Student satisfaction gets top grades at the University of Lethbridge, according to the results of a Maclean's magazine poll.
In areas such as class size, student/professor interaction, overall quality of education and student satisfaction, the U of L ranked consistently high. Maclean's magazine posted the results of the 2008 Canadian University Survey Consortium (CUSC) poll on its website Thursday, and the results for the University of Lethbridge show high marks ranging from 96 per cent to 87 per cent on seven indicators of student satisfaction. More than 12,000 students participated nationally.
The U of L scored best in the area of class size, with 96 per cent of respondents either very satisfied or satisfied with the average size of classes.
Following is a breakdown of the seven indicators and where the U of L scored, in terms of percentage.
2008 Canadian University Survey Consortium results
How satisfied with the average size of your classes?
96% Very Satisfied/Satisfied
Most of my professors encourage students to participate in class discussions
95% Agree Strongly/Agree
Most of my professors are reasonably accessible outside of class to help
students
94% Agree Strongly/Agree
How satisfied are you with the overall quality of the education you have
received at this university?
94% Very Satisfied /Satisfied
My learning experiences at this university have been intellectually
stimulating
92% Agree Strongly/Agree
At this university, professors treat students as individuals, not just
numbers
87% Agree Strongly/Agree
Improvement needed on teaching ability
36% None/Very Little
All participating universities and their respective rankings can be found on the Maclean's Website.
The CUSC was created in 1994; it is a Canada-only survey, and is in large part about student satisfaction. In 2008, 31 institutions took part, including two universities — UBC and the University of New Brunswick — that surveyed multiple campuses.
Surveys were sent to a random sample of approximately 1,000 undergraduates at each university. Institutions with fewer than 1,000 undergrads surveyed the entire cohort.
The University of Lethbridge also measures student satisfaction through a variety of additional surveys.
