ComparED Guide to Australian Higher Education

Title: ComparED - Your Guide to Australian Higher Education

Author: The Social Research Centre

About

ComparED is an online tool designed to offer prospective students and other stakeholders detailed insights into Australian higher education institutions. The website features data from the Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) surveys, which cover over 2 million students and graduates' experiences. ComparED provides a platform to explore and compare educational institutions and study areas based on real-life student and graduate feedback.

The website's primary focus is to empower users with transparent and relevant information to make informed decisions about their education. It presents data on various aspects of higher education, including student experiences, graduate outcomes, and graduate incomes, supplemented with taxation records.

ComparED enables comparisons across different institutions and study areas, using a range of performance indicators to aid users in choosing the right educational path. However, users are limiting to choosing institutions one by one and only six can be compared at a time.

Author

The ComparED website is maintained by the Social Research Centre, a specialist organisation in social research and evaluation. They are known for their expertise in managing large-scale, complex surveys and for their commitment to providing high-quality, actionable data. The Centre operates under the auspices of the Australian Government's Department of Education, Skills and Employment.

Key Takeaways

ComparED offers detailed comparisons of higher education institutions and study areas in Australia.
The platform uses data from QILT surveys, covering millions of student and graduate experiences.
Users can explore information on student satisfaction, graduate outcomes, and income post-graduation.
The tool is helpful for making informed decisions about where and what to study in higher education.
The resource is designed to limit your ability to easily identify the best and worst institutions.

Key Statistics for Universities

Student ratings are key to understanding how good a university is. Surveys like the CEQ and SES ask students about their courses and life at uni. High scores mean students are generally happy and the university is doing well in areas like teaching and support.

Comparing these ratings between universities helps to see who's doing better and why. It's useful for students picking a uni and for universities looking to improve. Details like how much students enjoy their courses or get along with staff can make a big difference.

These stats are not just numbers; they guide decisions at universities and help shape future education policies. For students, they offer a real look into what life is like at different unis, helping them choose the right place for them.

Institution ratings: Deakin University, Swinburne, Torrens University, University of Sydney, University of Tasmania

Graduate Satisfaction Among Online Universities

We looked up the rates for recent graduate satisfaction. This is the percentage of graduates who expressed overall satisfaction with their course, based on an individual question in the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ). For th 12 largest universities in terms of external student numbers, these were the results.

Charles Sturt University: 76.1%
University of New England: 85.2%
Deakin University: 83.5%
University of Tasmania: 80.2%
Swinburne University of Technology: 80.6%
University of Southern Queensland: 78.6%
Curtin University: 79.1%
University of South Australia: 79.9%
Griffith University: 80.3%
Southern Cross University: 74.6%
CQUniversity: 79.5%
Edith Cowan University: 83.6%

You can see that satisfaction levels among the largest online universities range from 74.6% at Southern Cross University to 85.2% at the University of New England. Following UNE are ECU, Deakin, Swinburne and Griffith, all with satsisfaction rates above 80%. The national average was 77.6%.

Best Nursing School in Australia

Lerna Courses used the data presentation tool to shed some insight into which is Australia's best university for doing a Bachelor of Nursing degree. We started with an initial shortlist of Australia's 12 largest universities in terms of bachelor-level enrolments into Health courses. This was obtained from separate Higher Education Statistics.

Selecting the study area of "Nursing" and "Undergraduate" course statistics, we focused on recent graduate satisfaction. This captures not only a student's reflections on the course they completed some months earlier, but also their feelings after potentially testing the job market with their degree.

The top course satisfaction ratings from recent graduates were as follows:

Deakin University: 83.9% satisfaction
Griffith University: 82.4%
Monash University: 80.8%
University of Tasmania: 78.1%
University of South Australia: 77.7%

We therefore concluded that, among Australia's top dozen universities for health training, the leading nursing schools are Deakin University, Griffith, and Monash. Further analysis and statistics could be used to derive a more complete and reliable assessment.

Law Degree Ratings by Recent Graduates

Recent graduates have rated their satisfaction with Law & Paralegal Studies (Undergraduate) across several institutions. Here are the findings:

UniSQ leads with 93.6% satisfaction.
University of New England follows at 88.5%.
Deakin University and Charles Darwin University are close, with ratings of 81.6% and 81.5% respectively.
Swinburne University of Technology scored 78.6%.
Charles Sturt University has the lowest satisfaction at 65.6%.

These ratings reflect the overall satisfaction levels of recent graduates from each institution.

Psychology Degree Satisfaction Ratings (Online Universities)

Graduate satisfaction ratings for universities that provide online psychology bachelor degrees are led by Southern Cross University at 93.1%. Deakin University and Curtin University follow with 89.9% and 88.7%, respectively.

These ratings reflect the overall satisfaction of graduates from each university's psychology program, which may be offered in various study modes. The complete satisfaction ratings are:

Southern Cross University: 93.1%
Deakin University: 89.9%
Curtin University: 88.7%
University of New England: 88.6%
Edith Cowan University: 88.2%
Australian College of Applied Professions: 87.1%
Swinburne University of Technology: 86.6%
Federation University Australia: 85.7%
CQUniversity: 84.8%
Charles Sturt University: 84.2%
Flinders University: 83.6%
La Trobe University: 83.1%
University of South Australia: 80.3%
Macquarie University: 78.1%
Western Sydney University: 77.3%
Charles Darwin University: 75.0%
University of Tasmania: 73.3%

This data comes from the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ), 2021-22 (which is the latest available in early 2024). The statistics also capture ratings for fourth-year honours programs.

Postgraduate satisfaction

Here are the satisfaction ratings for "Psychology" postgraduate graduates among institutions offering postgraduate psychology courses online:

Charles Sturt University: 83.5%
University of New England (UNE): 88.4%
University of Wollongong: 67.2%
Cairnmillar Institute: 82.9%
La Trobe University: 83.1%
Monash University: 84.5%
CQUniversity Australia: 92.1%
University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ): 73.9%

Southern Cross University's data is not available. These figures help gauge the quality of postgraduate psychology programs.

Social Work Degrees Online Rated by Satisfaction

The highest-rated online Bachelor of Social Work programs are from Deakin University at 91.4%, Charles Sturt University at 90.3%, and CQUniversity at 88.5%. Among universities offering Bachelor of Social Work degrees by distance education, the social work program ratings are:

Deakin University: 91.4% satisfaction
Charles Sturt University: 90.3%
CQUniversity: 88.5%
Edith Cowan University: 87.7%
Flinders University: 83.3%
James Cook University: 83.1%
Griffith University: 83.0%
Charles Darwin University: 82.3%