What really matters to undergraduates on Creative and Media courses: UK study into student voice.
Student surveys, voice, HE, Q-methodology.
The UK National Student Survey gathers student feedback on a variety of different university and course experiences. But it does not ask which, if any, matter most to students. Yorke and Vaughan (2012) acknowledge a lack of research into Creative and Media organisational pedagogies.
How can we know what is truly important to students?
What do they really care about?
A pilot study, utilising UK NSS qualitative open text box comments, has supplied the data for a forthcoming research project, signposting areas within student experience that deserve further attention.
A phenomenological approach was used and Q methodology afforded a systematic analysis of students’ ‘insider’ views. The study’s aim was to explore students’ individual subjective beliefs and reveal any shared or contradictory opinions.
UK NSS open text box comments from Creative and Media students provided data for a Q concourse. Thirteen students then took part in Q sorts generating a unique insight into each student’s own subjective experience. These Q sorts were correlated and factor analysed. Three distinct factors, or viewpoints, emerged, identifying those students holding similar views.
Innovative yet small and in its infancy, findings from the pilot study may have significant applications; particularly for course organisation and marketing strategies.