SECaT Evaluations
UQ Union

SECaT evaluations provide you with the opportunity to provide feedback on your experience of courses and teaching at UQ. Each time a course is offered, students enrolled in that course will be invited to evaluate their course and teacher(s) via an online SECaT evaluation.
SECaT evaluations provide you with the opportunity to provide feedback on your experience of courses and teaching at UQ. Each time a course is offered, students enrolled in that course will be invited to evaluate their course and teacher(s) via an online SECaT evaluation.

How does completing a SECaT benefit me?



You may be finished with the course, but completing a SECaT can still benefit your future learning experiences. Teaching teams within disciplines, schools and faculties are continuously collaborating and sharing information. This means your constructive and useful feedback may impact on your future courses, ultimately leading to a better course experience for your future self.

SECaT course results are publicly available for all students to view in the below dashboard. These outcomes from previous SECaTs can help you make decisions about which courses you may like to enrol in for future Semesters. The more students that complete the SECaTs, the more reliable this dashboard will be. Completing your SECaTs will ensure that this information is available and representative for future students considering courses based on what you have had to say.

 

How do I write constructive feedback for a SECaT?

Feedback provided through student evaluations should be constructive. Explain your perceptions of the course, teaching and tutoring strengths and weaknesses, with suggestions for improvements. We suggest you comment on aspects of course, teaching and tutoring quality, such as content, resources, assessments, teaching and learning strategies, or organisation.

Comments should be professionally communicated – that is, avoid using expletives or urban slang. Please also avoid comments of a personal nature that are not relevant to course, teaching and tutoring quality.

When completing evaluations, you’re required to comply with the Student Integrity and Misconduct policy, which outlines acceptable and inappropriate student behaviour. Offensive or inappropriate comments will be removed.

Evaluations are not the mechanism for lodging grievances. Refer to the Student Grievance Resolution policy if you have a grievance about academic or teaching standards.

Are SECaTs confidential?



Your responses to student evaluations are confidential, in that individually identifiable data are not made available to academic staff. By agreeing to complete your evaluations, you agree to provide constructive feedback (positive or negative), which is intended to help improve the quality of teaching and learning at UQ. In doing so, you are also aware of your obligations as a UQ student. The University will access student information related to student responses when required by law, and if a response is identified by UQ staff to be in breach of the University’s Student Integrity and Misconduct policy or duty of care responsibilities to students and staff.

Student identification information in these instances will only be accessed in order to unpublish comments, manage allegations made in comments, and archive them for legal purposes. Academic staff will not receive individually identifiable student information unless the University is required to provide this information for legal compliance.

How do I complete my SECaTs?



You can find links to all your SECaT surveys in the Evaluations Portal, at eval.uq.edu.au. SECaTs are voluntary, confidential, and take only 3-5 minutes to complete. You can choose to opt out of individual surveys and you can evaluate only the staff who have taught you.

If you require assistance of any kind to complete the SECaT, get in touch with the UQU and we can connect you with someone from student support services who can assist you.