National Student Survey: student satisfaction climbs to 84% with record response rate

Some small improvements were also seen in other areas including a 3% increase to 64% in satisfaction for Assessment and Feedback and a 1% increase in satisfaction for both Teaching and Learning Resources. The Students' Union also saw an increase from 62% in 2015 to 66%.

All other sections stayed the same, with 76% for Academic Support, 79% for Personal Development and 80% for Organisation and Management, putting us ahead of the sector by 1%.

Some UCL departments have performed extremely well, with 98% satisfaction rates recorded in the UCL Slade School of Fine Art, the UCL Institute of Archaeology and UCL Anthropology.

Record response rate

The NSS is a national survey sent to all undergraduates in their final year and this year the response rate at UCL was higher than ever before, with 79% of students completing the survey, compared to 71% in the previous year.

Professor Anthony Smith, who as UCL's Vice-Provost (Education & Student Affairs) oversees the student experience, said, "We are pleased that overall satisfaction has increased. Achieving high levels of student satisfaction in the National Student Survey is a key part of our strategy.

"However, we want all aspects of the student experience at UCL to be outstanding and these results show there is more work to do in certain areas, such as assessment and feedback. We are working hard to improve this with, among other things, standardised marking criteria and a new online feedback tool for students.

"At UCL, we believe in integrating education and research so that students are encouraged to be directly involved in research at all stages of their studies. We believe this greatly adds to our students' overall satisfaction."

Insight for departments

Student comments will be released to institutions on 24 August and will be useful in giving context and insight to the statistics. Departments will receive their full NSS reports, including comments, on 9 September as part of their Annual Student Experience Review (ASER) packages, together with data on average student achievement and completion rates and the Destination of Leavers (DLHE).

This information will assist departments in reflecting on their strengths and weaknesses and in formulating their Development and Enhancement  plans.

For more information about ASER, please visit the ASER section of the Academic Manual. If you have any queries about the process, please contact Sandra Hinton.

If you have any queries about the 2016 NSS results, please contact Rebecca Allen.

Sally Mackenzie, Head of Student Engagement, Office of the Vice-Provost (Education & Student Affairs)