Current News

In September 2009, the University commissioned Insync Surveys to evaluate student satisfaction with La Trobe University’s range of Student Services.

The questions students were asked related to students’ awareness of, use of and importance to them of various Personal Support, Social and Recreational, Academic Support and Information and Communication services the University provides.  They were asked to rank the importance of and their satisfaction of the services in an order of 1 (low) to 7 (high).

The Personal Support questions related to, Childcare, Personal Counselling, Health, Off Campus Accommodation, Part Time or Casual Employment, Financial Aid, Student Legal Service, Chaplaincy and Muslim Prayer Rooms, and the Equality and Diversity Centre.

Social and Recreational questions sought answers on Sports Facilities and Programs, Sports Clubs, Clubs and Societies, on campus entertainment and Student Theatre.

Academic Support areas included Career Planning and Advice, Disability Support Orientation, Indigenous Student Services, Student Leadership and Volunteering and Academic Learning and Language Support.

The Information and Communication questions related to the Student Diary, the Handbook, University website, Ratsheet, Rabelais, UniNews, Bendigo and Student News, (online news).

The survey was also conducted at four other Victorian Universities being, RMIT, Monash, VU and Swinburne.

La Trobe achieved a 13% response rate, which was higher than any of the other universities who participated in the survey.

In relation to rankings:

• 5.6       to         7.0       was rated as very high
• 5.0       to         5.6       was rated as high
• 4.0       to         5.0       was rated as moderate
• Less than          4.0       was rated as low
  

Of the 27 student services tested at La Trobe none was rated as less than 4.0 and only four recorded a satisfaction score of below five.  As the key findings recorded this is a “positive result” for La Trobe University’s Student Services.

In relation to satisfaction levels the top scoring services of those who used them was the University’s website with a ranking of (5.89), Academic Learning and Support (5.72), Chaplaincy and Muslim Prayer Rooms (5.68) and Disability Support (5.65).

As indicated earlier only four services scored less than 5.00 and they were Rabelais (4.19), Part Time and Casual Employment (4.72), Ratsheet (4.77) and Off Campus Accommodation (4.85).

In relation to importance to students the rankings were divided into those who had used the services and those that had not.  It was interesting that there was a very similar correlation between the importance students placed on the various services whether they had used them or not.  For instance, the top eight services listed in importance to students who had used them was the same eight, albeit in different order, for those who had not used them.  The top eight services were (not in any order): Career Planning and Advice, Disability Support, Health, Academic Learning, Language Support, University website, Personal Counselling, Financial Aid and the Equality and Diversity Centre.

A measure was then applied to ascertain where students believe the service could improve.  In identifying areas for improvement the Insync Survey identifies the difference or “gap” between the importance a student places on the service and their satisfaction with that service.  These gaps indicate areas of frustration or dissatisfaction.  Insync believe gaps between 1.0 and 1.99 are meaningful and should be investigated further and gaps above 2.0 should be acted upon immediately.

Of the 27 services surveyed there were no “gap” scores of above 2.0 and only four in the range 1.0 to 1.99.  They were Part Time or Casual Employment (1.26), Career Planning and Advice (1.19), Off Campus Accommodation (1.18) and Health (1.07).

Finally, students were asked whether they would recommend La Trobe University Student Services to other students and 84% answered in the affirmative.

In relation to the comparison against the four other Universities, the following services were benchmarked on a satisfaction basis.

	La Trobe	RMIT	VU	Swinburne	Monash	LTU Ranking
Personal Counselling	5.49	5.54	5.46	5.63	5.23	3rd
Health	5.28	4.99	5.34	5.63	5.82	4th
Off campus Accommodation	4.85	4.71	4.81	4.93	4.97	3rd
Part Time and Career Employment	4.72	4.66	4.99	4.55	5.20	4th
Financial Aid	5.56	5.52	5.44	5.24	5.90	2nd
Sports Facilities and Program	5.43	5.17	5.41	4.95	5.50	2nd
Clubs and Societies	5.13	5.14	4.89	5.02	5.28	2nd
Career Planning	5.22	4.66	5.57	5.69	5.05	3rd
Disability Support	5.65	5.58	5.09	5.51	5.49	1st
Orientation	5.17	5.01	4.97	5.24	5.00	2nd
Student Leadership and Volunteering	5.29	5.49	5.24	5.27	N/A	2nd
Student Diary	5.50	5.30	N/A	5.11	4.98	1st
Student Hubs*	N/A	5.26	N/A	5.65	5.21	N/A

* Currently under construction at La Trobe.

A fully copy of the Insync questionnaire and survey into Student satisfaction levels below:

• La Trobe University Student Services Satisfaction Survey Report
• Benchmarks

Michael Torney
Director, Student Services

-- Back to Table of Contents ---