Students say Oxbridge Academy's service is top-notch

17 Jun 2015

Oxbridge Academy awarded its 30,000th certificate this month, testifying to its position as a leading distance learning provider in South Africa. But graduation numbers alone do not tell a full story. Wanting to know exactly what our students thought about studying at Oxbridge Academy, we asked all those who graduated during the past year to tell us more about their experiences of studying with us.

Oxbridge Academy’s Student Services Department receiving their own service delivery recognition awards.

Here is what our students had to say:

Firstly, we asked our graduates the simple - yet telling - question: Did you enjoy studying at Oxbridge Academy? To this:

Over 96% of students responded that they either 'agreed', or 'strongly agreed'.

Following this, we asked a series of questions that related to the college's service delivery methods and performance. What we learned was that:

95% of our students felt that they received their study materials on time.
89% of our students felt that they received sufficient responses to their queries from Student Advisors.
89% of our students knew who to contact whenever they needed help with their coursework.

We also wanted to know what our graduates thought of the content of their courses. So we asked them whether they felt that they had gained sufficient knowledge from their studies. To this:

30% of our students replied that they 'agreed'.
69% of our students replied that they 'strongly agreed'.

We then asked our students whether the courses they had just completed had already impacted their ability to secure employment, a promotion, or a salary increase. To this:

56% of graduates 'agreed' or 'strongly agreed'.
35% of students did not respond to this question.

A possible explanation for the lack of response to this last question is that many new graduates might have felt it was too early to tell. But with a national unemployment rate of 26.4% - the highest since 2003 - the responses we did get were extremely encouraging.

Finally, we also asked our graduates for any additional feedback they wanted to give. The amazing comments we received here largely summed up the overall feedback we received:

"I gained experience in this course they were very professional and supportive the service delivery was on time all the time"
"The course service quality and support was excellent and will open door for everybody."

"It was a very wonderful experience, professional service delivery very good quality and the support was tremendous."

What enables us to achieve this level of student satisfaction?

One of the main conclusions we could draw from our graduates' responses was that, above all, Oxbridge Academy's service delivery is impeccable. This is partly due to the general benefits of distance learning.

Distance learning colleges like Oxbridge Academy often operate without set semesters. For students, the benefit is obvious: they can enrol anytime of the year and finish their courses according to their own schedules. For the college, on the other hand, this means that we do not get administratively bottlenecked - allowing us to deliver great service on an ongoing basis.

There are, however, many distance learning colleges that still deliver subpar services. So what makes us so different in this regard? Oxbridge Academy has always aimed to set itself apart by following a defined set of values:

Integrity in everything we do
Respect for all people
Proactive behaviour
Quality processes
Service-driven excellence

As our Managing Director, Barend van den Berg, says: "Everyone lives those values in this organisation... And these values all, in my opinion, create the performance that we expect. Bringing the performance through in the company culture means that we have a very efficient and effective organisation."

To find out more about Oxbridge Academy, you can visit www.oxbridgeacademy.edu.za, or talk to us on 021 1100 200.

Oxbridge Academy is an established private college offering distance learning courses to students in South Africa and abroad. Through distance learning, we give students the opportunity to study courses in fields such as accounting, administration, bookkeeping, business, childhood development, health and wellness, HR, management, and tourism on a part-time basis from home.