Search results

The purpose of this paper is to analyse student satisfaction as identified in the UK National Student Survey (NSS) at an institutional level in one post-1992 UK university, to discuss the perceived factors behind changes in NSS results and to identify the possible impact of institutional-level quality enhancement interventions.

The paper reviews some of the literature available on the NSS, teaching evaluation and on learning and teaching leadership in higher education and demonstrates by comparison with practice how different approaches to change management were experienced.

Over a period of eight years within one HEI, it was possible to identify four distinct phases of NSS scores and to identify strong trends in both quantitative and qualitative results.

It is postulated that evidence-informed institutional-level interventions in learning and teaching practice can have an impact on the external evaluation of student satisfaction when they are part of a coherent strategy. However, although some aspects of the work are generalisable to other contexts, it is also recognised that individual environments and experiences will impact on outcomes.

This paper argues, first, that the NSS could be as much an indicator of organisational culture as a measure of student satisfaction with courses; second, that areas that students highlight as being important tend to be consistent and third, that regardless of the foci or type of interventions, senior staff level engagement is a critical factor in achieving high NSS scores and enhancing student satisfaction.

The paper will be valuable to those using the NSS for quality enhancement at a strategic level.

The purpose of this research is to support responsible decision-making in Higher Education (HE) settings by understanding what type of learning journey satisfies students most in their HE experience and what they want from the learning.

This paper analyses the key tool used to assess satisfaction factors for UK students, the National Student Survey (NSS). It adopts peculiar regression statistical tests to identify the NSS items that influence “overall student satisfaction” by reviewing responses over 9 years from accountancy students at business schools located in England.

The findings of the study provide evidence that students are most satisfied with a learning journey where they are part of a course that is “well organised and running smoothly”, which provides “intellectual stimulation” that helps in developing their ability to “present themselves with confidence” and provides “academic advice and support”. The findings of the paper show that students are not satisfied so much by utilitarian aspects of learning but rather those that relate to who they are and where they are in their learning journey, the level of intellectual stimulation they have experienced, the self-confidence they have developed and the supportive relationship they have developed with academics. A factor that did not relate highly was “assessment and feedback” which has been the focus of much university resource. Results show the factors that impacted overall satisfaction are most related to students wanting to develop personal responsibility. These findings shape the key principles of responsible design and management of HE programmes and influence strategic decision-making.

Focussing on helping students experience, the type of learning journey that develops the virtue of responsibility emergent from the analysis will not only satisfy the student but will also have a knock-on effect of improving NSS scores, university league table ranking and accreditation under the Teaching Excellence Framework. The improved reputation aspects would then feed back into increased student satisfaction (Dean and Gibbs, 2015). The findings will also help HE managers and leaders to evaluate their decisions through three lenses: responsibility, students’ experience and students overall learning journey.

Much of the information published on the NSS have been predominantly descriptive and has resulted in decisions being made for students based on uninformed analysis of the survey’s results. This study uses advanced statistical modelling to evidence the relationship between factors of the NSS and overall student satisfaction providing key information regarding students’ importance to the type of learning journey they value and that this relates to a desire in wanting to develop responsibility. This study shows the link between factors of the NSS to provide useful lenses for HE managers and leaders to use to support responsible decision-making processes.

The purpose of this article is to outline the ways in which staff of a post‐1992 UK university set about enhancing the student experience, at a time when the institution had poor student evaluations as demonstrated by the UK National Student Survey and other indicators. Using a range of interventions led by the PVC (Academic), a concerted effort is made to improve classroom teaching, assessment and feedback, and the ways in which actions taken in response to student feedback were reported back to students.

The article reviews some of the literature available on the NSS and on bringing about changes in universities, and demonstrates how such approaches were put in place.

Over a period of 18 months, it was possible to report significant changes in practice, resulting in demonstrable improvements, both in NSS scores and staff morale.

The article uses a reportage approach, describing the steps taken as part of an evidence‐informed approach: potential future work will be undertaken by a new team, following a wide‐ranging restructuring of the university.

It was necessary to recognise that teaching staff felt they were already working very hard, so changes had to be both manageable for staff and demonstrably leading to measurable improvements.

The article argues that a top‐down approach alone is insufficient to bring about rapid changes in a difficult context, and describes how diverse agents' enacted improvements.

The quality enhancement approaches described here are shared by a number of universities with similar aims: the originality of the approach lies in its coherence and collaborative nature, which combined evidence‐led leadership and cross‐institutional commitment.

In line with business goals of customer satisfaction, higher education institutions of learning consider excellent student experience a priority. Teaching and learning are important aspects of satisfaction that are monitored annually by universities using tools such as the National Student Survey (NSS). The NSS results are useful for educational planning and informing consumer choices. This research measured undergraduate student experiences on an interdisciplinary project using the NSS framework. Hinged on diversity, the purpose was to investigate whether full-time (FT), part-time (PT) and degree apprenticeship students with varied work experience enhance their learning studying together on an interdisciplinary project.

This research has measured, using the NSS criteria, student experiences on an interdisciplinary project on a civil engineering programme. It benchmarks the quality of learning and student understanding and perceptions of learning. The method is based upon a literature review and questionnaire survey of students.

Results indicate good amounts of peer influence on learning in a simulated interdisciplinary team setting supported by a mix of diverse work experience in students’ background.

Sections of the NSS are extended with additional questions to capture the impact that FT, PT and degree apprenticeship study modes, closely associated with students’ background of job experience, have on teaching and learning.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a general review of “student engagement” with a focus on the measurement of student engagement in UK higher education. A wide variation in how the construct is measured has made it difficult for institutional researchers to compare findings across studies. This study seeks to understand more about the measurement of student engagement by examining the reliability and validity of three national student surveys: National Survey of Student Engagement, National Student Survey and UK Engagement Survey.

Using a narrative review of literature, each survey method is examined to identify the strands of student engagement they can be applied, to determine to what extent survey results can be benchmarked across institutions, and to explore their potential use in institutional led research. Kahu’s (2013) four perspectives of engagement are adopted as a framework for analysis as they represent student engagement as a fluid, multifaceted and, at times, abstract construct.

Findings support the notion that a single instrument cannot examine all facets of this complex construct and that student surveys currently collect information on limited and discrete perspectives of engagement. The use of these three surveys provides a depth and breadth of information about student engagement; however, institutions need to maintain an open dialogue about the construct to ensure its validity, and how to measure and understand it.

Student engagement as a construct continues to evolve and change. This paper adds to the call for institutional researchers to continue to engage in debate about the validity of the construct. The need to maintain essential knowledge of the construct and its many facets is necessary, as is the need to incorporate such knowledge into ongoing work to provide accurate, actionable data to guide improvement and enhancement research.

This study aims to assess “learning opportunities” provided to undergraduate students, from level three to six, in higher education (HE). A knowledge gap was identified within the current practice relating to learning opportunities for built environment (BE) students in HE. The study focussed on the themes under section two of the national student survey (NSS): how students explore ideas or concepts in-depth, bring information and ideas together from different topics and apply the learned content in a real-life context. The study aimed to provide recommendations for enhancing “learning opportunities” to the BE students within HE.

Data collection focussed on section two of NSS “learning opportunities” and documentary analysis, and a qualitative survey were adopted for this study. A documental analysis of 334 mid-module reviews was carried out. The qualitative data was collected from level three to level six students and academics from architecture, construction management, civil engineering and quantity surveying disciplines representing BE context. A sample of 40 students and 15 academics, including a Head of school, a Principal lecturer, Subject leads and lecturers, participated in interviews as part of a qualitative survey. In total, 12 drivers were developed using the data obtained through literature, documental analysis and interviews. These drivers were analysed using manual content analysis to identify their influence on the specified themes under NSS section two and circulated amongst academics to be ranked by identifying its influence to promote learning opportunities to BE students in HE.

This study highlighted 12 drivers which promote learning opportunities in HE within BE curriculum. Findings established that topics should be explained with more real-life or industry-orientated concepts such as simplification integrated into module delivery. Contrary to the literature, the use of physical materials (i.e. handouts and whiteboard) in addition to a virtual learning environment for detailed explanations were considered effective in exploring concepts. During the current COVID-19 pandemic, context-based learning needs to be promoted by integrating videos of practical implementation for better understanding. The study recognised that lab, fieldwork and tutorials were essential to apply what students have learned in BE curricula to a real-life context.

This study identified current learning approaches and provided recommendations to improve the BE students learning experience in HE. They identified 12 drivers that would significantly help academics and academic institutions to understand how learning opportunities should be facilitated in the BE curriculum to enhance student performances in HE.

The issues in the current Built Environment Higher Education (BEHE) curricula recognise a critical need for enhancing the quality of teaching. This paper aims to identify the need for a best practice in teaching within BEHE curricula and recommend a set of drivers to enhance the current teaching practices in the Built Environment (BE) education. The study focused on Section 1 of the National Student Survey (NSS) – Teaching on my course, with a core focus on improving student satisfaction, making the subject interesting, creating an intellectually stimulating environment and challenging learners.

The research method used in this study is the mixed method, a document analysis consisting of feedback from undergraduate students and a closed-ended questionnaire to the academics in the BEHE context. More than 375 student feedback were analysed to understand the teaching practices in BE and fed forward to developing the closed-ended questionnaire for 23 academics, including a Head of School, a Principal Lecturer, Subject Leads and Lecturers. The data was collected from Architecture, Construction Management, Civil Engineering, Quantity Surveying and Building surveying disciplines representing BE context. The data obtained from both instruments were analysed with content analysis to develop 24 drivers to enhance the quality of teaching. These drivers were then modelled using the interpretive structural modelling (ISM) method to identify their correlation and criticality to NSS Section 1 themes.

The study revealed 10 independent, 11 dependent and three autonomous drivers, facilitating the best teaching practices in BEHE. The study further recommends that the drivers be implemented as illustrated in the level partitioning diagrams under each NSS Section 1 to enhance the quality of teaching in BEHE.

The recommended set of drivers and the level partitioning can be set as a guideline for academics and other academic institutions to enhance the quality of teaching. This could be further used to improve student satisfaction and overall NSS results to increase the rankings of academic institutions.

New knowledge can be recognised with the ISM analysis and level partitioning diagrams of the recommended drivers to assist academics and academic institutions in developing the quality of teaching.

The UK government has taken the lead in accelerating the capacity of higher education to engage with sustainability accounting and adopting a novel systematic approach toward a collective implementation of and contribution to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The UN SDG 16 “Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions” promotes the (re)building of effective and accountable institutions. In line with the institutional logics metatheory, we provide empirical evidence on how the alignment between social mechanisms alongside the reputation of higher education institutions (HEIs) and SDGs on transparent and responsible service (SDG 16) affect the students' overall experience. Using a sample of 142 UK HEIs, interpretative content analysis and ordinary least squares, the results show that integrating HEIs' responsible-oriented research agenda proactively with high sustainability reputation adds significantly to greater student satisfaction.

Final year students attending British universities now complete an annual questionnaire to assess their views on their learning experiences of higher education (HE) from a variety of perspectives. They undertake this process as part of the National Student Survey (NSS). These data are then collated and an annual report with associated league tables is produced. Swansea Metropolitan University (SMU) decided to undertake an internal audit to contrast their own results against the national review in order to better understand and improve their own quality enhancement and student feedback processes. The purpose of this study is to examine this issue.

A three‐tier methodology approach was utilised involving both qualitative and quantitative methods, staff and student involvement and interview and questionnaire techniques.

The findings are presented by faculty and overall indicate that, while most students are satisfied with existing feedback schemes, some variations in practice occur. Students value some feedback approaches more highly than others.

The SMU internal audit results closely match those obtained by the NSS for both the University and sector‐wide and the implications of these findings and the internal results are discussed and considered. These findings may point the way forward for other fields of future research, especially those involving students within universities.

The paper has two clear benefits. First, it shows the clear relationship between the NSS results in the UK with those undertaken independently. Second, it provides one of the most comprehensive analyses of student feedback. The paper is particularly relevant for all those engaged in quality assurance and enhancement processes.

This chapter starts by interrogating the notion of teaching excellence. It then moves on to discussing some of the data sources currently used in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to monitor and measure the quality of teaching. What do these sources actually reveal about teaching excellence and how might we make better use of them? From large-scale national censuses like the National Student Survey (NSS) to institutional data sets such as teaching observations, the contribution that each source makes to our understanding of the quality of HE teaching is underexplored and contested. It is argued that there is a need for more transparent debate across HEIs and the sector as a whole about the benefits and limitations of such data as well as greater acknowledgement of the role of collaboration over competition. The chapter concludes that teaching excellence is a marketised misconception of the complex reality of the reciprocal relationship between teaching and learning. Contrary to policy rhetoric and far from encouraging an environment of collegial improvement, it introduces an unhelpful ethos of contrived competition into what is essentially an interdependent relationship underpinned by collective collaboration. It is by focusing attention on the latter where the real gains and insights are likely to be made.