Take part in the Student Experience Survey
The Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) Student Experience Survey (SES), conducted annually by the Australian Government, is open to first and final year undergraduate and all postgraduate coursework students.
The 2024 Student Experience Survey has now closed.
What is the Student Experience Survey?
The Student Experience Survey (SES) is a comprehensive study of current higher education students in Australia. It is administered by the Social Research Centre on behalf of the Australian Government Department of Education and is sent to first and final year undergraduate students and all postgraduate coursework students.
The SES gathers information on five facets of your learning experience: Skills Development, Learner Engagement, Teaching Quality, Student Support and Learning Resources.
Participation in the SES is voluntary, it takes approximately 10-15 minutes to complete, and all responses are confidential.
Your feedback makes a difference, and we are committed to improving the student experience.
How do I participate?
Eligible students will receive an invitation to participate to their student email address from ses@srcentre.com.au. Some students may also receive an invitation via SMS or telephone call.
Eligible students can also visit student surveys to complete SES.
Why should I participate?
The SES is your opportunity to have your say about what it’s like being a University of Sydney student, and to actively contribute to shaping the future of higher education in Australia.
By sharing your feedback, you’ll help us improve our course offerings, student services and campus facilities, and assist the higher education sector and the government to monitor and improve teaching and learning in Australia.
How do I enter the prize draw?
By completing the survey, you will automatically be entered into a weekly prize draw for the chance to win a $1,000 prepaid e-gift card. View the Student Experience Survey terms and conditions.
Where do I go for more information?
More information about SES can be found at qilt.edu.au/ses.
If you have any questions about your participation in the survey or would like to make time for an interviewer to call you, please call the Social Research Centre on 1800 055 818.
Your feedback makes a difference
Your feedback and insights are important to us. Your feedback will be used to help inform our ongoing work to improve the educational experience of students. Here are some examples of how we’ve listened to and acted upon students’ past feedback:
What you told us
“The University needs to partner with students.”
We've made student partnership a central feature of the development, implementation, and iterative improvement of Student Life events and support programs, as well as teaching, assessment and learning approaches. In 2024, $3 million was invested across 40 innovation projects.
These partnerships have produced new teaching resources, new laboratory experiments, student-led social initiatives and student liaison committees for scholarship groups, including Dalyell and MySydney students.
“Learning how to use artificial intelligence is important to me.”
The University is changing its policies to build learning activities and assessments that help students master artificial intelligence (AI) tools and use them effectively and ethically.
We've partnered with students to co-design the AI in Education Canvas site, and have recently won two Future Campus Awards – 'Best use of AI in learning and teaching' and 'AI university of the year'.
Our academics are also piloting a generative AI tool, Cogniti, which is already helping thousands of students access tailored, 1:1 support 24/7.
"We want to know how we're performing in our units of study before census date"
In 2024, we introduced a new Support for Students Policy, the first university in Australia to do so. As part of this, we introduced an early feedback task across all first year units, increasing student success by 10 percent.
“Students who have additional caretaking responsibilities need structural academic support.”
We expanded our Inclusion and Disability Service to student carers in Semester 2 2023, enabling students with caretaking responsibilities to have an academic plan that covers all their course units.
Previously, student carers had to apply for special consideration for every individual assessment. Since the expansion of support, 33 student carers have registered with Inclusion and Disability Services.
“We’re searching for ways to foster a sense of belonging and connect with our peers.”
We developed the Student Life Grants Program – an initiative that empowers students to co-design and implement projects that build a sense of community at the University.
Since the program’s inception in Semester 2, 2021, $329,000 in funding has been granted to students to develop 177 student-led projects. Since the program began, 19,000 students have attended a Student Life Grant event or initiative.
“Wait times for wellbeing support are too long.”
We introduced same-day service for wellbeing support in 2023, bringing the wait time down from a previous six weeks. Same-day support is still available to all students, even with a 15 percent increase in wellbeing service use in 2024.
Last updated: 19 November 2024
