University of Newcastle says it is not surprised by survey results which show a sharp dive in student engagement and satisfaction last year.
The federal government-endorsed Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching survey shows learner engagement fell from 59.3 to 41.8 per cent at Newcastle in 2020 as COVID-19 interrupted classes.
Undergraduates' satisfaction with their "entire educational experience" slumped from 79.2 per cent in 2019, just above the national average, to 66.4 per cent, just below the national rate.
Professor Jennifer Milam, the University of Newcastle's pro vice-chancellor for academic excellence, said internal polling had shown many students found 2020 "challenging".
"The University of Newcastle is now taking the QILT survey data and responding to the messages it gives to plan for course and program delivery, not just for 2021, but ongoing," she said.
"This semester we are doing well returning our students to face-to-face learning under revised COVID guidelines and we see that's having a positive impact.
"Nevertheless, the pandemic crystallised the need for ensuring our programs continue to be targeted to the mode of learning that optimises student outcomes and graduate requirements in the workplace."
Professor Milam said "positive" survey results for post-graduate students suggested they thrived in the online learning environment.
Newcastle suffered the eighth biggest drop in undergraduate satisfaction of the 41 universities surveyed.
Three Melbourne institutions, University of Melbourne, Monash and RMIT, experienced the largest falls.
The University of Melbourne's student satisfaction rate crashed from 77.6 to 52.3 per cent.
The next least satisfied student cohort was at University of NSW (59.7 per cent), where happiness was already a remarkable 11.3 percentage points lower than at any other Australian university in 2019 at 62.9 per cent.
In four other categories surveyed, Newcastle's skills development rating fell from 81 to 76.5 per cent, teaching quality dropped from 80.8 to 73.8 per cent, student support slipped from 76.2 to 75 per cent, and learning resources sank from 86.3 to 79.7 per cent. The university was close to the national average in all four.
The QILT survey concluded that younger students had felt the impacts of COVID-19 more keenly.
"Student ratings of learner engagement declined by 17 percentage points among students aged under 25 whereas those aged 40 and over experienced a smaller decline of 11 percentage points," it found.
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