Instituto Superior Técnico

Student Survey

1. Is the survey anonymous?

Although you need to login in Fénix to access the survey, your ID will not match with the answers. Those answers are only used for statistics purposes and the results are after displayed if they fill the requirements that are explicit in the regulation of QUC guaranteeing anonymity.

2. Is the survey mandatory?

No. After you fill out the Initial Board (Curricular Unit workload), that requires information to estimate ECTS, you can choose to answer or not, giving the reason why you don’t want to answer the survey. In spite of that, don’t forget that the surveys are an important tool to monitoring the Curricular Unit, and Teaching Staff, performance.

3. What type of information is necessary to fill out the Initial Board?

The Initial Board sets a list of Curricular Units, where you were enrolled during the semester with the respective number of contact hours per week. You just need to fill the blank spaced items related to:
i) Percentage of classes attended during the semester;
ii) Percentage of number of autonomous work (NHAW) per week, based on the average number of NHAW per week during the semester;
iii) Number of study days during the exam season per Curricular Unit.

4. How’s the survey structured?

The survey is divided in two parts. The first one has 4 groups with different questions about the Curricular Unit workload, organization, evaluation and acquired knowledge along the semester with this UC. The second part is optional and it’s about the Teaching Staff. For further information, please click here to see an example of the survey.

5. What formula is used to calculate the ECTS?

ECTS _student= ( ( %C * NCH + %E * NHAW ) * 14 + NSD * 8 ) / 28

• NHAW = Average of weekly hours spent on the course during class time (information introduced by student)
• %C = Percentage of classes attended (information introduced by student)
• %E = Percentage allocation of NHAW regarding the Course Unit (information introduced by student)
• NCH = Number of contact hours per week regarding the Course Unit (system information)
• NSD = Number of study days around exam time for the Course Unit(information introduced by student)

It is assumed that the 1 semester has 14 class weeks; 1 study day around exam time corresponds to 8 working hours; 1 ECTS corresponds to 28 working hours in a semester.

6. What does autonomous work mean?

7. Are the course unit surveys made public?

How to fill out surveys

1. Is it possible to edit the Initial Board after submitting it?

No, after you fill out and submit the information in Initial Board, you can’t go back to edit it.

2. When does the survey period expire?

The survey period will end simultaneously with the enrollment period in the following semester.

3. How can I know that all my surveys are filled out in order to enroll in the next semester with no problem?

In Fénix click on “Student” and then on the left side “QUC – Surveys”. If you have already filled out all surveys the following message will appear: “All your surveys are filled out. Many thanks for cooperating”.

2nd Cycle Dissertation Survey

1. Who is the survey aimed at?

This survey is for the students enrolled in the Dissertation, regardless they’re only enrolled without working on it, or if they’re still working on their Dissertation or if they have already completed it by the time the survey is made available for completion.

2. When is the survey available to fill out?

The survey is made available to fill out between January and March every year following the academic year of enrollment in the Dissertation subject (e.g., if the student enrolled in Dissertation was in 2017/18, they will respond to the survey from January 2019).

3. Where and how can I fill out the survey?

The survey is hosted on the LimeSurvey surveys’ platform. Therefore, the student who has enrolled in Dissertation will be contacted via email with the request to fill it out via the link provided. Confidentiality is guaranteed.

4. Is the survey mandatory?

The survey is not mandatory, however all students who enrolled in Dissertation, regardless of whether or not they have completed it, must fill it out. This tool is important to know the reality and the profile of students that are 2nd cycle finalists and is crucial to improve the teaching-learning process in the context of the final course exam.

5. How can I consult the survey results?

The survey has been applied since 2012/2013. We suggest consulting the global results by school year and by course by clicking here (results are available only in portuguese).

PhD Surveys

1. What kind of surveys exist and to whom are they aimed at?

There are two surveys applied to PhD students:
– Finalists Survey: questionnaire applied to PhD students at the final stage of their doctoral program, after the final thesis documentation has been submitted.
– Intermediate Survey: questionnaire applied to PhD students at the moment of enrollment in their 3rd year in the doctoral program, period after the eventual discussion and/or delivery of the thesis proposal.

2. When are the surveys available to fill out?

– Finalists Survey: applied during the thesis approval process while the student is “waiting for the thesis approval”.
– Intermediate Survey: applied after the two enrollment periods for doctoral programs that typically take place in February and September.

3. Where and how can I fill out the survey?

Both surveys are hosted on the LimeSurvey surveys’ platform. In both cases an email invitation is sent to the students who are in the respective conditions to fill them out.
– Finalists Survey: The Post-Graduate Area sends an email invitation to finalists during the thesis approval process.
– Intermediate Survey: An email invitation is sent to students who are able to complete this questionnaire on behalf of the Pedagogical Council and the Scientific Council.

4. Are the surveys mandatory?

– Finalists Survey: is mandatory, since it is part of the documentation required to deliver to the Graduate Area in the thesis homologation process.
– Intermediate Survey: is sent in an invitation email with a survey link where students are able to decide whether or not they wish to answer the full questionnaire. If they indicate that they do not wish to answer, they must justify the reason for not participating in this process.

5. How can I consult the surveys results?

The surveys have been applied since the year 2019, so there are still few results. However, the existing ones can be consulted in the menu on the right under “3rd Cycle Survey” (quc.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/inquerito-3o-ciclo) by clicking on the intra-menus of results corresponding to each of the surveys. The results are available in summary format as PDF files in both Portuguese and English versions.