The University of Melbourne has ranked lowest in Australia for overall undergraduate student satisfaction in 2024, a report by Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) found. The University placed 35th nationally in undergraduate student satisfaction in 2023, falling to 42nd in 2024. Postgraduate coursework student satisfaction also fell during the same period.
QILT’s annual Student Experience Survey collects data across all 42 Australian universities regarding the quality of the overall educational experience, including teaching quality, peer engagement, learning resources and support services.
Over the last five years, the majority of the Group of Eight universities have consistently ranked below the national average in quality of overall educational experience of undergraduate students.
In an email to staff following the release of QILT results, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) Gregor Kennedy noted that the University’s internal End of Subject Survey saw improved student satisfaction with learning experiences, reflecting the quality of teaching and support staff. While Kennedy reiterated the University’s commitment to improving overall student experience, the University has consistently placed at the bottom of QILT’s undergraduate results, and was ranked worst nationally again in 2021.
In a statement to Farrago, UMSU President Joshua Stagg argued that the recent QILT results “highlight the University of Melbourne’s continual prioritisation of metrics that factor into global rankings as opposed to student experience. We are an anomaly in that we lead the country in academic rankings, but fall behind in essentially all other aspects of the university experience.”
“The University Accord stated that tertiary education institutions must implement urgent action that requires a “‘whole of student’ focus–on learning and teaching, affordable student housing, assistance with finding employment, and income support where relevant–as opposed to simply enrolling disadvantaged students into a course and hoping they succeed’. The recent QILT results demonstrate UniMelb’s failure to heed the University Accord.”
“The University must recognise that it is their student-led organisations that stand as the only viable means of improving the QILT metrics that go beyond academic ranking. Following the QILT results, during a presentation to the University Executive, I stated that a time of fiscal scarcity is a time to improve support networks for marginalised students and disadvantaged students, not a time to cut their funding. If the ability of students to meaningfully engage in University governance is limited due to reductions in student union spending, then the next set of UniMelb QILT results will make the most recent ones look excellent in comparison.”