Every year a large proportion of undergraduate students report that they are happy with their decision about what and where to study. In this year’s Advance HE/HEPI Student Academic Experience Survey (SAES), 60% said that they were happy with their decision, a small improvement on 58% in 2023, 59% in 2022, 58% in 2021, though down on 64% in 2020. It’s encouraging to see that most students think they made the right decision.
However, what of the 40% who think they made the wrong decision? If that figure were to be reflected across the two million undergraduate students in the UK, that would be a huge number of students. Who are they, what is the source and substance of their regret, and what decisions about university would they remake? Were other choices – including the option to transfer – available to them?
In collaboration with HEPI and Advance HE, and with a steering group including UCAS and representatives from UCL’s large longitudinal COSMO project, we now have the basis to seek to answer these questions. Thanks to funding awarded by Research England, Advance HE and HEPI, we will be carrying out and analysing a survey of undergraduates, expanding on the SAES regret question. We will also be conducting a parallel survey of graduates to find out if views change in the years after graduation. The surveys will be accompanied by focus groups and one-to-one interviews to explore in more detail what sits behind the expression of regret for so many students, and working out what – if anything – should be done about it.
It is significant that in other countries the proportion of students who regret their decisions are smaller: for instance, in response to slightly different questions, the 2023 Irish National Survey of Student Engagement records 83% of students saying that they would go to the same institution they are now attending, and in the Studiekeuze, the Dutch equivalent of the National Student Survey, over 73% of students report being happy with their decision. The high proportion of student regret in the UK is a concern, particularly in the context of substantial student fees.
The Augur review placed some emphasis on enabling students to transfer in the context of its proposals on lifelong learning. Advocating a model of credit transfers at the end of the academic year, the idea was that students would be able to acquire recognised credits and move more easily between institutions, particularly through levels 4, 5 and 6. That proposal underpinned the previous government’s Lifelong Learning Entitlement proposals. We don’t yet know how those proposals will be taken forward by the new Labour government, though it is significant that the short section on higher education in the Labour Party’s Manifesto stated that 'Labour’s post-16 skills strategy will set out the role for different providers, and how students can move between institutions…’
Enabling students to transfer more easily is of course only one potential way forward for students who regret their decision. It may be that ensuring students have access to different or more targeted information before they make their decisions about what and where to study is more important. Or that they are provided with more support when at university so that they don’t end up regretting their decision. Or that once they are at university, they have more information about alternatives – even if that information ends up reassuring them that their original decision was in fact a good one. But until we start asking students about why so many regret their decisions, we will not know and the consistent and depressingly high proportion who report that they wish they had made a different decision will continue.
The University of Bristol ‘Student Regret’ project is starting now and will continue in 2024. Its results will be reported in early 2025 with a launch event and conference which will be advertised through HEPI's and Advance HE’s websites.
Professor Nicola Dandridge and Professor Richard Watermeyer, University of Bristol
Find out more about our Framework for Student Access, Retention, Attainment and Progression.
The framework is designed for all staff with a remit to support students to achieve their potential. Consideration of the impact of policies, practices and support services from the student perspective, institution-wide collaboration and the engagement of students as partners are key to student success.
The framework is part of the Essential Frameworks for Enhancing Student Success series.