The National Student Survey, published today, has endorsed the positive view from the student customers for Higher Education, with 82% confirming overall satisfaction with their experience. Commenting on the outcome, Alice Hynes, GuildHE CEO, said:

“We are delighted to see continuing high levels of satisfaction among students at our member institutions. We all know that times are going to be tough for students graduating this year. These figures show once again that students at our institutions feel they have had a good experience. As they graduate this summer, they will be well positioned to compete in the job market. Other sectors must look with envy at the satisfaction ratings achieved by higher education institutions.

“The pity is that all too often the excellent results achieved by the smaller institutions – institutions like St Mary’s University College Belfast and the Royal Agricultural College – are not picked up in the media because of an emphasis on the larger, traditional universities.  GuildHE member institutions have a good track record and good practice to share – we would like to make sure that prospective students have the opportunity to see the full diversity of the sector.”

For further information, contact:

Alice Hynes, Chief Executive, GuildHE
alice.hynes@guildhe.ac.uk  
tel 020 7387 7711

Notes to Editors

1. 2010 National Student Survey results can be accessed on the HEFCE website or the Unistats website.

2. GuildHE members are among the most dynamic and fastest-growing in higher education. GuildHE is an inclusive body, with members across universities, university colleges and specialist institutions. The members include many institutions with a specialist mission or subject focus and major providers in art and design, music and the performing arts, agriculture, education and health. For a list of GuildHE institutions, click here

3. Data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) on the destinations of leavers from higher education in the United Kingdom, released on 17 August, shows that 9.3% of graduates from the academic year 2008/09 were assumed to be unemployed six months after graduation. This is roughly half the average number of 18-24 year-olds identified as unemployed during the same period by the UK Labour Force Survey, available from ONS. The Labour Force Survey figures reveal 18-24 year-old unemployment fluctuated between 17.2% and 18.2% over the period of HESA’s graduate destinations survey (April 2009 – January 2010). The figures for unemployment for first degree leavers from GuildHE institutions were 8.7% – lower than the average for HE institutions.