Evaluation of MSc programmes: MSc in Healthcare Management ...

Graduates’ experiences of their master’s programme were measured using both
the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) and a number of scales that comprise
the Extended Course Experience Questionnaire (ECEQ). The purpose of the CEQ is
to evaluate graduates’ perceptions of the quality of the courses they completed at
college and the extent to which they perceive they have developed generic skills
(Ainley and Johnson 2000, McInnis et al. 2001). The value of the CEQ is that it
gives a broad perspective on outcomes by focusing on graduates’ perceptions of
their courses rather than on students’ evaluations of particular lecturers. The
CEQ also examines indicators of relative performance in higher education at both
system and institutional levels (McInnis et al. 2001). Theories of teaching and
learning informed the development of the CEQ (Ramsden 1991, Ainley and
Johnson 2000). Its main strength is that the instrument enables the researcher to
link students’ perceptions of the quality of a programme to learning outcomes. In
testing it has been shown to be a reliable and valid instrument. It has also been
claimed to be valuable in ‘improving the quality of teaching in universities and
also for informing student choice, managing institutional performance, and
promoting accountability of the higher education sector’ (McInnis et al. 2001, pg.
3). The CEQ instrument has undergone progressive refinement, development
and testing over the last twenty years culminating in the recent development of
an Extended Course Experience Questionnaire (Griffin et al. 2003).
In its original form the CEQ was found to be a reliable and valid instrument that
identified the quality of teaching in different academic departments and
institutions (Ramsden 1991). However, the original CEQ instrument was deemed
to be lacking in its ability to capture the wider aspects of the student experience
in higher education including the impact of a higher education programme on
student outcomes. Therefore to comprehensively capture the experience of
students at university, in addition to the current scales on the CEQ (Good
Teaching Scale; Clear Goals and Standards Scale; Appropriate Assessment Scale;
Appropriate workload Scale and Generic skills Scale), five further scales were
recommended to extend the instrument. These new scales included the Student
Support Scale, Learning Resources Scale, Learning Community Scale, Intellectual
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