Office for Students (OfS) National Student Survey 2024

Just under 346,000 final year students at 520 institutions responded to this year’s survey about their experience of higher education – a response rate of 72.3 per cent. The 28-question survey, conducted by Ipsos, covers teaching and learning, assessment and feedback, academic support, organisation and management, learning resources, student voice, student union, mental wellbeing and freedom of expression. Institutional level and subject level data is also available. 

The full results and data can be found at the Office for Student's website. 

At-a-glance:

• Most students were happy with the quality of teaching, with 91 per cent saying staff were good at explaining things - the same proportion as last year 
• There were slight increases in the percentage who said their course was intellectually stimulating and challenging and that teaching staff made it engaging: bringing totals to 84.6 per cent and 80.9 per cent respectively. Most scores for the quality of IT and learning resources were in the high 80s
• More students feel that they are well informed about their provider’s mental health services – with 78.6 per cent saying it was well communicated, up from 75 per cent last year
• Overall satisfaction with course quality rose in Northern Ireland (80 to 80.2 per cent), Scotland (77 to 78.1 per cent), and Wales (75 to 79.8 per cent). This question has been dropped from the survey in England
• Most scores on the quality of learning opportunities ranged from 82.4 to 84.7 per cent. The weakest area, once again, was getting the balance right between independent and directed study, but even this rose from 76 per cent in 2023 to 77.4 per cent this year
• More than 85 per cent of students responded positively on the three questions covering the levels of academic support they received (up from between 83 and 84 per cent last year)
• Assessment and feedback are still a relative weakness, with 72.7 per cent of students agreeing that feedback helped to improve their work and 76 per cent feeling that marking criteria were clear: similar scores to 2023
• Around three quarters of students responded positively to questions about the organisation and management of courses 
• “Student voice” is a relatively low scoring category, though some progress was recorded. Just 63.3 per cent of respondents felt it was clear how students’ feedback on their course was acted upon (61 per cent in 2023). 76.5 per cent were positive about the extent to which students’ opinions were valued by staff (74 per cent in 2023)
• 72.9 per cent of respondents said students’ academic interests were well represented by their students’ union and 86.4 per cent of students in England said they felt free to express ideas, opinions, and beliefs during their studies

Implications for governance:

The NSS provides valuable data to institutions on student perceptions of important areas of the student experience. As well as giving governors indications of institutional strengths and weaknesses, the NSS results feed into league tables and has the potential to impact reputation and competitiveness, particularly in the international market.

Because of changes to the survey, breaking a time series stretching back to 2017, direct comparisons can only be made with last year’s data. In most areas, positive responses have increased, indicating that even in challenging times, with students struggling with cost of living concerns, and some institutions forced to tackle financial shortfalls, the student experience is holding up.

Areas that traditionally record relatively low scores - such as feedback, clear marking criteria and the balance between independent and directed study - saw slight improvements. 

Satisfaction with levels of academic support rose to more than 85 per cent of students. Boards may be reassured by this, particularly with the advent of B3 conditions which judge universities on student outcomes. Providing the right support to enable students to progress and thrive in their studies has never been more important. Governors may want to look at their own institution’s NSS data on this, to gauge the extent to which it is line with sector averages.

Also heartening is the rise in the proportion of third years indicating that their institution is successful at communicating information on mental wellbeing services, although a fifth of students responding negatively to the question is still likely to be regarded as too many. UCAS figures show a 450 per cent increase in student mental health declarations over the last decade. Many students chose not to highlight the problem or develop concerns while at university. According to analysis by the Policy Institute at King’s College London and TASO, the share of undergraduates at universities across the UK who said they had experienced mental health difficulties rose from 6 percent to 16 per cent between 2016/16 and 2022/23, with a significant part of the increase occurring in the last 12 months when the cost of living crisis intensified.

Another potential concern may be the lowest scoring question by some way out of the 28 in the survey: “How clear is it that students' feedback on the course is acted on?” - with only 63.3 per cent responding positively.

Institutions have a variety of methods for gathering feedback on modules and courses, from surveys to course representatives. It may be that student responses are not sufficiently taken into account. Alternatively, institutions that do act on student views may need to improve communications to explain responses to student concerns. Some institutions score well on the measure and may have approaches that could work elsewhere. 

Universities can, of course, use their own high scores on various questions as marketing tools. The continued provision of an overall satisfaction score in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland has already been utilised, with, for example, the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) publicising the five percentage point jump in positive responses by students across Welsh institutions. Governors will no doubt be relieved to find the positives far outweigh negatives in this year’s NSS: but the biggest future gains will be made by tackling any problem areas highlighted in the survey.