The importance of the National Student Survey

Undergraduate Student Experience and Engagement Manager Gemma explains the importance of the National Student Survey (NSS) and the impact it has on student experience at WBS.

The NSS is open to finalists at UK universities every spring, and is incredibly valuable to WBS, and the University of Warwick for developing our student experience. Survey findings allow WBS to develop our undergraduate programme further in collaboration with our students, ensuring that we enhance the student experience in a way that is wholly relevant for today’s undergraduates.

Here are some of the reasons why the NSS is so important and some of the key changes we’ve made based on the findings from the survey over the past few years:

• Adapted and improved our facilities for undergraduate students in the WBS building including a new student kitchen facility, student only bookable meeting rooms, and opening the WBS café as an out of hours study space.
• Increased the capacity of popular elective modules and introduced new modules in emerging areas of student interest.
• Improved the modules pages on our online learning platform my.wbs for more consistency, and to provide more clarity around assessment requirements and marking criteria.
• Increased pastoral support with more Senior Tutors holding weekly drop-ins for students who haven’t been able to see their Personal Tutor and/or are experiencing significant mitigating circumstances.
• New sub teams have been created within the Undergraduate Programme team to provide specialised support for students wanting to undertake a placement year or year abroad.
• Students now sit on the Undergraduate Programme Committee meaning that they have the opportunity to directly feedback on undergraduate programme developments via the Staff Student Liaison Committee (SSLC) and the Student Voice Group.
• Improvements to the annual Module Fair including more detailed information, advice and guidance based on feedback from SSLC and student voice.
• Expansion of the Undergraduate Student Experience and Engagement team who focus on offering the best possible student experience for our undergraduate students.

The NSS also raises awareness of potential improvements or what we are already doing well across Warwick, and enables WBS to have more meaningful conversations around facilities, administration and opportunities across the wider Warwick community.

The data from the survey is the richest out of all student surveys, which gives WBS the most complete picture of student views. The survey asks questions about topics as varied as community, assessment and feedback, academic support, organisation and management and wellbeing during a student’s time at university.

The survey being truly anonymous and organised by independent survey provider, Ipsos Mori, means students can be completely honest about their experience. This is particularly important as the NSS data is available to prospective students, meaning they can make informed choices about where to study.

The NSS marks an important culmination to our finalist students’ journey and true collaboration. It’s something that WBS staff, students and alumni take pride is as our year-on-year strong results demonstrate our commitment to offering the best possible student experience – and always being open to collaborative change.

If you’re a final year undergraduate student at WBS, you can take part in the NSS survey now to give your views. Your feedback really matters.