Higher education institutions in the United Kingdom (UK) use a variety of ways to collect views from students about the quality of their educational experiences and suggestions for improvements. A small-scale study, funded by Higher Education Quality Council (QAA), explored how this feedback contributes to enhancing subsequent performance. Drawing mainly on practices in two particular institutions, findings show that, although there might be long term benefits in amending educational provision in response to student comment, no direct links can be made between feedback and enhanced learning. Feedback is most likely to focus on improving "teaching" (mostly lecturing) and educational facilities, and scant attention is paid to students' development of their learning strategies. Students are not always informed of any consequences of their feedback; moreover, examples from various universities in the UK show that there is still a problem in making links between student feedback, staff reactions and actions, and staff feedback to students. (Contains 20 references and a figure. Appendixes contain the research evidence, including 2 tables of data; and lists teaching methods identified by T. Bourner and S. Flowers in 1997.) (NKA)