Contemporary Australian higher education policy draws together a number of measures of quality relating to the student experience and the achievement of learning outcomes within a regulatory framework. New performance indicators are in the process of being developed and piloted, with results ultimately to be made public on the ‘My University’ website. This paper explores the connections between existing institutional measures of the student experience and the outcomes these students achieve at the level of the individual unit of study within the context of a large university in Western Australia. Fulltime students enrolled in seven core units in the first year of a Bachelor course were studied (n=2920). Student evaluation data (qualitative and quantitative), unit grades and course retention data were interrogated. A number of patterns were observed relating to student evaluations and student achievement which were in places contrary to previous findings. This observation has implications for the external publication of evaluation data and student outcomes. Suggestions for internal quality improvement approaches are identified and discussed.

Keywords: student evaluation of teaching and learning, student grades, student retention