Langara student satisfaction rates show slow decline

By Rui Yang Xu

Joshua Poole went to college in Alberta before transferring to Langara. He finds that it’s been a better experience here than he’s had in other schools.

Poole, a second-year computer science student, said other colleges and universities had class sizes that were too large and intimidating.

“So many people, so many classes, and Langara is nice for that — that it’s just smaller,” Poole said.

Slow decline

While Poole has been satisfied with his time at Langara, recent reports from the school have shown that while the college still has a relatively high level of satisfied students, the level has declined over the last year.

Over the past few years, overall student satisfaction has been slowly dipping to 86.8 per cent in 2019 from 93.8 per cent in 2016, according to Langara’s 2020 Strategic Plan.

The latest B.C. Student Outcome Survey shows that 96 per cent of students were satisfied with the quality of instruction at Langara College, 92 per cent with their education and 91 per cent felt prepared for further studies, according to the Langara website.

In comparison, in the 2018/2019 school year, UBC had a 94 per cent student satisfaction rate. In 2019, SFU sat at 82 per cent.

According to Langara’s 2020 strategic plan, the college has a target of 100 per cent satisfaction.

Ben Cecil, Langara’s provost and vice-president of academics and students, said in order to make sure the college continues to provide relevant programs, the survey results are vital.

“We use the metrics of student satisfaction, transfer rates, and graduate satisfaction to measure our performance annually,” he said. “The overwhelming majority of our students are satisfied with the services, supports and education they receive at Langara.”

Financial concerns play a big role

For Arjun Cartagena-Senanayake, a first-year biology student, financial concerns are the dominant concern for him and how his tuition fees are being spent by the college.

“If the school focuses its resources on things that don’t benefit a majority of students, it’s not improving their experience,” Cartagena-Senanayake said. “You’re putting in like a lot of money into the system, but you’re not really getting as much out,”

Satisfaction still high

Despite student satisfaction dropping, students like Poole are appreciative of the effort Langara is putting to ensure students are happy.

“It seems like the school is taking good steps from what I’ve noticed to work with the students and make sure they’re as happy as they can be”