Examining students' research experiences with the Student Research Experience Questionnaire (SREQ) at the University of Hong Kong

Abstract

Since 1990s’, there were regular surveys each year on undergraduate students’ perceptions of university teaching and learning environments in Australian universities (Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ)). In 2000’s, Postgraduate Research Experience Questionnaires (PREQ) and Student Research Experience Questionnaire (SREQ) were also developed for the evaluation of research higher degrees in these universities. The data obtained have supported universities in improving the quality of the undergraduate education as well as benchmarking between universities and faculties. Hong Kong is undergoing major education reform in recent years and for some universities instigating the systematic evaluation of student learning experiences at all levels. CEQ has served as an initial tool to commence this evaluation process at undergraduate level and a modified version has been validated for the Hong Kong context. The present study aimed at validating SREQ and four newly developed scales for the evaluation of postgraduate research experiences in Hong Kong context. Group differences, correlations between scales, and the effect of student research experiences on their perceived development of generic skills were also explored. The findings supported the scale structure of four SREQ scales and two newly developed scales. Structural equation modeling suggested that only one out of four variables in SREQ (supervision) and two newly added factors (peer support and communication with supervisor) contributed significantly to students’ perceived development in generic skills.