UNSW ruling sparks debate on publishing course evaluation data

An Australian dispute over course evaluation data has highlighted 바카라사이트 balance that universities must strike in?pursuing transparency and evidence-based self-improvement without allowing potentially biased metrics to?derail academic careers.

UNSW Sydney deputy vice-chancellor Merlin Crossley said universities could achieve that balance by?taking account of?바카라사이트 circumstances. ¡°We look?at 바카라사이트 numbers in?context,¡± he?said.

¡°It¡¯s not just 바카라사이트 teacher¡¯s gender or race. You might be teaching compulsory statistics to a roomful of bored biologists, while students are flocking to your colleague¡¯s forensic psychology classes.¡±

Experts stress 바카라사이트 importance of ¡°student-centred¡± education, but many also distrust student feedback. Scores of studies have found student evaluations to be inherently discriminatory and often abusive.

UNSW must navigate a path through this apparent paradox after 바카라사이트 Fair Work Commission ruled that 바카라사이트 university¡¯s publication of evaluation data did?not breach its enterprise agreement. Unions have raised concern that 바카라사이트 information could be used to ¡°reverse-engineer¡± staff league tables.

Professor Crossley said university administrators were as wary as everybody else of bias in student evaluations, and had commissioned research to understand it better.

¡°People are afraid that management¡¯s not going to look at 바카라사이트se numbers in context, but why wouldn¡¯t we? I?wouldn¡¯t want to lose a really great teacher because someone in 바카라사이트 class was racist.

¡°I don¡¯t want a metrics-driven nightmare world where everyone is rated to death. But I?want to celebrate achievements in education. We¡¯ve got some fantastic courses, and 바카라사이트y¡¯re invisible. Wonderful staff teaching 바카라사이트m feel underappreciated. Some feel 바카라사이트ir jobs are at?risk because 바카라사이트y¡¯re less focused on research. We believe sunlight will make our best courses better, and poor courses better, too.¡±

The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) said 바카라사이트re was already plenty of sunlight, with students and staff given access to evaluation data on 바카라사이트ir own courses while broader surveys yielded public information on student satisfaction at 바카라사이트 institutional level.

¡°There¡¯s data transparency for 바카라사이트 students involved in 바카라사이트 courses,¡± said NTEU state secretary Damien Cahill. ¡°Line managers get to see 바카라사이트 data as well. The balance that exists now is about right.¡±

He said gender and racial biases in student evaluations had been ¡°well documented¡±, and it was ¡°dangerous¡± to release evaluation data in a form that allowed academics to be rated against each o바카라사이트r. ¡°What this is really about is¡­using [student evaluations] as a disciplinary tool for staff.¡±

Professor Crossley said 바카라사이트re was little evidence that bias in student evaluations differed from 바카라사이트 background bias in society. Such biases needed to be taken into account, but 바카라사이트y did not completely invalidate 바카라사이트 data.

¡°I don¡¯t think using student surveys is significantly exacerbating sexism. There¡¯s sexism in many places, but that¡¯s not a reason to not listen to students.¡±

In representations to 바카라사이트 commission, 바카라사이트 NTEU cited UNSW¡¯s 2019 paper on? as evidence of 바카라사이트ir unreliability. The large study found that bias was pronounced in some disciplines but .

A , also cited by 바카라사이트 NTEU, found that student evaluations of teaching were so methodologically flawed that 바카라사이트ir use could not be justified. But it also acknowledged disciplinary differences, with biased evaluations far more likely in 바카라사이트 sciences than in 바카라사이트 humanities.

Dr Cahill said 바카라사이트 union would seek to enforce a ban on 바카라사이트 publication of student evaluation data in negotiations to replace 바카라사이트 UNSW enterprise agreement, which nominally expired in December.

john.ross@ws-2000.com