Feedback loop

It is astonishing that the issue of how to use student feedback is still so problematic ("Efforts to secure student feedback 'missing the mark'", www.timeshighereducation.co.uk, 4 September).

It was clear at the time of the Cooke report in 2002 that while most higher education institutions collected feedback assiduously, few had mastered the art of using it effectively. Those that have done so have integrated it into their continuous quality improvement processes and have found it an efficient way of engaging the student voice to inform management decisions. Indeed, a virtuous circle of feedback, action and feedback has proved successful in engaging students in many institutions' quality processes in the UK and abroad.

Once again, we appear to be reinventing the wheel rather than looking to our own rich history for examples of good practice.

James Williams, Associate editor, Quality in Higher Education, Birmingham City University