National Student Survey Analysis of national results for 2011 Alex Buckley August 2012 Contents Key findings ______________________________________________________________ 3 1. How to use this report ___________________________________________________ 5 1.1 Statistical significance _________________________________________________ 6 2. Overall results _________________________________________________________ 8 2.1 Overall item scores __________________________________________________ 8 2.2 Overall scale scores _________________________________________________ 10 2.3 Relationships between aspects of the student experience ______________________ 11 2.4 Impact of aspects of the student experience on overall satisfaction _______________ 12 3. Student characteristics __________________________________________________ 13 3.1 Differences between age groups ________________________________________ 13 3.2 Differences between genders __________________________________________ 16 3.3 Differences between disability and no known disability ________________________ 18 3.4 Differences between subject clusters ____________________________________ 20 3.5 Differences between student domicile ____________________________________ 23 3.6 Differences between part-time and full-time students _________________________ 25 3.7 Differences between part-time Open University students and other part-time students 27 4. Institutional characteristics _______________________________________________ 29 4.1 Differences between UK nations________________________________________ 29 4.2 Differences between mission groups _____________________________________ 32 4.3 Differences between institution types ____________________________________ 35 4.4 Comparison between HE and FE institutions _______________________________ 38 5. Comparison between NSS and PTES ________________________________________ 40 6. Additional HEA resources ________________________________________________ 42 6.1 Discipline reports __________________________________________________ 42 6.2 Research _________________________________________________________ 42 6.3 Case studies of enhancement activities ___________________________________ 43 6.4 Postgraduate surveys ________________________________________________ 43 6.5 Consultancy and change programmes ____________________________________ 43 7. Further reading _______________________________________________________ 44 Appendix A: Brief description of analyses ________________________________________ 46 Appendix B: Information about the NSS _________________________________________ 47 Appendix C: Core NSS items_________________________________________________ 48 2 Key findings Quality of teaching and learning (Q1-4) This is the most positive area of the survey. It is also the scale that has the strongest impact on students’ overall satisfaction with their courses. While there are few large differences between the different student groups for these items, students at Pre-1992 institutions are more positive than students at other institutions. Assessment and feedback (Q5-9) This is the least positive area, and the three items specifically relating to feedback (Q7-9) are the three least positive in the survey. Despite the negativity expressed by a substantial minority of students, and the emotive nature of assessment and feedback, there appears to be a relatively weak connection between students’ experiences of assessment and feedback and their overall satisfaction with their courses. There are a number of large differences between student groups for these items. Lowest levels of positivity can be found among students from the EU, those studying at Pre-1992 institutions and those studying at institutions in Scotland. Conversely, more students respond positively from older age groups, subjects in Arts and Humanities, and further education colleges (FECs). Academic support (Q10-12) Within the three items in this group, there is a much higher level of positivity for Q11, relating to the ability to contact staff, than for Q10 and Q12, that relate to advice and support. There are very few large differences between student groups for this area in the survey. Students at Pre-1992 institutions are more positive than other student groups about their ability to contact staff when they need to, while students at FECs are more positive about the advice and support they have received. Organisation and management (Q13-15) There is a strong connection between this scale and students’ overall satisfaction with their courses. Disabled students report less positivity for the items in this scale, while students at Pre-1992 institutions are more positive. Learning resources (Q16-18) Not only is the connection between this scale and students’ overall satisfaction with their courses very weak, there are also only weak correlations between this scale and the other scales, rendering the learning resources scale a relatively isolated element of the survey. Students at Russell Group institutions, and Pre- 1992 institutions generally, are more positive about these items. Students in older age groups, and students at the OU, are notably less positive about Q18, which is related to the ability to access specialised equipment and tends to receive far fewer responses than the other items in the survey. Personal development (Q19-21) As with the academic support scale, there are few large differences between student groups for the items in this scale. Students in older age groups are less positive, while students studying subjects in Health Sciences are more positive. Results from the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES), which uses similar questions but surveys a different group of students, suggest that undergraduate students are more positive about personal development than taught postgraduate students. 3 Overall satisfaction (Q22) The results in this report suggest that the items in the six scales capture around two thirds of students’ overall experience of their courses. This is reassuring, but it highlights the fact that there are therefore important elements of their experience that the NSS items do not capture. There are some large differences between the levels of overall satisfaction for different student groups. Students at Russell Group and 1994 Group institutions, and Pre-1992 institutions more generally, are more satisfied. Students at institutions in Scotland and students in older age groups also express greater overall satisfaction. Age groups There is a general trend for positivity to increase with age. This trend can be seen for most areas, with the personal development scale being a prominent exception. Part-time students Very pronounced differences can be seen between the responses of full-time and part-time students. However, further investigation suggests that many of these differences are attributable to the distinctive responses of students at the OU. In general, full-time students and part-time students studying at institutions other than the OU report broadly similar experiences, whilst OU students report experiences with a very different character. Further education colleges There are large differences between the reported experiences of students at FECs and students at higher education institutions (HEIs). However, in many cases these large differences between FECs and HEIs as two aggregated groups are less pronounced than differences between types of HEI. For instance, students at HEIs report greater overall satisfaction than those at FEC institutions. However, closer examination shows that FEC students have very similar levels of overall satisfaction to students at both Post-1992 and Small and Specialist institutions, and it is in fact the Pre-1992 student responses that account for the higher result for HEIs. Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) The comparison between NSS results and the results for selected items from PTES suggests that undergraduate students are broadly more positive about their experiences than students on taught postgraduate courses. However, caution should be exercised due to the differing nature of the respondents, their courses, and the survey response rates. 4 1. How to use this report This report presents data from the 2011 administration of the National Student Survey (NSS), broken down by a range of student and institutional characteristics. It is designed to provide high-level information about the perceptions of students in UK higher education, and to assist universities and colleges in targeting, designing and evaluating their efforts to enhance learning and teaching. When used with an awareness of their limitations, NSS data can play a useful role within institutions in supporting improvements in learning and teaching. By allowing comparisons and benchmarking, the data can highlight issues that would reward further investigation, either as areas of apparent success or challenge. NSS results can be a useful starting point for discussions about learning and teaching, either with colleagues, senior managers, student representatives or students themselves. It is also important to triangulate the data with quantitative and qualitative information from other sources in order to have an accurate sense of students’ experiences. This report presents a high-level picture of UK undergraduates’ perceptions of their courses, through the lens of the NSS data. It does not provide a detailed picture of students’ learning experiences, nor does it dictate specific areas for intervention. However, it can be used in