THE-ICE International Student Barometer and Student Barometer (ISBSB)™ Survey & Benchmarking Research
Overview
In a world of expanding global education opportunities, understanding the student experience has become essential to the success of student acquisition and retention.
As part of THE-ICE’s commitment to significantly and sustainably enhancing the quality of higher education in tourism, hospitality, events and culinary arts (TH&E), THE-ICE has partnered with Etio (formerly i-graduate) since 2007 to conduct the annual THE-ICE ISBSB (International Student Barometer and Student Barometer™) Student Satisfaction Survey, monitoring and benchmarking international (ISB) and domestic (SB) student expectations and satisfaction at THE-ICE accredited member institutions.
What is THE-ICE ISBSB™?
THE-ICE ISBSB (International Student Barometer and Student Barometer™) Student Satisfaction Survey is a collegial benchmarking and development program wherein “co-operative competitors” share anonymised performance measures, thoughts, and ideas to improve the quality of TH&E education across the globe.
THE-ICE ISBSB tracks decision-making, expectations, perceptions, and intentions of international and domestic students from application to graduation. At the core of the ISBSB™ is an online questionnaire, tailored by THE-ICE for its members and completed by students across all levels and all years of study. The confidential responses are analysed and aggregated to deliver comparative insights and reported back in confidence to each member institution by THE-ICE Executive Team.
Participation in this student satisfaction research is mandatory for Committed to Quality (C2Q) Accredited Members of THE-ICE.
Individual institutions’ performance is benchmarked externally and confidentially against THE-ICE Index and a Global Index, enabling each member institution to assess performance over time and against a peer group.
The ISBSB™ offers students a platform to tell their institutions, and THE-ICE, what matters most to them and how they feel about their experiences. The findings can be used to review all aspects of the student experience and deploy resources effectively, as well as to inform institutional student acquisition and retention strategies.
Who conducts the survey?
Etio is an independent benchmarking and consultancy service that delivers comparative insights for the education sector worldwide. They specialise in delivering world-class insight tools and studies for stakeholders in education and have developed partnerships with institutions, governments, and education-related organisations, including THE-ICE. Their customers and partners include many of the world’s leading universities, colleges, and schools, as well as governments and government agencies, across 24 countries.
The purpose of Etio is to enable education providers to maximise competitive advantage, value, and quality. They believe that the perceptions of students and stakeholders are a new currency for change in the education sector and that change is best achieved by benchmarking performance against external indices and tracking improvements over time.
For more information about Etio, visit their website.
Premier ranking awards and global benchmarking reports
Since 2018, THE-ICE has delivered global benchmarking reports, analysed and collated by Etio, as part of its deliverables to THE-ICE members in addition to THE-ICE ISBSB™ Survey reports. Results have indicated that THE-ICE member institutions are leaders in the field of tourism, hospitality, events, and culinary arts education in key elements of student satisfaction, as benchmarked against the Global Index.
THE-ICE’s focus in conducting these benchmarking activities is to assist its members in fully understanding the experience of their students, across all programmes and student types, both inside and outside the classroom. THE-ICE anticipates that these results will be utilised by member institutions for ongoing, informed internal quality assurance and enhancement, future student retention and acquisition planning, and improvement of their respective education programmes.
This is the first ranking system based solely on quantitative data of student satisfaction, and member institutions achieving a premier ranking of #1 against the Global Index are recognised annually by THE-ICE for their outstanding and ongoing commitment to quality.
View a list of THE-ICE member institutions that have achieved Global Premier Ranking.
The benefits of benchmarking
As a quality assurance (QA) agency, THE-ICE adopts a stance on accreditation and benchmarking that aligns with most QA agency peers and QA umbrella networks: that scoring highly on a single ranking system does not necessarily equate to high-quality education, given the ever-increasing number of global ranking systems.
The external and confidential benchmarking of each institution’s aggregate data against the THE-ICE Index and a Global Index of institutions enables each member to focus not only on how they are doing over time, but also on their overall performance against a peer group of institutions. Further, this assists institutions in identifying priority areas for investment, allocating resources more effectively to meet changing student expectations, and evaluating and adapting their recruitment and marketing efforts by student type.
Benchmarking and reporting for Accredited Institutions
THE-ICE also offers extended benchmarking and reporting options to further support institutions in analysing and enhancing the student experience.
While participation in the ISBSB™ survey is a core benefit for C2Q Accredited Members, the survey is also available to Accredited Institutions of THE-ICE as an optional add-on:
- THE-ICE ISBSB™ global student satisfaction survey and raw results data
AUD $6,000 per annum - THE-ICE Executive Report, including annual trend analysis and benchmarking against THE-ICE Index and Global Index
AUD $3,000 per annum
These options provide additional depth of insight and longitudinal analysis to support institutional planning, quality enhancement, and strategic decision-making.