How the new OFS survey for postgraduates can help your department

UCL postgraduates on taught programmes can take part in the new pilot survey from the Office for Students (OFS) until 31 May.  

The survey is open to UCL students in the final year of their Master’s, PGCE, PGCert and PGDip programmes. Eligible students will have been contacted by Ipsos MORI, the research agency conducting the survey on behalf of the OFS, and can complete the survey directly via www.thepostgradsurvey.co.uk.     

The survey takes around 10 minutes to complete and features 26 questions on topics including motivations for study, course organisation and management, and assessment and feedback.   

UCL has a large postgraduate community and results from the survey will offer a vital insight into their experiences and help to guide our future improvements locally and across the university.  

Participating in the pilot edition of the survey also helps UCL shape the ongoing development of a likely future nationwide survey for postgraduates from the OFS. You are welcome to contact the Student Engagement and Experience unit with any feedback on the pilot survey, so they can collate UCL’s feedback.   

How the survey results will be used 

UCL’s results from the Postgraduate Survey will be shared at faculty, departmental and programme levels, where sufficient responses have been received. At programme and departmental level, at least 10 responses will be required for results to be shared, to safeguard participating students’ anonymity.  

Faculties and departments will be able to use the results to identify areas of focus for future improvements to the postgraduate experience. You can see examples of how previous student feedback has inspired changes on the You Shaped UCL pages.   

Results from the survey will not be available to the public and will not contribute to any league tables or university rankings. Students will not be identifiable from the results, and Ipsos MORI will not share which students have or haven’t completed the survey.   

How you can help 

UCL is keen to secure as many Postgraduate Survey responses as possible, to ensure a robust sample size. The survey is being promoted through UCL’s social media channels and the weekly student email newsletter, myUCL.  

Ipsos MORI are also promoting the survey through an email campaign, SMS messages and reminder phone calls to eligible students yet to submit a response.  

However, students are most likely to submit their feedback when encouraged to do so by somebody they already know, so departmental support for the survey is invaluable. 

The Student Engagement and Experience team will share response rate updates with departmental and faculty contacts each week. These updates can be useful in tracking the survey’s progress in your department, and identifying any programmes where students are less engaged with the survey.