Thursday 15-12-2016 - 14:20

Cymraeg

 

The NSS, or National Student Survey, is an annual survey of almost all final year undergraduate students in the UK. It is a central plank of most of the major league tables nationally and universities around the country base a lot of their work on the feedback it gives. Many of the improvements to things that you have benefitted from (even if you don't know that you have) comes from the feedback given by students who came before you. This is why the University, and the student's union, is so keen for everyone who can to fill it in and why come March you will have heard a lot about it. 

 

Students fill out the NSS during the final months of their last term at university via an online questionnaire. Universities spend a lot of time going over the results – seeing where they are failing, where they are doing well and as the responses are broken down by subject, there is a lot of pressure from the university centrally on schools and faculties to both get as many students as possible to fill in the survey and to come up with action plans based on the responses. 

 

We as a student union hugely support this because it is often the best way that we have to point out problems to schools. When it comes to your role as course and faculty reps, you’ll find that it’s a lot easier to get support for what you are saying if you can point to evidence. Many schools and staff are happy to take on board points that you have raised just based on feedback from your course mates, but some staff will be more open if you have something else to back that feedback up with.

 

The website www.unistats.com (follow the link here for a guide on using the site - https://youtu.be/65iU97jC67g) can be a very useful tool. This site collates information from a number of sources, especially the NSS, and allows you to look at the results in an easy-to-follow way for your course. Alongside other information (feedback from your fellow students being the most important), you can start to build an evidence-based argument on the issues that you want to raise with your school. We can work with you to look at the data and give some guidance on the areas that your school might need to focus on and how to use the information to improve the student experience. 

 

Later in the year, we'll also be asking for your help in getting people to fill in the NSS. There'll be more information in the future, but your direct access to the students means that you are the greatest tool that we have to encourage engagement with what we do, and that includes the NSS. At the very least, we'd hope you fill it in yourself if you're a final year student.