GuildHE comments on National Student Survey

The National Student Survey published today has endorsed the positive view from the student customers for Higher Education with over 80% confirming overall satisfaction with their experience. This was also on the basis of an increase in student response rates.

Commenting on the outcome Alice Hynes GuildHE CEO said “We are pleased to see that student satisfaction levels are holding up well at a time of economic recession. We know that students graduating this year will have been worried about the prospects for jobs but the high levels of satisfaction at places like Harper Adams University College and the Arts University College at Bournemouth reflect that our institutions not only look after their students well during their studies but make sure they are well prepared for the job market. The result is that students can be more confident about their prospects. It is not only the subjects classified as STEM (Science technology and mathematics) that are important for the jobs the UK needs.

The Government must recognise the delivery of the green agenda including food production issues and the creative industries as vital to the UK economy.

These levels of satisfaction despite a stressful year for this cohort of completing students provides an important context for the broader debates on fees and the Higher Education Framework. The recognition of the NSS in the recent IUSS Select Committee report was helpful; noting also that it is based on such a large and broadly based sample. We are delighted that some of our members are in the highest range of the survey and we hope that identified good practices can be shared with other colleagues. The detail of the survey shows areas where HE providers will want to improve and the opportunity to dig more deeply into student comments as well as scores will be taken by all our institutions.”