A presentation from the Surveys for Enhancement conference 2011.
The use of student evaluation schemes in the US and the UK are becoming increasingly important sources of information that empower students with information on expectations of the educational experience at a specific university. While it could be argued that the current National Student Survey (NSS) administered to final year students in the UK is a blunt instrument that does not provide a truly holistic impression of the circumstances and experience of the students in higher education. It is nevertheless being used as a measurement tool of university performance in delivering a quality and valued learning experience to students. Furthermore national newspapers are using the NSS results as part of their calculation to determine a university’s league table rankings. Due to the increasing prominence of NSS results universities are investing in numerous projects to improve their NSS scores. Analysis of the NSS results by year would reveal incremental improvements by virtually all universities although several universities have consistently achieved significantly higher NSS scores.
Analysis of the 2010 NSS data set of over 400 000 responses has revealed a number of key areas that will significantly improve student satisfaction. The results challenge previous views and demonstrate through regression analysis that targeted efforts on these areas will not only improve NSS scores but also league table ranking. The paper proposes a number of practical solutions previously highlighted by Dean (2010) on how universities can practically enhance the learning experience of students in higher education.
