Undergraduate Overall Educational Experience ratings in 2024 (76.5 per cent) remained broadly the same as 2023 (76.7 per cent). This continued the improvement in ratings from 2021 to 2022 but remain below the 78 per cent to 80 per cent range observed prior to 2020. Postgraduate coursework student ratings followed a similar pattern, however, were slightly above the ratings recorded prior to 2020.
Undergraduate ratings for Peer Engagement have increased year-on-year since 2020 (44.5 per cent), with the 2024 result (60.2 per cent) being equal to the highest rating (2019) since the survey began in 2017. Conversely, undergraduate ratings for Student Support and Services have declined since 2019. The 2023 and 2024 results (71.2 per cent) were the lowest since the survey began.
Postgraduate students’ ratings for all five focus areas have improved year-on-year since 2021, and are the highest ratings on record since the survey began in 2017. Peer Engagement has shown the largest improvement from 53.8 per cent in 2019 to 62.1 per cent in 2024.
For further details, see the 2024 SES National Report and data visualisation above.
The SES is the only comprehensive survey of current higher education students in Australia. It focuses on aspects of the student experience that are measurable, linked with learning and development outcomes, and potentially able to be influenced by higher education institutions. The survey collects information that helps both higher education institutions and the government improve teaching and learning outcomes. The SES has been administered annually since 2012.
Commencing and later year undergraduate and postgraduate coursework students enrolled in Australian higher education institutions are in scope for the SES, including both domestic and onshore international students.
Information on the ComparED website about student learning experiences is sourced from the SES, including responses from both domestic and onshore international students, at undergraduate and postgraduate coursework level. Survey results from the two most recent collection years are pooled to improve the reliability of the information. The six indicators from the SES displayed on the ComparED website each show the percentage of students providing positive feedback on various aspects of their higher education experience, including:
The questions which comprise each indicator are detailed below. 90 per cent confidence intervals are displayed to provide a measure of accuracy of the estimates. For technical details about the calculations used to score data derived from the SES, please see the document, Production Scores in the SES.
The percentage of students who rated the overall quality of their educational experience positively, based on an individual question in the SES.
The percentage of students who rated the quality of teaching they have experienced positively.
The percentage of students who rated their engagement with learning and interactions with other students positively.
The percentage of students who rated the learning resources provided by their institution positively.
The percentage of students who rated the support and services provided by their institution positively.
The percentage of students who rated the skills development they experienced through their studies positively.
Data for the SES is collected through the Student Experience Questionnaire (SEQ).