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NSS

(National Student Survey)

Did you know that every student at Uni gets to fill out a survey all about their whole experience before they leave Uni?
Ever wondered why this is done, or what happens with the data, or why we are telling you about it?

Why do we have the NSS

There are many benefits to having the NSS; it can help prospective students figure out where they want to study, it gives students an opportunity to tell the Uni what they think, it tells Universities where they are doing well and where they need to change things.
As a Students Union we use this data to help us figure out what we should be fighting for, we use it to help train and inform Programme Reps and it is a really great resource in terms of helping us make sure you all get the most out of your education.

What happens with the data?

A big old company called Ipsos MORI collect and analyise all the responses. Over 265,000 students fill out this national survey so it takes a lot of work to organise the data. Once the data is organised it gets released to Universities and Students Unions and then they do their own analysis trying to identify high points, low points and worrying points.
At the Students Union we always aim to work in partnership with the University and after a couple of meetings the University have shared all their analysis on this years data with us here at the Students Union. This has been a massive help and also shows that the University are keen to work in partnership with us to make your education the best it can be.
Once we get hold of the info from the University we study this data to show us where we need to be concentrating our efforts, we also try and turn this data into a student friendly version, as trust us…. reading the raw data is not much fun!

Why are we telling you this?

A couple of reasons really. We hope that by telling you about this you will all fill out the NSS when you are in your final year. Without you guys really telling the University what you think issues will never be resolved and the high regard a degree from Loughborough is held in might start to be under threat.
Also, we think that you guys might actually be interested in the data; what are the strengths on your course, what are the weaknesses? Do you agree with what last years students have said? Do you want us as your Students Union to do more to try and improve these areas for you? Maybe you are a Programme Rep (or your thinking about being one) and you want to find out the figures on a certain issue to take to a meeting? We have written a few reports and put some of the data on this website, but trust us, we have loads more information and data so if you want to know more, let us know and we will be happy to tell you.

Information for Programme Reps

If you are a Programme Rep you should already know about the NSS and you will have found out some of the highs and lows from your department during the training. If you couldn’t make the training but your interested in the NSS data for your department let us know and we can send you a copy of the handbook for your department.
So, how should you use the data? Well, you can use the data to either start discussions or to provide evidence to back up your argument. Perhaps you want to talk in general about student concerns in the department. You could identify the strongest point on the NSS and the lowest point, demonstrating that whilst most things are good there are always areas for improvement and that you want to help make this happen. Perhaps some students have asked you to inform the department that the feedback they got for a piece of work is not thorough enough? If your NSS results show that last years finalists were unhappy with feedback as well, use this to illustrate that this is an on-going problem and needs to be resolve. The University wants to score well in the NSS so they should want to try and improve the areas where things are weak.

NSS reports

The Students Union have been working on the data over the summer and have created a set of slides showing areas of strength and weakness within Departments. Click on your Department below to find out what students have been saying for the last 3 years.

Electronic and Electrical Engineering

English and Drama

Geography

Information Science