Listen, Reflect, Adjust

Responding to International Student Barometer Results

The purpose of quality systems in higher education (HE) is to improve all students’ learning experiences. The HE sector’s approach to developing quality systems is evolving as a response to the changing nature of the relationship between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), students, and funders of HE all of whom are now seen as partners in a learning enterprise that should also give value for money. One consequence is that the range of issues upon which students are being canvassed is increasing the methods being used to capture their views are more complex and the approaches for responding to the results more sophisticated. The International Graduate Insight Group (i-graduate) is an independent benchmarking and research service who regularly conducts the International Student Barometer (ISB), a sector-wide survey of international students asking them many questions across a wide range of dimensions of their student experience. Over the last 3 years Glasgow Caledonian University has been ranked as the top rated university in Scotland for the student experience and consistently in the top 3 in the UK during the same period. This paper explains what motivates GCU’s interest to participate in the ISB, the results that it has achieved and explains the practical steps it takes to respond to those results and to continually improve.