A joint bid from Advance HE, the University of East London and Jisc has secured funding for a new UG and PG pre-arrival survey.
This project will pilot a national ‘pre-arrival’ survey for new undergraduate and postgraduate students across selected higher education providers in England.
By improving understanding of students’ pre-arrival experiences, the project aims to: inform new policy and practice; standardise data collection and usage across the sector; drive local initiatives to better align student expectations with actual experiences; collect diverse data representing various institutions and student demographics; and provide robust evidence to help address disparities in student experiences and outcomes.
The project will be based on the extensive work of Dr Michelle Morgan, Dean of Students at UEL, who has run surveys in this space for some time and approached Advance HE directly to help turn this into something with wider sector impact.
Jonathan Neves, Advance HE’s Head of Business Intelligence and Surveys, said: “We are delighted to be working with UEL and Jisc to design and deliver the first national pilot of a pre-arrival survey to undergraduates and postgraduates across providers in England. This will be an important survey which aims to result in students making the best choices for them so that they can flourish and have the opportunity to secure the best outcome possible through their UG or PG experience. Our proposed approach draws strongly on Advance HE’s expertise in running high profile surveys across the sector.”
Dr Michelle Morgan, Dean of Students at UEL, said: “We are delighted to be chosen to pilot a national pre-arrival academic questionnaire for students. The questionnaire has given us valuable insight into our students’ prior learning experiences, expectations on entry and any concerns they may have. It has enabled us to provide targeted support in real time as well as ensuring the voices of our students help evolve the student experience from first contact through to pre-arrival, orientation and Induction. We hope that this will also prove a valuable tool across the sector not only for institutions but also in understanding the expectations and support requirements by student body, mission group and region”.
Kathryn Heywood, Head of Business Intelligence at Jisc, said: “We are excited to work with Advance HE and UEL to deliver the new UG and PG pre-arrival survey project. Our digital experience insights research has long shown that there is a sector-wide gap in knowledge about new students’ expectations and experiences. This pilot will be an important step in addressing this gap. It will give HE providers the information they need to give new students the best possible support to succeed.”
The project is funded by the OfS through its Equality in Higher Education Innovation Fund, supporting higher education providers and a range of partners to deliver new and innovative ideas to promote equality of opportunity, contributing to its objective that all students, from all backgrounds, with the ability and desire to undertake higher education, are supported to access, succeed in, and progress from higher education.
The project will launch in spring 2025 and will run until June 2027.
Further information for those wishing to participate is available to download here.
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The Advance HE/HEPI Student Academic Survey 2024 highlighted responses from undergraduates about their university/course choices, with ‘only’ 60% of those surveyed reporting that they were ‘happy with their choice given their experience to date, or, given what they now know, whether they would have made a different decision’.
Advance HE and HEPI are currently supporting a team led by Professor Nicola Dandridge at the University of Bristol to conduct dedicated research into what lies behind students’ perceptions of their choice of course and institution and what information they may have required if they wished they had made a different decision. The report is expected in early April (details will follow).
Find out more about Advance HE Insights: Driving evidence-informed change
