Selling lemons? The relationship between learning and teaching information on university programme web pages and future students’ course satisfaction

Abstract

The sources and types of information that prospective university students access during the recruitment phase have been widely researched. However, there is limited research on the usefulness of the learning and teaching (L&T) information provided by universities to prospective students in describing their own learning experiences of the programme. The study investigates the meaningfulness of the efforts of HEIs in (1) providing L&T information to prospective students and (2) attending to guidance from government bodies on L&T information that universities should make available to prospective students. Findings based on secondary data analysis of L&T information available for prospective students on 36 university websites and the students’ satisfaction scores of their perceived learning experience whilst on programme indicate that only a small proportion of information provided on university websites reliably reflects the students’ actual learning experience on the programme. Furthermore, the study provides guidance on the L&T information universities should feature on their programme webpages which is likely to be a more realistic indicator of their actual learning experience.