Student feedback essential for development of degree programs
Co-Designing Degree Programs
Teaching can never be static, because all lecturers and students bring their individual prior knowledge, expectations and personalities to the table. And new insights, teaching methods and technologies are also constantly changing what is expected of a degree program. So how can we ensure that they always reflect the latest developments in teaching, science, society and business? The TUM student survey makes an important contribution here.
An important instrument for co-design
The regular student survey is part of TUM's quality management. This in turn has a clear goal: to develop attractive, challenging and internationally competitive degree programs and to ensure their quality in the long term. In this context, the opinion of the students is of great importance - at present, they are once again called upon to evaluate their degree programs and make suggestions.
TUM is system accredited.
This means that all degree programs are regularly put to the test. Only in this way can courses, curricula and the other content be continuously adapted and developed. What is the state of research? Are there new technologies? What new challenges are emerging? All of this is examined and incorporated into the development of the study programs.
But who actually determines the direction of development? The "QM circles" play an important role here. They consist of lecturers as well as people from science management as well as student representatives who evaluate all the information about a degree program. This includes, for example, assessments by experts from science, teaching and research - but feedback from students also plays a central role. Every two years, all students in a degree program have the opportunity to anonymously and openly provide their own personal feedback on their degree program: What is going well? What could be better? Where can we still provide support?
However, it is not only about the degree program and teaching - the students' life situation is also examined. Especially after three semesters under the influence of the pandemic, active exchange with students is indispensable in order to take the lessons learned from the Corona period into the next semesters. The questions therefore cover numerous factors, from overarching aspects such as workload, existing advising services or the goals of a degree program to the quality and organization of courses.
When and how does the survey take place?
All TUM students receive an email inviting them to participate. Depending on the Department or School, the student survey will take place between June 7 and July 2, 2021.
Technical University of Munich
- Stefan Kögler
- koegler@zv.tum.de