Campion College, Australia’s first liberal arts institution, has been awarded the number one Bachelor of Arts degree provider for the fourth consecutive year.
Campion College was founded in 2001 by the Campion Foundation to meet Australia’s need for a liberal arts education centre. The institution opened its doors in 2006 after gaining official approval from the NSW Department of Education and Training the previous year. Since then, the college has expanded significantly. But, more importantly, it has enhanced its ability to provide a superior learning experience for all its students. These improvements have made their mark, as evidenced by Campion’s good scores in institutional surveys.
Students graded Campion and other universities through the 2019-2020 Student Experience Survey conducted nationwide. The recently published survey results are administered by the Federal Government’s Quality Indicators For Learning and Teaching (QILT) initiative. In the Quality of Entire Educational Experience category, Campion scored 96.9 per cent.
To compound those impressive results, Campion College also maintained its top position at the Learner Engagement rankings with a final mark of 95.9 per cent. This achievement adds to the college’s accolades as the foremost Bachelor of Arts Institution with regard to the student experience. In that instance, Campion attained a ten percentage point lead over the runner-up.
Campion also continued to hold its position within the top ten rankings in all other QILT measurement matrices. It placed third in Skills Development, Quality of Experience, Student Support, and Teaching Quality.
Campion College can attribute its stunning success to the use of small class sizes. These measures ensure that the learning environment remains intimate, thus encouraging greater participation and interaction.
Campion president Dr Paul Morrissey acknowledged and lauded the college’s achievement. He also commented on its approach. “At Campion, we believe that a degree should be a formative experience, in which you don’t merely learn facts, figures, or theories but rather to assess them critically, question them, and discuss and debate them both in class and out. In short, we believe in teaching our students not what to think, but how to think.”
“So much of the Campion experience is the community, the small class sizes, as well as easy access to the lecturers, and we believe this has contributed to our place as the number one institution for learner engagement,” he said.
Additionally, the smaller class sizes proved to be an advantage in 2020. While the first semester classes were conducted entirely online because of restrictions to curb the spread of Covid-19, the college was able to resume in-person learning sooner than other institutions. As a result, students were back in the classroom in August 2020, and face-to-face instruction continued in 2021.
Of this boon, Dr Morrissey said, “We’re very fortunate to have a smaller student body, as it means we’ve been able to bring all our students back onto campus with safety protocols in place.”
Campion College continues to set itself apart as an institution where the students’ experience is taken into account at every turn. With all the emphasis the college places on providing learners with the access to the educators they need, they can gain the optimum engagement levels to help them ensure success within the classroom and beyond.
A Bachelor of Arts in the Liberal Arts degree program at Campion is a three-year course with a core curriculum that focuses on philosophy, history, theology, literature, and science. In addition, a student may take classes in elective classes, including Latin, science, Ancient Greek, and maths. For more information about Campion and its BA, refer to this website.