University quality of life and learning (UNIQoLL): an approach to student well-being, satisfaction and institutional change

Institutional self-evaluation is becoming increasingly pertinent as the student population becomes more diverse and higher education institutions become more customer focused. This paper describes the philosophy and early stages of a large-scale institutional self-evaluation project, based at and funded by the University of Leeds. UNIQoLL (UNIversity Quality of Life and Learning) aims to monitor student well-being over time, on a university-wide basis. It explores students' perceptions of strengths and weaknesses in the university's academic and service infrastructure and the relationship of these perceptions to student well-being. It aims to 'close the loop' by facilitating change in academic and service infrastructure in the light of emerging findings in order to enhance the student experience. The focus on student psychological well-being in addition to satisfaction, the longitudinal approach and the university- wide scope make UNIQoLL unique as a system of institutional self-evaluation. A pilot study in which 23 departments (n=3667 students) participated is described to illustrate the procedures and underlying philosophy of UNIQoLL. Selected findings from two pilot surveys are presented to illustrate the potential of the project in providing relevant and useful information for academic departments, university support services and university managers. Illustrative data relating to academic issues, accommodation, student finances and student well-being are presented. Long-term success of an institutional self-evaluation project like UNIQoLL depends on the active cooperation of and ownership of findings by departments, students and university agencies. It also needs procedures to be sufficiently rigorous to generate robust findings and yet be sufficiently manageable to be feasible and sustainable.