On the Contribution of Student Experience Survey Regarding Quality Management in Higher Education: An Institutional Study in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

We appraise comparatively and analytical data under Student Experience Survey (SES) to discuss the possible generalizability of related College level differentials in Saudi Arabia. For this, data collected from students of two academic programs namely Bachelor of Dental Surgery, College of Dentistry; and B.Sc. Nursing, College of Nursing, University of Dammam, Dammam, Saudi Arabia, were considered. These data relate to experience of students halfway of respective academic program. The percentage of participation in SES by students was 100% and 94% respectively. Students of neither the programs reported high quality perception about any of the 20 items considered under SES. With a target of satisfaction by at least 50% students, students from College of Nursing expressed better satisfaction than those from the College of Dentistry. Same is true in case of aiming to achieve satisfaction by at least 75% students. However, to gain satisfaction by at least 80% students, each of the 20 items in both colleges need focus of college as well as university administrators towards required improvements. In summary, suitable to its varying environment, each program/college in a university requires specific improvement planning

Appraisal of students experience survey (SES) as a measure to manage the quality of higher education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: an institutional study using six sigma model

“…Rubaish (2012) indicated that once the global item scores demonstrated a high Educational Studies 437 level of satisfaction, then one can explore the individual items for important clues to plan further improvements. This study demonstrates that the global item scores and the individual item scores are highly correlated (14 out of 20 items falls between 2 and 3 sigma level), and such findings are supported by the findings of earlier studies (Arun Vijay 2013; Nair and Bennet 2011;Rubaish 2010). Thus, by observing the global item results, the educational policy planners can get a policy oriented clue about the quality of experience gained by the students in their academic programmes.…”

“…6th semester students of College of Medicine and 5th semester students of the College of Nursing). The selection of these students is justified by the previous studies which indicate that for conducting SES, the students who are half way through their academic journey need to be surveyed (Aultman 2006;Rubaish 2010). The Arabic version of the SES tool developed by the NCAAA was translated in to English and utilised in this study to capture students' perceptions.…”

“…The nomenclature for PES varies among institutions and countries (Beran and kline 2007). The literature reveals that neither of the terms SES and PES is in common usage (Rubaish 2010). As per the quality management practices adopted at the UOD, the SES assesses the experience of the students' midway through a given programme; PES does so at the end of the Programme (Rubaish 2011).…”

“…They are also employed as an incentive for career growth (Mukherji and Rustagi 2008;Yin Fah and Osman 2011). Thus, the students' appraisal of teaching quality in an academic programme is considered one of the important aspects regarding quality management in higher education (Rubaish 2010). In order to facilitate that several instruments are available through which students indicate the level of satisfaction of their courses (Coffey and Gibbs 2001;Ramsden 1991).…”

Factors Influencing Interns’ Satisfaction with the Internship Training Programme Offered at Saudi Medical Schools

“…Each dimension of the survey was graded according to performance criteria reported by Al Rubaish and Al Rubaish on the basis of the level of agreement of the medical interns to the survey items. 14,15 Accordingly, each dimension was graded as either high-quality (mean scores of ≤3.6), acceptable (mean scores of 2.6-3.6) or improvement required (mean scores of >2.6). Subsequently, a multiple regression analysis was conducted to assess the influence of the 10 internship dimensions (independent variables) on overall satisfaction (dependent variable).…”