Xamk graduates are satisfied with their studies

Students graduating from Xamk are satisfied with their studies. 

This was revealed from the results of the national university of applied sciences graduand feedback questionnaire (AVOP) of the year 2021.

Compared to last year’s results, the student satisfaction of master’s degree students increased. This can be seen from the responses to the statement ‘I am satisfied with my studies’. For this, the mean reply at Xamk was 6.1 (on a scale of 1 to 7), which exceeds the national mean (5.9).

Bachelor’s degree student satisfaction was evaluated in the questionnaire with the statement ‘My education as a whole’. For this, the mean reply at Xamk was 5.6, which also exceeds the national mean (5.5).

According to the responses from bachelor’s degree students, practical training has developed their competence

For the statement ‘My practical training strengthened my competence’, the mean was 6.1, which was the best result of the bachelor’s degree questionnaire.

Master’s degree students gave very positive feedback on the following statements:

• cooperation with the teachers was easy and natural
• the teachers took all students equally and fairly into account
• the assessment I received was well in line with my learning results
• the opportunities of e-learning were made good use of
• the implementation methods of teaching enabled me to fit my studies around my work and personal life situation
• the course supply at my UAS enabled round-the-year studies.

The mean for these statements was over 6.2.

Bachelor’s degree students gave positive feedback on the following statements:

• cooperation with the teachers was easy and natural
• the assessment I received was well in line with my learning results.
• the course supply at my UAS enabled round-the-year studies
• the opportunities of e-learning were made good use of
• The library and IT services supported my learning
• the IT and software services offered were functional (sufficient and up-to-date).

The mean for these statements was 5.6 or over.

The following development targets were also identified:

According to bachelor’s degree students, Xamk should utilise their alumni more in studies, and degree programmes should be more closely connected with the world of work. The lowest mean in the results was 3.9, which was for the following statement: ‘The expertise of alumni was successfully utilised in my studies’. The following statement was also among the lowest mean results:‘I was offered enough possibilities to participate in studies that included cooperation with working life’, for which the mean was 4.5.

Xamk should offer more support for career planning. For the statement ‘I have received adequate support in career planning in my studies’, the mean was 4.4. This statement also had the lowest mean among the responses of master’s degree students.

Work-related cooperation is being developed at Xamk. According to Xamk’s Pedagogical Management Team, Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences received very good results in the work-related cooperation section of the AVOP questionnaire. Therefore, Xamk is planning a benchmarking visit there to see where we can develop further and gain some best practices. To improve work-related cooperation, companies should be encouraged to involve students in their activities, which would be a great opportunity for students to develop their professional skills.

The graduand feedback questionnaire (AVOP) briefly:

AVOP is a national university of applied sciences graduand feedback questionnaire. Graduating degree students respond to the questionnaire when they apply for their degree certificate, approximately three weeks before graduation.

The results are used by UAS to develop their own operations. On a national scale, they are used to guide and fund education.

AVOP questionnaire for bachelor’s degree students is divided into seven sections, which are the following: background information, teaching and learning, internationality, multiculturalism, and language studies, career services and connections with the working life, practical training, thesis, and general satisfaction.

AVOP questionnaire for master’s degree students is shorter, and it contains the following sections: background information, study content, planning studies, counselling, teaching, studying, learning environments, support services, feedback and assessment, internationality, multiculturalism, and language studies, connections with the working life, career services, thesis, and general satisfaction.

In the questionnaire, students evaluate statements on a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 = completely disagree, 4 = neither agree nor disagree, and 7 = completely agree.

Number of respondents in 2021:

• For bachelor’s degree students, the response rate was 98, with a total of 1,542 respondents.
• For masters’ degree students, the response rate was 99, with a total of 330 respondents.

For more information:

vipunen.fi: Visualisations UAS student feedback (funding model questions)

and Funding model.