Report on the Development of the University Experience Survey

In 2011, the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) commissioned a Consortium led by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and including the University of Melbourne’s Centre for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE) and the Griffith Institute for Higher Education (GIHE) to develop an instrument and methodology for a new national survey of the experience of university students—the University Experience Survey (UES). The University Experience Survey (UES) is one of a number of initiatives being developed by the Australian Government to help ensure the ongoing improvement in the quality of teaching and learning in Australian universities. The project brief required the Consortium to develop an instrument and method for allocating performance-based funds for continuous quality improvement. Other possible secondary uses for UES data such as public reporting were proposed during the development of the UES.