Leave your mark :: Wessex Scene Online

Leave your mark

25th January 2006
Simon Cable

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Monday, 6 January saw the launch of the National Student Survey 2006 (NSS) at universities across the UK, including Southampton University. It is a national initiative intended for final year undergraduate students and has been set up by the Higher Education funding bodies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland with input from universities and the NUS.

The survey’s aim is to measure student satisfaction at the country’s universities by gathering feedback on the quality of courses from those in the know: the students who are studying them. Education leaders claim the results will help inform future applicants deciding where to go to study.

The survey is now in its second year having been conducted for the first time in 2005 and achieving a 60% response rate. It is completeld online by students in their final year takes the form of a series of 22 questions designed to assess a student’s satisfaction of their course. The ‘satisfaction level’ ranges from one to five.Students who are to be included in the survey will initially be contacted by email by Ipsos MORI, an independent research company, and invited to fill in the survey which can be found at www.thestudentsurvey.com.

Advocates of the survey claim that it provides an excellent opportunity for students to share opinions on the quality of their course and university. The survey results will be made available to inform future students in choosing what and where they would like to study. They are also fed back to institutions so that they can improve what they offer.

But the survey has come under fire for being statistically invalid and not including all institutions across the UK. The notable exceptions are Oxbridge and Warwick (the students of which refused to take part) and all Scottish Universities. As Jimmy Leach reported in the Guardian: "The National Student Survey has promise and may become a useful guide but, for the moment, any claims to national credibility remain undermined by the absence [of some universities]." The Vice-Chancellor of Birmingham University, Peter Knight, has also commented there is "no absolute measure of ‘satisfaction’" attributing a numerical value to this is difficult.

SUSU is supporting the survey, and encouraging eligible students to fill it in. Andy Wilson, Union President told the Wessex Scene, "It is in the students’ best interests to take part in this survey."

It only takes five minutes to fill in and it may help tomorrow’s students make the right choice for their future.