Why is the National Students Survey important for Higher Education Institutions in the UK?
This year 12 Universities were not on the list, including Cambridge, Sheffield and Manchester because of the students' boycott. What is the impact of that?
I wrote a report on assessment feedback within a specific department for the University of the Highlands and Islands in one of my extracurricular roles while I was a student there. I found the NSS useful both as a benchmarking tool, and also to see long-term trends within institutions.
From the perspective of what I did, having one year missing would not have been too much of an issue. Long-term trends could still be seen, and from what I saw it was rare that there were massive spikes within trends. It was also used alongside more specific surveys, so the NSS was only a part of the picture.
However if students feel the need to boycott it longer-term, then it would be a loss to benchmarking on issues that directly impact students at a time when that voice is increasingly important in HE Institutions in the UK.
Thanks Neil, I also see that universities are using this to enhance recruitment strategies. Russel Group universities are now expanding their students' numbers in conjunction with these figures.
When I saw the National Students Survey of 2016, I thought that there have been “unscientific” attitudes among the students who participated with their responses.
I do not think that well-established universities have declined to the extent displayed in that survey. I have visited many U.K universities & I knew many scholars who either retired or are still working.
Probably what satisfies the students of today is different from what we used to like in the past (e.g. challenging exams & research projects).
Thanks God that such surveys do not play a role in high policies but are mere advertisement for certain institutions.
The important part of the NSS (or, at least, the part that institutions pay attention to) is overall student satisfaction. While it's generally a good thing to have degree programmes that leave students satisfied, it's becoming more important with the imminent introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). Achieving a good overall score in the TEF will allow universities to charge higher tuition fees for their degree programmes. Student satisfaction as measured by the NSS is one of the TEF criteria.
Note: This obviously only applies to U.K. universities.
http://www.hefce.ac.uk/lt/tef/
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