UCEM exceeds sector results in 2023 National Student Survey

Posted on: 27 September, 2023

Last month, the 2023 National Student Survey (NSS) results were published by the Office for Students (OfS).

The NSS is a survey conducted annually that collates the opinions of students on the quality of the courses they study. The intention of this survey is to help inform potential students on where they should consider studying, support accountability, and provide universities and colleges with the data they need to improve the quality and experience of their services.

This year, 246 of our students (65 non-apprenticeship, 181 apprenticeship) completed the NSS survey. UCEM surpassed the rest of the sector for student positivity in 7 of the 10 sections of the results, including areas such as teaching on my course, assessment and feedback, mental wellbeing support communications and the student voice.

When asked to rate UCEM’s communications about mental wellbeing support services, 92.3% responded positively – 16.9% higher than the average for the sector.

UCEM also received positive feedback from students regarding the organisation and management of courses. While the sector average for the question ‘How well organised is your course?’ is 72.6%, UCEM received an 84.5% positivity from its students.

As Lynne Downey, UCEM’s Vice Principal, Student and Registry Services, commented:

“UCEM are proud of these results and feel they reflect our continuing commitment to providing an excellent learning experience for all of our students throughout their academic journey. We value all of the feedback and input from the students who participated and intend to use this to inform and improve all aspects of our academic offerings.”

On comparisons with previous results

While UCEM have taken part in the NSS in previous years, these results can’t be directly compared to prior results for several reasons:

• The final summative question ‘Overall, I am satisfied with the quality of the course’ has been removed for English providers.
• The five-point Likert scale previously used for responses has been changed to four points.
• The ‘percentage agree’ measure has been replaced with a ‘positivity scale’.
• New questions have been introduced and several have been rephrased to provide clarity.

To view the full NSS 2023 results in full, visit: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/student-information-and-data/national-student-survey-nss/nss-data/

If you have any questions about UCEM’s NSS results, please feel free to get in touch with us at press@ucem.ac.uk.