Abstract:

The future of teaching and learning in higher education has been widely discussed since the shift of university teaching to the digital sphere made necessary by the coronavirus pandemic (BRUGGEMAN et al., 2021; SCHERER, HOWARD, TON-DEUR, & SIDDIQ, 2021). In this context, the perspective of students must also be considered as a factor for their satisfaction and success (HASSEL & RIDOUT, 2018). Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS) in particular need to respond to these developments, as they provide practical and career qualifying education and often have a high proportion of part-time students. The article therefore examines the question: What do students expect from teaching and learning at a Swiss university of applied sciences?

This study focuses on the expectations of students in bachelor's and master's programs at universities of applied sciences. The University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW), which educates over 13,000 students in 30 Bachelor's and 20 Master's degree programs in nine different disciplines, is taken as an example (FHNW, 2022). The findings aim to help decision-makers in university management and lecturers to identify relevant student expectations and to incorporate them into the development of study programs and courses.

A qualitative approach was chosen for this study as it examines current developments in a dynamic environment where the subjective expectations and experiences of students are the main focus. First, anonymized free-text responses from a voluntary online survey were evaluated. Feedback from a total of 2,439 students from the nine universities of the FHNW was qualitatively analyzed. This analysis resulted in a collection of themes related to students' expectations. These results were discussed and deepened in two group workshops and two individual interviews with students. The method of thematic analysis was used to capture motives and their meaning by coding the data. The primarily inductively developed codes were paraphrased and condensed into overarching categories. The key points of the categories were then summarized and relationships to other categories were analyzed.

The findings suggest that students expect teaching and learning at a university of applied sciences to provide didactically sound and digitally supported experiences of competence and community. They are looking for support in social aspects and feel that collaboration skills have not yet been developed in a targeted way. In addition, the digital momentum of the COVID semesters has not yet sufficiently permeated higher education. Digital skills are part of students' standard expectations of lecturers and urgently need to be developed. These insights can be used to align university teaching with students' expectations and thus strengthen the acquisition of competences and the attractiveness of teaching.

Keywords:

Student's expectations, university teaching, competence acquisition, collaboration, university of applied sciences and arts.