What do PGTs think of our response to the Covid-19 crisis?

This year’s Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) included three additional questions beyond the core questionnaire about UCL’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The PTES was open for four weeks at UCL, and over 5,500 of our postgraduates submitted their responses and comments, a 32% response rate, reflecting excellent work by departments to promote the survey in difficult and unprecedented circumstances.

UCL’s additional questions asked students the extent to which they agreed with the following:  

• I am satisfied with UCL’s adjustments to teaching arrangements in response to the Covid-19 outbreak; 72.7% agreed
• I am satisfied with UCL’s adjustments to assessments (e.g. exams, essays / dissertations) in response to the Covid-19 outbreak; 78% agreed
• I am satisfied with UCL’s communications to students around the Covid-19 outbreak. 76.5% agreed

The Student Partnership team within the Office of the Vice-Provost (Education & Student Affairs) analysed the responses to the Covid-19 questions first, before the full analysis of the core questions, and they are now available on the UCL website.

Professor Anthony Smith, Vice-Provost (Education and Student Affairs) said:

'Thank you to colleagues for the enormous amount of work that went into the switch to alternative assessments and online learning in Term Three. It has been a complex challenge undertaken at great speed.  The response of our postgraduate taught students has been largely positive and we will be circulating the PTES comments next week.  I hope these will help us all as we plan the education and student experience for the upcoming 2020-21 academic year.’

It is encouraging to note that student satisfaction with each question rose week-on-week. Notably, satisfaction with UCL’s adjustments to teaching arrangements rose from 68.5% in week one of the survey (18-25 May) to 75.2% in the final week (9-15 June).

The results are available at faculty, department and programme level, as well as split by demographics. Although the questions on UCL’s response to the Covid-19 were posed at a university-wide level, we’ve decided to include results at faculty, department and programme.

Remote learning and adapted assessments inevitably and understandably have a different impact on each area of UCL, but offering a snapshot of student sentiments locally may – in combination with the student comments to be released in early July – prove useful in planning for Term One 2020-21.

There were some very impressive results at departmental level:

• The Department of Greek and Latin (53% response rate) and the Department of Statistical Science (38% RR) reported 100% satisfaction with the adjustments to teaching arrangements.
• The Division of Psychiatry (41% RR) reported 96% satisfaction with UCL’s adjustments to assessments.
• The Department of Physics and Astronomy (30% RR) reported 94% satisfaction with UCL’s communications to students around the Covid-19 outbreak.

If you have questions about PTES 2020 contact the Student Partnership team: student.engagement@ucl.ac.uk