Student influence - on paper?

Abstract

There are many expectations on course evaluations. The formal writings in the Higher Education Act reads that the students have the right to exert influence on their education, something that in the ordinance is expressed through their right to evaluate their courses. Teachers wish to have feedback both during a course, preferably as a part of the learning process, and as material for course development. Evaluations have also become an important component for quality work at higher education institutes. In addition, evaluations are becoming more and more digitalized and automated.

In this contribution, we discuss the contradictions in which the different expectations result and relate these to concepts of partnership in education. We arrive in the conclusions that digitalization and automation still give us possibilities to look at quality work and course evaluations in a new perspective where the formal student influence can give good support to actual student influence.