UWA gets thumbs down for teaching
Students have rated the University of WA, the State's oldest and most prestigious institution, just one star out of five for teaching quality for the second year in a row.
The annual Good Universities Guide ranks institutions on their graduate outcomes and educational experience based on surveys and government data.
Universities often include the best annual ratings from the guide in their advertising material.
The latest edition, released this week, revealed a one-star rating for teaching quality at the UWA, compared with two stars for Curtin and Murdoch and five for Edith Cowan and Notre Dame Universities.
A UWA spokesman said the university recently launched a new vision for teaching practices across all courses in response to the changing nature of students, technology and workplace expectations.
UWA, which is in the top 100 universities in the world on a separate international global ranking, rec-eived four and five stars for getting a full-time job, student to staff rat-ios and graduate starting salaries, but just two for overall satisfaction.
Curtin and Murdoch also scored two stars for overall satisfaction, compared with five each for ECU and Notre Dame.
ECU vice-chancellor Kerry Cox said it was the sixth year in a row the institution had received five-star ratings for teaching, generic skills and overall satisfaction.
"Of all the useful contributions to communities that universities should make, teaching and learning is very important, providing the skills, confidence and qualifications necessary to succeed in the global-knowledge economy," he said.
Notre Dame vice-chancellor Celia Hammond said she was delighted with the consistent five-star ratings the university had received from the "influential" publication.
Curtin University vice-chancellor Deborah Terry said the university was reforming the curriculum to enhance graduate employability.
"We were very pleased to see the five stars for starting salaries," she said.
