Psychometrics as performance indicator: new modes of governance of universities?

Abstract

In Danish universities, like elsewhere, there is an increased concern for students’ mental health and well-being. In 2018 the Danish government implemented a new biannual national student survey that focuses on well-being as a new indicator in the performance-based funding model. In this article we explore the survey, which is similar to surveys from other national contexts, and discuss the possible effects on students and universities. We draw on a Foucauldian post-disciplinary conceptual framework that asks us to consider how the “psy-disciplines” play out in educational institutions and contexts. We show how the survey mobilises psychometrics based on positive psychology and argue that the survey, as a new form of governing at a distance, normalises a figure of the “positive” student, which may counteract the intention of addressing the lack of well-being. Further it responsibilises universities for how students “feel” rather than what they learn, which constitutes a significant change.

Keywords:

• Well-being
• students
• higher education
• psychometrics
• governance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 All students in Denmark are invited to respond to the psychometric questions on stress, well-being etc., but the questions about the students’ learning strategies are only distributed to a sample of students. However, institutions can purchase a full-population survey (Danish Ministry of Education and Research, 2022b) and recently more than half of the higher education institutions in Denmark have replaced their local study environment surveys with a full-population report from Denmark’s Study Survey (Epinion, 2021).

2 Here it is timely to keep in mind Tal’s (2015) argument that “the measurement of most psychological attributes, such as intelligence, anxiety and depression, does not rely on homomorphic mappings of the sort espoused by the Representational Theory of Measurement (Wilson, 2013, 3766). Instead, psychometric theory relies predominantly on the development of abstract models that are meant to predict subjects’ performance in certain tasks. These models are constructed from substantive and statistical assumptions about the psychological attribute being measured and its relation to each measurement task.”

3 For example, the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE) by Matthias Jerusalem and Ralf Schwarzer comprises the following 8 statements:

a) "I will be able to achieve most of the goals that I have set for myself”.

b) “When facing difficult tasks, I am certain that I will accomplish them”.

c) “In general, I think that I can obtain outcomes that are important to me”.

d) “I believe I can succeed at most any endeavour to which I set my mind”.

e) “I will be able to successfully overcome many challenges”.

f) “I am confident that I can perform effectively on many different tasks”.

g) “Compared to other people, I can do most tasks very well”.

h) “Even when things are tough, I can perform quite well.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eva Bendix Petersen

Eva Bendix Petersen is a professor of Higher Education at Roskilde University, Denmark and Director of Research Centre for Problem-Oriented Project Learning. Her research focusses on university culture and governance. Laura Louise Sarauw is an associate professor of Higher Education at Roskilde University, Denmark. Her research expertise is on Higher Education policy and its implications for practice.