Top tips for promoting the NSS 2021 to your students

The 2021 National Student Survey (NSS) takes approximately 10 minutes to complete and is an opportunity for final-year undergraduate students to give feedback on their course and university.

This has been a challenging year for many – the NSS 2021 is especially important to understanding what we've gotten right during this time at UCL, and where we might better focus efforts to meet the challenges ahead.

A 50% response rate with at least 10 respondents is required for departmental results to be published, but higher response rates bring in even more valuable feedback.

With the move to online teaching, and with many of our students and staff being away from campus, the way we approach promoting the survey needs to differ from that of previous years. Students are no longer walking past posters or attending in-person departmental survey sessions.

Below are a few helpful hints and tips on ways in which you can help promote the NSS whilst students are learning online.

1. Download our promotional materials for NSS 2021

Staff can download a variety of co-branded NSS promotional materials, including web banner images and email signature designs from the Templates and Guides page.

These materials can help raise awareness of the NSS among students in your department. Whereas previously we may have had posters on walls, why not use Moodle as your classroom? Adding an NSS banner to the top of key Moodle pages is a useful way to promote the survey when students are away from campus.

You might also consider sending Moodle messages that update students on the latest departmental response rate.

2. Promote the survey via social media

Many students are engaging more regularly with their departments via social media, especially during lockdowns, and there are plenty of opportunities for staff to encourage completion of NSS 2021 via these channels.

On our Templates and guides page, you can find Instagram stories and other images and banners that can be added to various social media channels.

Staff should refrain from sharing current response rates via a public account however, as these are now counted as an Official Statistic under the Office for Students, so should not be publically shared until the full results are released in the summer.    

3. Ask your Student Academic Reps to get involved

Student Academic Reps have built good relationships with their peers and are in a great place to help raise awareness of the NSS with their fellow students. Sharing resources such as promotional materials with the student reps is a great place to start.

You could also share with your reps how the scores and comments from previous surveys have inspired change at departmental, faculty and UCL-wide levels. Examples of improvements made in response to student feedback can be found on You Shaped UCL.

4. Promote the UCL departmental incentive and involve students in decision-making

The UCL incentive scheme is running again this year to help encourage students to complete the NSS questionnaire. Departments achieving a 70% response rate will receive a reward to spend on their students.

The Student Partnership team will be sharing regular response rate updates as the survey continues.

Why not start providing your students with a regular response rate update in comparison to the 70% target? This reward money has proven to be a great incentive, encouraging students to take part.

Let students know that the reward money will be spent in agreement with them. This is another way of demonstrating how completing the survey can lead to positive change for the department. SSCC members and Academic Rep are a great network to consult about ways in which the money could be spend. Some departments have also organised polls via Moodle to canvass students on how the funds should be used.

Please note that the funds allocated to departments who meet the 70% mark depend upon the size of the NSS-eligible cohort in that department:

5. Ask teaching staff to get involved

All departments have an NSS Liaison Officer but as always, all staff are invited to help promote the survey; students have reported that they are most influenced to complete feedback activities when encouraged to do so by a member of staff they know already.

Academic staff who are looking to boost response rates for their department can consider mentioning the NSS in their online teaching sessions and explaining why it is a valuable source of feedback for UCL. We have provided a set of template PowerPoint slides as a good starting point for staff to tailor and add to their online lecture, if they wish.