Students’ Perspectives on Courses Evaluation in Universities: A Case of Archbishop Mihayo University College of Tabora (Amucta), Tanzania

The study investigated the students’ perspectives on courses evaluation at AMUCTA as a case among universities. The low rate of students’ participation in courses evaluation had raised concerns among some academic staff on the university’s self-evaluation and quality assurance mechanism at the institution. However, the factors for the issues of concern among the staff were not known besides the fact that courses evaluation was a compulsory exercise in the institution and no known study had been done on the matter. The study employed concurrent mixed methods research design. Four research questions and hypotheses guided the study. Semi-structured questionnaires were administered to 228 third year students who were randomly selected. Quantitative data were analysed through descriptive and inferential statistics using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22. Qualitative data were analyzed through thematic approach by identification of themes. The findings indicated that the students saw courses evaluation as an important exercise although they had low morale to take part in the exercise. Furthermore, there had been no feedback given to the students from the evaluation reports nor any measures taken on what they always proposed. Students’ demographic characteristics had no statistic significant effect on their rating of the effectiveness of and satisfaction with courses evaluation. The study concludes that the factors for the low rate of students’ participation in courses evaluation stemmed from the AMUCTA environment. Their concerns about the impact of courses evaluation in their studies made them respond to the questionnaires at low rate though the alternative solutions that they provided were viable. Hence, the study recommends to the management to revisit the practice of courses evaluation at the institution and address students’ concerns.