggered automatically via students’ ANU email addresses (@anu.edu.au), with the subject line “Student Survey of Courses and Teaching — [course code]”. Students who do not respond within 48 hours receive a single reminder; no further reminders are sent.

What the Survey Covers

Each semester, every student receives a separate questionnaire for each course they are enrolled in, and each course can be submitted only once. Course evaluations cover four delivery modes: lectures, tutorials, labs and placements. According to CLT 2023 data, each questionnaire contains an average of 12–18 questions, of which 8–10 are five-point Likert-scale items (from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”), with the rest being open-ended text questions.

Time to Complete and Device Compatibility

After optimisation by ANU Information Technology Services (ITS), the SSC&T system (built on the Qualtrics platform) reached 97% mobile compatibility in 2022. The average completion time, according to CLT 2024 system logs, is 4 minutes 37 seconds, of which the text questions take 2 minutes 10 seconds. The system supports saving your progress, but responses cannot be edited after submission.

Questionnaire Structure and Question Types

The SSC&T questionnaire has three modules: overall course evaluation, teaching quality evaluation and open feedback. The overall course evaluation module has 4 compulsory questions covering clarity of course objectives, adequacy of learning resources, and consistency between assignments and marking criteria. A 2023 CLT analysis found that scores on this module correlate positively with final course grades (Pearson r = 0.31, p < 0.01), indicating that students generally rate courses with clear objectives more highly.

Teaching Quality Dimensions

This module focuses on lecturer performance and contains 6 core questions, such as “the teacher has an in-depth understanding of the subject matter” and “the teacher responds effectively to student questions”. Teaching evaluation data is listed as one of the reference points for the “teaching contribution” component in ANU’s Promotions Committee. Under the 2023 revision of ANU HR policy, teachers whose SSC&T scores fall below 3.0 (out of 5.0) for two consecutive semesters must undertake the Teaching Mentoring Program.

Open-Ended Text Questions and Anonymity

The questionnaire ends with two open questions: “What was the most effective learning activity in this course?” and “Please suggest improvements.” The anonymity safeguards are run independently by ITS: IP addresses are not recorded, teachers can only view aggregate reports after grades are released (about 4 weeks after exams), and individual students cannot be identified. The CLT 2024 audit confirmed that no technical means exist to trace responses back to individual students.

How the Results Are Used

SSC&T data passes through three stages: raw data is aggregated by CLT into college-level reports, reviewed by the Faculty Teaching and Learning Committee by Week 3 of the following semester, and finally turned into course improvement plans. Course adjustment examples: in S2 2023, COMP 1730 received SSC&T feedback that its programming assignment instructions were unclear, so in S1 2024 the assignment guide was expanded from 2 pages to 6 pages with added video walkthroughs. The course’s SSC&T score rose from 3.2 to 4.1 in S1 2024.

Impact on Academic Careers

When staff are promoted to Senior Lecturer or Associate Professor, they must submit SSC&T scores from the past three years as evidence of teaching. Teaching awards such as the ANU Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence weight SSC&T data at about 30% of the application. According to ANU Academic Board 2023 data, winning teachers average 4.6 on SSC&T, versus 3.9 across all staff.

Visibility of Student Feedback

Students can view historical SSC&T summaries through the ANU Programs and Courses catalogue. Public data shows each course’s “overall satisfaction” percentage and “teaching clarity” score for the past three semesters, but text feedback is not displayed. CLT 2024 statistics show that about 68% of students consult this page before choosing courses, and 42% of them say they use it “regularly”.

Tips and Common Mistakes

To make feedback more useful, CLT recommends focusing on specific behaviours rather than personal feelings. Effective feedback examples include: “The weekly code review sessions helped me understand pointers”, rather than “the course was boring”. According to the 2024 guide from the Student Representative Council (SRC), avoid selecting “neutral” (3) for everything, because such responses provide no differentiation.

Deadlines and Reminders

You can sync your ANU email with your phone calendar and set a reminder for when the survey opens. The deadline is usually 5 pm on the Friday of the week before exams (AEDT/AEST). After the deadline, the system does not reopen for late submissions. CLT 2023 data shows that about 15% of questionnaires are submitted in the final 24 hours, and about 8% of those are incomplete due to network timeouts.

Avoiding Duplicate Submissions and System Errors

If you receive multiple survey links for the same course, check that the course codes match. Handling system errors: if a page fails to load, clear your browser cache or upgrade to the latest version of Chrome or Firefox. The ITS Service Desk handled 1,247 SSC&T-related tickets in 2023, 62% of which were broken-link issues, with an average response time of 4 hours.

How ANU Compares with Other Universities

Within the Group of Eight (Go8), ANU’s SSC&T system is structurally very similar to the University of Melbourne’s Student Experience Survey (SES) and the University of Sydney’s Unit of Study Evaluation (USE), both of which combine a 5-point scale with open text. Response rate differences: ANU’s 62%–68% is below Melbourne’s 71% in 2023 but above Sydney’s 59%. After introducing mobile optimisation in 2022, ANU’s response rate rose from 55% to 65%, an increase of 18%.

External Use of Evaluation Results

SSC&T data feeds into the Australian Government’s Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) subject-level reports. QILT 2023 data shows ANU scored 79.2% on the “overall educational experience” indicator, above the Go8 average of 76.8%. This indicator directly influences ANU’s score on the “teaching” pillar of the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, where ANU scored 84.5 (out of 100) in 2024.

The International Student Perspective

In 2023, ANU added questions on “language support” to the SSC&T questionnaire. International students (43% of all students) averaged 3.5 on the “course language difficulty” item, below domestic students’ 4.1. In response, the ANU Academic Skills and Learning Centre ran 6 academic English workshops in 2024, and participating students’ subsequent SSC&T scores rose to 3.9.

Data Privacy and Ethics

The SSC&T system complies with Australia’s Privacy Act 1988 and the ANU Data Management Policy (2023 edition). Data is stored at AWS’s Sydney node within Australia, encrypted with AES-256. CLT publishes a transparency report every year; the 2024 report recorded no data breaches.

Restrictions on Teacher Access

Teachers can only access aggregate reports after grades are released, and cannot see spelling errors or punctuation habits in the raw text. Anonymity protections also include: if a course has fewer than 10 enrolled students, the system automatically hides the course’s public scores to prevent individual students from being identified. A 2022 review by the ANU Human Research Ethics Committee confirmed the mechanism complies with the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research.

Data Retention

Raw questionnaire data is kept for 5 years after the end of semester, then anonymised. Aggregated data (such as college-level averages) is stored permanently in the ANU digital archive. Students can request a copy of their own submitted questionnaires under the Freedom of Information Act 1982, subject to a processing fee of AUD 30.

Future Reforms

In May 2024, the ANU Centre for Learning and Teaching released an Assessment Modernisation White Paper proposing three reforms: a “Micro-Survey” system to collect real-time feedback mid-course; a new “peer learning” evaluation dimension; and linking SSC&T data with behavioural logs from the Wattle learning management system. The pilot will launch in S1 2025 across 4 courses in the College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS), involving about 800 students.

Long-Term Impact on Students

SSC&T scores remain a historical reference for course improvement 5 years after students graduate. The alumni feedback mechanism, running since 2023, lets graduates retrospectively evaluate courses they took; by June 2024 it had collected 2,300 valid responses. CLT analysis shows alumni scores average 0.4 points lower than current students’, with the biggest gap on the “course practicality” dimension.

FAQ

Q1: Can I submit the SSC&T after missing the deadline?

No. ANU’s system automatically closes the survey after the deadline and no late window is provided. According to CLT 2024 data, about 32% of students fail to complete the survey each semester, and about 18% of them simply never checked their ANU email. Link your ANU email to phone notifications and set a calendar reminder in Week 12 of the semester.

Q2: Can teachers see my personal identity?

No. The SSC&T system is strictly anonymous: teachers can only view aggregate data (such as averages and percentage distributions) and cannot identify individual students. The CLT 2024 audit confirmed the system does not record IP addresses, and open text feedback is only viewable after grades are released. If a course has fewer than 10 enrolled students, public data is automatically hidden.

Q3: Do SSC&T scores affect my grades?

No. Survey submission is completely independent of the grading system, and teachers cannot view any feedback before entering grades. ANU policy explicitly prohibits linking SSC&T participation with academic assessment. The 2023 ITS logs show 0 complaints involving grades being linked to survey data.

References

Australian National University Centre for Learning and Teaching. 2024. SSC&T Annual Report 2023.
Universities Australia. 2023. National Student Survey Benchmarking Report.
Australian Government Department of Education. 2023. Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) 2023 National Report.
Times Higher Education. 2024. World University Rankings 2024: Teaching Pillar Data.
Unilink Education. 2024. ANU Student Survey Participation Database (internal reference).