Why does the Students' Union want you to take part?

The Students' Union relies heavily on the data from the NSS to inform its campaigns and lobbying on behalf of students.  The more students that complete the survey, the more representative of student views the data becomes. 

In 2008, students reported that they were unhappy about the level of feedback they received on their work.  The Students' Union worked hard to lobby this issue with the University and believe that by doing this we encouraged the University to do something about it. 

In the summer of 2009, the University held their annual staff conference which focused on feedback and assessment.  The University has also developed a feedback and assessment action plan for the academic Schools.  Hopefully, student satisfaction with feedback and assessment should begin to change with University developments in this area.

What is the National Student Survey?

The NSS is a national initiative, conducted annually since 2005. The survey runs across all publicly funded Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and participating HEIs in Scotland. Additionally, since 2008, Further Education Colleges (FECs) with directly funded higher education students in England have been eligible to participate.

The survey asks final year undergraduates and students in their final year of a course leading to undergraduate credits or qualifications to provide feedback on their courses in a nationally recognised format. There are 22 questions relating to the following aspects of the student learning experience:

• Teaching on my Course

• Assessment and Feedback

• Academic Support

• Organisation and Management

• Learning Resources

• Personal Development

• Overall Satisfaction

Students are also given the opportunity to write positive and/or negative comments about their student learning experience as a whole at their university/college. If you provide comments at the end of the questionnaire, NSS may pass these on, anonymously, to your institution to help them identify how they can make improvements. To preserve your anonymity, please do not make comments that:

• could enable you as an individual to be identified

• name individuals

• make references that could identify an individual