The annual National Student Survey targets mainly final year undergraduates at publicly funded higher education institutions (HEIs) across the UK.
The main purpose of the study is to give future students an insight into the University, including the teaching quality. The results of the survey are made available to the public to assist prospective students decide what and where to study through the Unistats website and also the University's online prospectus. The survey gathers views on the quality of teaching and student experience at the University from those who are leaving. The results are an essential part of the quality assurance framework for higher education and they also provide the University with information to enhance teaching quality, by supplementing internal feedback mechanisms.
In 2018 over 320,000 students from 413 institutions across the UK responded to the survey and at Ulster University 76% of final year undergraduates gave their opinion on their student experience.
Survey Information
Internal results are published in the data section.
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The Survey
The questions in the survey focus on issues directly related to quality of teaching and are divided into the following sub-headings:
- Teaching on my course
- Learning Opportunities
- Assessment and Feedback
- Academic Support
- Organisation and Management
- Learning Resources
- Learning Community
- Student Voice
- Overall satisfaction
NHS-funded students have an additional six questions relating to their practice placement(s).
Responses to each question are scaled from 1-5 (definitely disagree - definitely agree). Students also have the opportunity to provide both positive and negative comments on their overall experience.
Students are firstly contacted by email inviting them to log on to the survey website to complete the questionnaire. Ipsos MORI, who administer the survey and provide the results to HEFCE, UCAS and participating institutions, follow up students who do not respond by conducting telephone interviews.
The 2019 NSS questionnaire can be viewed through the following link: NSS Survey Questions
Students are also invited to complete additional optional questions in 2019.
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2019 Survey Timetable
The 2019 NSS will be live online at for Ulster students from 28 January 2019.
The NSS is a multi-method survey conducted by Ipsos MORI and their planned timetable of survey activity is outlined below:
2019 Survey Timetable Date Ipsos MORI Activity 31 January 2019 Initial email to students with a link to the online survey. 4 & 8 February 2019 Reminder emails will be sent to non respondents. 14 February 2019 An SMS reminder will be sent to non respondents. 15 February 2019 The telephone survey commences. 1 March - 30 April Email and telephone follow up with non-respondents. Throughout the survey period staff from Quality Enhancement will take iPads into classrooms at the request of teaching staff, to enable students to complete the survey prior to the commencement of class. Course Directors can contact Mrs Andrina Gaston (a.gaston1@ulster.ac.uk ext 24991) to arrange a suitable time.
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Inappropriate influence
Ipsos MORI has issued a fact sheet outlining examples of inappropriate influence and stressing the importance of ensuring survey promotion is neutral. It also outlines the actions that HEFCE will take if an incident is reported.
Links to this document and HEFCE's procedure for investigating allegations of inappropriate influence are provided below:
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Publication Thresholds and Response Rates
The sample for the 2019 survey consists of around 4100 students. The following publication threshold criteria must be met in order for results to be published publicly:
- a minimum of 50% response rate and
- a minimum of 10 respondents.
This threshold applies to institution, JACS Subject and course level data.
To assist with monitoring progress response rate reports are updated weekly during the survey period and can be accessed from your Faculty QE data page.
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Results
Survey results are publicly available in the following ways:
- Published 'in context' on the websites of universities and colleges via a Unistats 'widget'. This is a small graphic with three pieces of information from the Unistats data collection, specifically about the course the user is viewing.
- Published on the Unistats website that enables users to search and compare Unistats data.
- On the UCAS course search tool (Course Finder), which will incorporate the Unistats data so users can view the data at the same time as viewing the courses they are interested in applying to.