The Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) is the only sector-wide survey in the UK to gain insight on the teaching and learning experiences of taught postgraduate students.
Some of the findings from this year's survey include:
- Levels of overall satisfaction are currently at their lowest since PTES began, mainly due to postgraduate taught students (PGTs) who had expected in-person teaching but received teaching remotely.
- The largest negative trend was around the ability to discuss work with other students, with a drop of 11 percentage points since last year.
- Of students who were strongly dissatisfied with their course, 82% had considered leaving, and of those, a quarter were doing so because the course delivery was not as expected.
- A main concern of distance-learning PGTs was how study balanced with their other commitments.
- Just over 1 in 10 (12%) of respondents disagreed that access to health and wellbeing support met their needs. For PGTs who declared a disability, 20% disagreed that this support met their needs, rising to 29% of students declaring three or more intersecting disabilities.
Access PTES 2021 and a key findings infographic below.


