National Student Survey: thank you and next steps
Dear Colleagues
Alongside Chris Hughes, I am writing to thank you and your staff for your support in helping to facilitate the National Student Survey (NSS) over the last 12 weeks.
"The NSS has been a controversial topic amongst our staff and student community this year, and we have had to work hard to balance working with our student body to ensure effective engagement, participation and feedback mechanisms and meeting our regulatory obligations.
"I hope our developing Education Strategy, and all our work in the Institutional Teaching and Learning Review (ITLR), will enable us to enhance how we can engage with students on these sorts of key issues. A range of working groups have also now been merged to establish a single Student Learning Experience and Engagement Working Group (SLEEWG), which is focusing on aligning student support, information and development efforts to support the Education Strategy. Central to all of this is partnership. This is why SLEEWG is co-chaired by the SU Sabbatical Officer for Education and the Director of the Warwick International Higher Education Academy (WIHEA).
"Returning to the NSS, our institutional response rate, at 57%, is significantly lower than it has been in recent years. This differs considerably by department and programme, with some departments increasing their response rates. The national response rate this year is 68.3%, compared to 73% in 2016. The survey has been a bumpy experience for many across the sector this year, with changes to services provided by Ipsos MORI, boycotts, and significant delays with processing final lists of eligible students. We expect results to be released in late July, with publicly-available data released in early August. More information about the availability and use of data can be found in the HEFCE pages for NSS data and the Unistats and the Key Information Set. Alternatively, feel free to contact Teaching Quality (quality at warwick dot ac dot uk) for more information.
"We must continue to invest our efforts in raising NSS scores as a critical means to enable us to improve our teaching and learning offer. But we must also keep looking at many other measures to demonstrate the quality and distinctiveness of a Warwick education. Thank you, again, for your continued efforts in making student learning a great experience at Warwick.
We've also thanked students for participating in the survey."