Executive summary
To test how effective the services and facilities the University of Coventry offered a short survey was carried out to gather information and evidence from the students of the university.The survey was based on general issues within the university but to some extent, the survey lied mostly on the academic part.An online questionnaire was used as a means of collecting information from the students. The survey targeted 30 respondent students from the university.
Introduction
The survey was based on an investigation concerning the satisfaction of the students with life at the University of Coventry. A significant subject in a survey is to make sure that the respondents comprehend the questions asked either orally or contained in the questionnaire.
The goal of the survey was to collect views from students in order to determine areas which need improvement and areas which are better at the University of Coventry. Another goal was to determine the attitude of the university students towards the university in general, whether positive or negative.
The problem encountered during the survey was that some student respondents carried the survey on had not stayed in the university for long hence they did not give satisfactory answers because they had not experienced the university life for long.The first-grade respondents had not known about the university well because they had not yet been exposed much within the university although there were few cases who were well informed.
The fact that the survey was based online meant that the respondents did not get enough time to clarify their responses because of the limited time.The options which were given for the answers were one word hence the respondents did not find the opportunity to clearly air their views about their university life.
The feedback from the survey will help the university to discover its strengths and weaknesses.Where most of the respondents gave a positive response that signified a strength and where a negative response was witnessed that signified a weakness.The weaknesses discovered during the survey can be used by the University of Coventry in making improvements or come up with new facilities within the university to give an enhanced overall experience in the future.The strengths will encourage the university management to maintain the facilities and the services that the student respondents seemed to recognize.
Discussion
The demographic population targeted during the survey was Coventry university students.An online survey was carried out using Bristol online survey company.With a maximum of 30 students respondents being targeted.The exercise was positive since 90 percent of the students which the online survey reached accepted to take part in answering the questionnaire questions.The male gender took the lead in participating the online survey and most of the student respondents who were involved were of second grade in the University of Coventry.The respondents were of different nationalities: Greek, British, Jedi, and Polish. Majority of the respondents who took part in the student survey pursued Business and Information Technology as a course in the University of Coventry.
The sampling strategy that was used as the random sampling.Random students from the University of Coventry who came across the online questionnaire became the respondents.The random sampling error comes about because the sample group may not match the whole population.Random sampling has less risk of error and is easy to administer. The findings from the random sampling base can be applied to a whole population. Within the random sampling technique, multiple randomnesses can be included to minimize bias.Random sampling is simple to execute and it requires less knowledge.it gives an equal chance to anything within a population to be chosen as a sample.
The questions on the questionnaire were majorly about the level of satisfaction of the students both national and international on the facilities provided by the University of Coventry and the kind of services they are offered.The questions were based on the teaching techniques and approaches used by the lecturers in the university, the level to which the courses offered in the university prepare them for the real world outside the university, industrial placements and internship opportunities satisfaction and their attitude towards e-learning within the university.The questions asked were centered on life in the University of Coventry in general but mostly they focused on the academic affairs of the student’s respondents.
Explanation.
The font style that was used on the questionnaires during the student survey was Times new roman, the font size 12pt and line spacing was single.The questions were simple and were free of emotive language to avoid threatening and making the respondents not to open up which can lead to time wastage.Rating questions, open-ended questions, and closed questions were used in the questionnaire during the survey process. Questions that seemed to give a cognitive burden to the respondent were placed towards the end of the questionnaire.Sensitive and personal seeming questions were avoided to maintain the response rate, provide stimulus for the respondent and prevent fatigue during the questionnaire process.
Bias was avoided through sharing the questionnaire through various methods like email campaign, sharing on websites and stationing QR codes in physical locations.Since the survey was conducted online the potential for response bias was automatically minimized because the questions were self -administered thus it made it easier for the respondent to be honest.
A good and presentable questionnaire should not have unwanted assumptions.A survey is roughly about acquiring factual data and assumptions should be avoided.Each question on the questionnaire should have one answer to improve the clarity of the questions.
Findings
An estimated 97.6 percent of the students of the University of Coventry who the online survey reached agreed to participate in the process.Approximately 66.7 percent of the gender that was involved in the student survey was male.Student respondents from the university in the second-grade level participated highly in the online questionnairing process with a percentage of 56.1 followed by the students in the first grade and then those from the third grade.Respondents with diverse nationalities throughout the world were involved in the survey process owing that the university enrolls students from other countries globally.
With regard to tuition fee, 48.7 percent respondents believed that it was reasonable for quality education and none believed that the fee was not sensible for quality education.95 percent of the respondents were satisfied with the university structure, management and services before they joined.Fewer respondents considered that the feedback provided by Coventry university on preparing for curriculum vitae was not satisfactory.90.2 percent of the respondents are generally satisfied with Coventry University.
The results of the survey showed that the 92.7 percent of the students were satisfied with the service of cuMoodle within the university. The most popular response by the respondents was that they were satisfied with the services in the university library.Three-quarter of the respondents believed in a positive outlook of the future of the university.95.1 percent of the respondents were satisfied with the mandatory modules of their course and they were satisfied with the advantages of the modules of their course. About half of the respondents were satisfied with the teaching materials provided in classes and also with the grading system in the logic of marking and feedback. Almost all of the student respondents were satisfied with the quality of computer facilities in their classrooms. Approximately 80.6 percent of the respondents were satisfied on the feedback provided when preparing for job interviews by the University of Coventry. 64.8 percent of International students were satisfied with the use of English during internship interviews conducted by the university and none of the internal students was totally against the use of English during the interviews.
Overly, the survey findings suggest that most students rate the university better.There Expectations and thoughts about the university are not too high and they are not too low.Based on the rating questions asked during the survey most respondents responded either good or average, very few rated very bad.
Conclusion
Although the results are very useful, they must be viewed with thoughtfulness due to the likely biased response and the average response rate experienced during the student survey process.The findings suggest that most students in the University of Coventry are satisfied with the life in the university.Based on the results obtained from the respondents, the students have high expectations on the university since most of the ratings were over 80 percent positive. Although we may be biased to ignore the small percentage that gave negative feedback because the university may have other unknown weaknesses we assume that the university is doing well based on the majority.
Despite the limitations of the student survey, the corrected data is believed to present valuable comprehensions and new information that can be useful to the university management, stakeholders, and the outside world. The results of this survey showed that the University of Coventry is appreciated by the students, however, some capacities may need some sanitizing and refurbish.The data collected will help in pointing out small errors and ultimate corrections will be made to lastly heighten the usefulness of the university.
In conclusion, effecting of state, intercontinental and institutional surveys is an all-embracing effort that calls for cautious scheme and inclusion of respondents from different diversities in order to collect valid data. Granting that such a broad survey was generally steered well, some of the problems allied with the scheme and execution of the survey were preventable while others were inescapable for example excluding the first-grade student response was something that could have been done but errors that arose from the respondents were difficult to dodge.
Evaluation
The point of having a survey was to test the fitness for purpose of the University of Coventry by getting information from the students in the university. The questionnaire was presented online so it was easier to assemble results and explore them from various students. The survey conducted will enable the University of Coventry to learn from its inaccuracies and make improvements within the university. This will make it more useful and helpful to other people in the future. Sensitive questions like those concerning age should be asked toward the end of the questionnaire to avoid turning the respondents off. The styling of the questionnaire should also be done in a manner that is enticing to the respondent. Rating questions did not work effect fully because they do not give the respondent time to elaborate on the answer they give.An expert should be involved in weighing on the phrasing of the questions to avoid long, jargon and emotive language questions which can bring confusion to the respondent.
Findings showed that due to the involvement of respondents of the first-grade level some questions were incomprehensible for the respondents which made the process of inquiries using the questionnaire a bit time-consuming.Time management is important in the execution of student surveys. Issues like goals of the survey, ways of finding the respondents, socioeconomic and radical situations of the country and meteorological conditions must be taken into consideration when determining the time to start the survey so that it goes on well without any distractions to allow adequate data to be gathered.
The information delivered from the survey is adequate and is evidently communicated and can be used by the University of Coventry to make future improvements.
