Part-time Students And part-time Study In Higher ... - Universities UK

The invitation email explained the purpose of the survey, gave details of its sponsors, gavereassurances about confidentiality, and included the URL of the website where the questionnairewas hosted.9.2 The questionnaireThe questionnaire was designed by Professor Claire Callender, London South Bank University, inconsultation with GfK NOP. The questionnaire was designed to meet the particular objectives ofUniversities UK and the Independent Review of Part-time Higher Education Study.The average length of the questionnaire was around 20 minutes, somewhat longer than the 15minutes originally planned. The following topics were covered in the survey:• Basic course details.• Reasons for studying.• The costs of study.• Views about course.• Other information about course.• Demographics.The questionnaire script was written using “mrInterview”, an SPSS software program which is usedfor all of GfK NOP’s online interviewing work.To meet the requirements of Welsh HEIs, the questionnaire was also translated into Welsh,utilising the expertise of a professional Welsh translations agency, Prysg. Due to the very tighttimescales however, we had to launch the English-language version of the questionnaire first, withthe Welsh-language version following about one week later.9.3 PilotThe questionnaire was also piloted in order to refine the question wording and length.Approximately 150 students were contacted via their tutors at three institutions, University ofWestminster, University of Hertfordshire and London South Bank University. Although a £10incentive was offered to all students who took part in the pilot, only 12 interviews were achieved,whereas we had been hoping for at least 30, given the use of an incentive. This was partly due tothe length of the questionnaire, which at the pilot stage was typically taking half an hour or more tocomplete, but also possibly because timescales meant we were not able to allow enough time forstudents to access their emails.Our analysis of the pilot survey data also shows that in addition to the 12 students who fullycompleted an interview, there were another 42 people who logged into the online survey, of whichthe vast majority terminated the interview after only a couple of questions. However, for incompletePart-time students and part-time study: Strand 3 Universities UK 81