DITSU

Survey of Student Opinion

Report prepared by Montague CommunicationsOctober 2012

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Contents Pages

Executive Summary …………………………………………………………. 3-5

Introduction …………………………………………………………..……… 6

Sample Profile ………………………………………………….…………….. 7

Students’ Socio-Economic Position ………………………………………8 -10

Participation in DIT Life ………………………………………………... 11- 13

DIT Educational Experience ……………….…………………………… 14-15

DIT Services …………….…………………………………………..………. 16

Awareness of DITSU ………………………………………………..…….. 17-18

DITSU Services …………………………………………………….……… 19-20

DITSU Communications …………………………………………………… 21-22

Class Representatives…..……………………………………….…...……. 23-24

Other Issues ...………………………………………………..………………. 25

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Executive Summary

Studentsʼ Socio Economic Position

Almost one third of those interviewed are renting accommodation, 50% are working and of those the overwhelming majority are working part-time and generally working less than 20 hours per week.

Just over 45% of students said they had applied for a grant with almost eight in ten being successful in their application

Participation in DIT Life

Almost half of the students - 45.1% - said they were a member of a society with 30% being a member of two or more societies, while slightly over 23% are a member of a sports club.

For DIT students, socialising with friends from college - either on their own or in combination with other friends - is a very significant feature of their lives.

Almost 55% of those interviewed said they voted in the last General Election.

DIT Educational Experience

Almost two-thirds of DIT students were aware of the General Assessment Regulations and 61.5% had received a copy of the Student Handbook. However, less than half - 47.6% - were aware that the DIT has a Student Charter.

There was a considerable variation in students' satisfaction levels with their courses ranging from a high of 62.2% for the overall quality of their course to a low of 34.6% for the standard of their lectures.

DIT Services

There is considerable variation in relation to how students rank the importance of DIT services from a high of 96.2% for the library to 19.6% for the chaplaincy. This is reflected in the reported utilisation rates which range from 7% for the chaplaincy to almost 97% for the library.

The satisfaction ratings amongst those using DIT's services also varies widely from 36.1% for the gym to 84.1% for the medical centre.

Awareness of DITSU

Almost half of DIT students - 47.9% - were aware that they were DITSU members, up from 7.5% in 2003. Nearly 60% said that they had ever voted in a DITSU election and 42% said they knew who the President was and 36% could name him.

Nearly three quarters of those interviewed said they knew who their class rep was.

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DITSU Services

DITSU's shops and offices get very good satisfaction ratings from those using them with over 75% expressing high or very high satisfaction with them in both cases. A strong majority of students - over 60% in both cases - feel that these services are important to them.

Awareness levels of these services are also high but not surprisingly many more students - 87.8% - use the shops as compared to the offices - 51%.

Again awareness levels of DITSU's welfare services are strong ranging from 83.6% for the union's health advisory service to 51.4% for parenting advice.

Encouragingly there are good awareness levels for the academic and education services with, for example, over three-quarters being aware of DITSU's exam and assessment advice service and almost 70% of those who have used it expressing high or very high satisfaction with it.

A majority of students think that it is important or very important that DITSU is involved in improving the quality of their course and there is strong satisfaction with the union's work in this regard.

DITSU Communications

Over 80% said they know how to contact DITSU if they have a problem - most would visit the offices, with the remainder using other means like email and phone.

Almost 50% have used the union's website, with over 44% having used the Facebook page and 11.5% the Twitter account.

However, in terms of being contacted by DITSU, a very significant proportion - 42% - feel that email is the best way to keep them informed and nearly 20% say Facebook. Only 5.9% opted for posters.

Class Reps

Almost 80% believe that it is highly or very highly important that Class Reps consult their classes with 54.2% expressing high or very high satisfaction with such consultation.

Nearly two-thirds of students want their Class Reps to keep them informed of DITSU events and campaigns, however, less than 40% express high or very high satisfaction with Class Reps' activity in this regard.

DIT students are also extremely eager that their Class Reps keep them informed on any changes to their course - half are highly or very highly satisfied with how the Class Reps are discharging this function.

Other Issues

Just over 40% of DIT students know what USI is or what it does, while 37.8% feel that it offers them good value for money.

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Over half of DIT students would welcome a merger between DIT and other Dublin-based colleges.Introduction

Montague Communications was commissioned in spring 2012 to oversee the process of surveying DIT students for DITSU – we had previously done so as part of the 2003 Strategic Review.

This process began with the development of the survey questionnaire by a DITSU Working Group led by the then President, Ciarán Nevin, and overseen by Montague Communications.

A sample of 280 students was developed to represent 2% of the cohort – twice the size of the other surveys conducted for DITSU over recent years – and the sample was stratified to reflect the distribution of students across the various DIT campuses. It’s worth noting that in fact 286 students were actually interviewed.

The survey work itself was undertaken by a team of students in late April-early May 2012 who were trained by Pat Montague and DITSU’s Sharon Hughes. Sharon Hughes managed most of the day-to-day operations of the surveying process with the help and support of other DITSU staff.

The data was then analysed by Maggie Pym who has carried out similar analyses of DITSU surveys in the past.

This report has been prepared by Montague Communications based on Maggie Pym’s analysis to give DITSU a comprehensive overview of the results of the survey and to help inform the development of DITSU’s Strategic Plan for the period 2013-2015.

As the table of contents on the previous page has shown, the report deals with the following issues:

• Sample Profile;• Students’ Socio-Economic Profile;• Participation in DIT Life;• DIT Educational Experience;• DIT Services;• Awareness of DITSU;• DITSU Services;• DITSU Communications;• Class Representatives;• Other Issues.

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Sample Profile

As was mentioned in the introduction, the number of students interviewed was 286 and they were broken down as follows:

• 86.7% Undergraduate, 10.5% postgraduate and 2.8% were apprentices;• 83.6% full-time and 16.4% part-time;• 65% male and 35% female.

The sample was distributed across the different DIT campuses as set out below:

In terms of the different colleges within DIT, 32.2% were registered in the College of Engineering and the Built Environment, 27.3% in Arts and Tourism, 25.2% in Science and Health, 15.4% in Business.

Other information that may be noteworthy in relation to the sample is as follows:

• In terms of the level of courses being taken 10.1% of survey participants were Level 6, 25.9% Level 7, 53.5% Level 8, 8.4% Level 9 and 2.1% Level 10;

• 4.2% of those interviewed were international students from outside the EU and the same proportion were EU students;

• Among the Irish students 72.7% were paying the €2,000 Student Services Charge, 3.5% were on part-time fees, 2.4% were repeating a year and so were on full fees, 6.6% were paying postgraduate fees;

• 9.8% of those interviewed were registered as Mature Students, 3.1% were on the DIT Access programme and 4.9% were on the Springboard or Labour Activation Scheme.

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Students’ Socio-Economic Position

The students interviewed were asked a series of questions that related to their accommodation, employment and financial positions.

Their Accommodation

Almost one third of those interviewed – 30.8% – said that they are renting accommodation and they indicated that they found their accommodation via the following sources:

Employment Status

Precisely half of the interviewees stated that they were working and of those, 85.4% were working part-time and 14.6% were working full-time. Those who were working part-time found their jobs from the following source:

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In terms of working hours, nearly 70% of those in employment were working less than 20 hours per week.

Those not in employment were asked why they didn’t have a job and the results were as follows:

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Financial Support

Students were asked if they had applied for a grant from their local VEC or city/county council and 45.1% said they had with the overwhelming majority of those who had applied – 79% – being successful.

Those in receipt of a grant we’re asked to indicate the level of support they were getting and the results were as follows:

Those not in receipt of a grant indicated that they derived their financial support from the following sources:

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Participation in DIT Life

The students interviewed for this survey were asked a series of questions about their participation in student life and wider civil society.

Clubs and Societies

Nearly half of the DIT students interviewed – 45.1% – said they were members of a society, with two-thirds of that number being a member of two or more societies:

Almost one quarter – 23.4% – are a member of a Sports club with most being a member of just one club:

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Social Lives

Students were asked about their social lives, specifically when they go out, who are they more likely to socialise with and the results were as follows:

Clearly then socialising with friends from college – either on their own or in combination with other friends is a very significant feature of DIT students’ lives.

Political Involvement

Over half of DIT students – 54.9% – voted in the last General Election. This compares with 70.1% % of the overall population. While there are no specific figures available for the participation of young people in Irish elections it is always assumed to be somewhat lower than the average and this survey would seem to chime with that understanding.

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According to the survey, the DIT students’ votes were distributed as follows:

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DIT Educational Experience

Students come to the DIT primarily for educational purposes so the survey asked those interviewed a number of questions relating to their educational experience at the Institute.

Awareness of DIT Requirements

The DIT students interviewed for this survey were asked if they were aware that the Institute has a Student Charter and they said the following:

In relation to the DIT’s General Assessment Regulations, 66.4% of those interviewed were aware of them and 61.5% had received a copy of the DIT Student Handbook.

Course Ratings

Students were asked to rate their courses under a number of different headings and we’ve indicated below what the percentage was for the combined high and very high rating:

Importance Satisfaction

Lecturing standards 61.2% 34.6%Timetable 82.1% 55.2%Assessment Criteria 84.6% 56.3%in advance of assessments Timely and adequate 80.4% 39.1%feedback for assessments Exam marking schemes in 79.7% 49.3%advance of examsTimely and adequate 81.1% 43.4%feedback for exams Student involvement in 68.6% 36.4%enhancing the quality of course Overall quality of your course 86% 62.2%

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DIT Services

The DIT offers a range of different services to its students and the survey asked those interviewed how important they considered such services to be, whether they personally had used them or not and, of those who had used the services, how satisfied they were with the service. The results were as follows:

Service Importance Utilisation Satisfaction (among users)

Counselling service 55.2% 14% 67.1%Chaplaincy 19.6% 7% 78.6%Medical centre 75.9% 50.3% 84.1%Library 96.2% 96.9% 77.2%Careers 69.3% 20.6% 57.3%Canteen 70.3% 89.9% 54.1%Registrations Office 67.1% 82.2% 62.9%Examinations Office 34.2% 51.4% 57.8%Societies Office 34.2% 23.4% 67.1%Sports Office 29.4% 14.7% 56.5%Gym 38.8% 24.1% 36.1%

As the figures show, there is a considerable degree of variation in relation to how students rank the importance of the different services – from a high of 96.2% for the library to 19.6% for the chaplaincy. This variation is also reflected in the utilisation rates ranging from a low of 7% for the chaplaincy to almost 97% for the library.

Again the satisfaction ratings vary too from a low of 36.1% for the gym to 84.1% for the medical centre. However, these satisfaction ratings need to be treated with some caution as the sample expressing opinions in this regard are relatively small.

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Awareness of DITSU

Turning to DITSU itself, the survey asked students a number of questions to test their awareness of the union.

Membership

Perhaps one of the most fundamental questions asked was whether the survey participants considered themselves to be DITSU members or not. Almost half of those interviewed – 47.9% – were aware that they were DITSU members. This is a significant improvement on 2003 when the level was only 7.5%.

Likewise 59.4% said that they had ever voted in a DITSU election compared to 36.5% in 2003.

Over four in ten (42%) said they knew who the President is and 36% could name either the incoming or outgoing Presidents – again a strong improvement on 2003 – see the chart below:

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Not surprisingly the numbers were somewhat smaller for the Vice Presidents and their local Class Rep Convenors – all were below 25%. However, nearly three-quarters (72.4%) of members knew who their Class Reps were:

Finally, 71.3% of those interviewed were aware that DITSU represents students on various DIT committees.

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DITSU Services

DITSU provides a wide range of services and the survey explored how aware students are of these services, how important they feel they are, whether they have used them or not and how satisfied they are with these services. Like with the earlier section on DIT’s services, some caution needs to be expressed about reading too much into the satisfaction ratings in places as the numbers using the services are at times quite small so the sample in those cases may not be very reliable. In addition, some of the people using these services may present with quite difficult issues that are beyond DITSU’s mandate to deal with and this may again impact on the satisfaction ratings.

Offices and Shops

The students were asked to rank how important they felt the offices and shops are, whether they have used them and how many of the users were highly or very highly satisfied with the shops and offices. The following are the results:

Service Importance Utilisation Satisfaction (among users)

DITSU Shops 69.9% 87.8% 78%DITSU Offices 61.2% 51% 75.5%

These results are certainly very encouraging from DITSU’s point of view.

Indeed, almost 90% of students – 87.8% – said they know where the local DITSU office is located and 67.1% could actually name its location. Over six in ten (60.8%) said that they have used the offices to access various services including:

Service Importance Utilisation Satisfaction

Tickets 39.9% 38.1% 93.6%Accomm advice 41.4% 7.7% 63.6%Financial advice 51.7% 9.4% 44.4%Volunteer 45.5% 19.9% 29.8%Condoms 22.7% 87.5%College Forms 21.3% 85.3%Academic/Edu Advice 70.3% 14.3% 22.0%Health Information 8.0% 17.4%General Enquiry 60.2% 25.9% 33.8%Job Info/Advice 54.2%

There was also a very high level of awareness of the DITSU shops with 91.3% saying they know where the shops are located and 67.1% being able to name the location. Almost 85% think that it is important for DITSU to have a shop on their campus.

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Welfare Services

There is an almost universal high level of awareness of the welfare advisory services provided by DITSU as follows:

Health 83.6%Accommodation 77.3%Disability and access 75.9%Financial 74.1%Personal safety 61.5%Employment 52.1%Parenting 51.4%

Academic and Education

There were a range of different questions asked in relation to DITSU’s academic and education services. For example in relation to examination and assessment advice, 75.2% are aware that DITSU provides support in this area, 70.3% think that such a service is important. Almost one quarter (23.4%) have used this service with 68.8% of that proportion expressing high or very high levels of satisfaction with the service.

Students seem to put some store by the provision of such advice not just in relation to exams and assessments but in relation to academic and education issues in general with 70.3% saying they believe such a service to be important. However, only 14.3% say that they have ever used such a service with 22% of that cohort expressing high or very high levels of satisfaction with the service.

Finally in relation to the educational area, almost 55% of students feel that it is highly or very highly important for DITSU to be involved in improving the quality of their courses. Almost two-thirds – 65.8% – are satisfied, highly satisfied or very highly satisfied with DITSU’s work in this area.

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DITSU Communications

Communicating with the members is one of DITSU’s key strategic tasks so those surveyed were asked a number of questions about the union’s activities in this regard.

Students were asked whether they have used the various forms of communication provided by DITSU and the results were as follows:

Website 48.6%Facebook 44.4%Twitter 11.5% (this represents 26.74% of those actually on Twitter)

Just slightly over eight out of ten said they know how to contact DITSU if they had a problem with 53.1% saying they would walk in to the office, 11.2% saying they would use email and 11.9% the phone – see table below for full results:

When students were asked what is the best way to keep them informed of DITSU activities they indicated that the following methods of communication suit them best:

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Class Representatives

One of the strong issues to emerge from the survey is the key role DITSU members see their Class Representatives playing in their lives as students – this is hardly surprising given that nearly three-quarters (72.4%) of members say they know who their Class Reps are.

Almost eight in ten (77.3%) believe that it is highly or very highly important that Class Reps consult with their classes. Of those who responded to this question, 54.2% were highly or very highly satisfied with their Class Rep’s consultation.

Students also want to be informed by Class Reps about DITSU events and campaigns – 61.2% felt that this was highly or very highly important. However, the level of high or very high satisfaction with their Class Rep’s information provision is 37.4%.

Students are even more eager to hear from their Class Reps on any changes to their courses, with 84.3% stating that such information is highly or very highly important to them. Exactly half of the DITSU members surveyed are either highly or very highly satisfied with how their Class Reps are discharging this responsibility.

The importance of the Class Reps to DITSU members comes through very strongly in the survey with 82.9% of them saying that it’s important the Class Reps know who to talk to if there is a problem. Almost 60% of the students (59.8%) are highly or very highly satisfied that their Class Reps are equipped with such knowledge.

Clearly then a lot of faith is vested in the Class Reps with some more work to be done in meeting expectations particularly around consultation and information provision.

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Other Issues

USI

Only 42% of DIT students know what USI is or does.

Although a higher percentage – 48.6% know that DITSU is a member. Only 37.8% feel that USI offers DIT students value for money. Given the low level of awareness about what USI is or does that’s not surprising. However, given the financial pressures students and their families are under and will continue to be under, this awareness issue will need to be addressed.

DIT’s Future

The majority of DIT students (54.9%) are unsure as to whether they would welcome the Institute becoming a technological university. However, almost the exact same proportion – 54.2% – said that they would welcome a merger of DIT with other Dublin-based colleges.