22 October 2007

To	Heads of HEFCE-funded higher education institutions Heads of HEFCE-funded (directly funded) further education colleges Heads of universities in Northern Ireland HEIFES contacts

Direct Line	0117 931 7300
Direct Fax	0117 931 7203

Circular letter number 28/2007

For further information contact Louisa Baker, 0117 931 7106, l.baker@hefce.ac.uk or Emma Creasey, 0117 931 7225, e.creasey@hefce.ac.uk

Dear Vice-Chancellor or Principal

Teaching Quality Information: plans for the 2008 National Student Survey

1. This letter provides information to institutions on plans for the 2008 National Student Survey (NSS), including guidance for further education colleges with directly-funded higher education (HE) students. Action is required by all institutions (see paragraphs 3 and 4).

2. Details of plans for the 2008 NSS are at Annex A (for higher education institutions) and Annex B (for further education colleges).

Actions for institutions

3. Directly-funded further education colleges (FECs) should use Annex C to nominate a relevant contact for the purposes of the survey, if they have not already done so, by 31 October 2007.

4. All institutions - both directly-funded FECs and higher education institutions (HEIs) - should populate their 2008 NSS target lists with the requested contact details for students on these lists to Ipsos MORI, by Monday 26 November 2007. Ipsos MORI will provide details of how to do this securely to its contacts shortly.

Results of the 2007 NSS

5. The 2007 NSS was successfully completed earlier this year and the results will be published on the new Unistats web-site in mid November. The results give an overwhelmingly positive endorsement of higher education in England and show that students have a high and sustained level of satisfaction with their experience of higher education.

6. In addition, and to help institutions identify areas for improvement and good practice, more detailed results will be available to institutions and students' unions via the Ipsos MORI dissemination site. Ipsos MORI has worked with the Higher Education Academy to improve the site and make it more user friendly. Ipsos MORI will be running seminars during November that will give delegates the opportunity to view the changes to the 2007 dissemination site and share good practice. Ipsos MORI will publish details and invite its institutional contacts shortly.

Analysis of the results

7. Paula Surridge's second report on the analysis of the NSS results¹ provides us with a rich source of information on how students are responding to the survey. However, it does not enable us to understand why they respond how they do. We have been working with the Higher Education Academy to identify areas of priority for further research to try to understand this. This will enable the Academy to work with institutions to make further improvements to the student experience. Outcomes of this work will be published in due course.

8. Paula Surridge is currently analysing the results of the 2007 NSS, and her report will be published in spring 2008.

Plans for the 2008 NSS

9. The NSS will be repeated in 2008 across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and some institutions in Scotland, in collaboration with the National Union of Students. Ipsos MORI will continue to manage the survey process and the 2008 NSS will have a similar format and timetable to the 2007 survey. However, for the first time in 2008, students studying on directly funded, prescribed HE courses at FECs and at members of HEFCE-recognised funding consortia will be eligible to take part in the survey. (Students on indirectly funded programmes, which are funded via an HEI, are already included in the NSS as they are viewed as belonging to the funding HEI). This will provide even more information to potential students and their advisers. Detailed guidance for HEIs is outlined at Annex A and for FECs at Annex B. FECs should use Annex C to nominate a relevant contact for the purposes of the survey, if they have not already done so, by 31 October 2007.

10. The survey questionnaire will remain the same for the 2008 NSS, so results can be directly compared with the 2007 survey. In the 2007 NSS an additional 'bank' of questions, developed by Ipsos MORI and the Higher Education Academy, was piloted for online respondents to make the survey more useful to institutions. In addition, Ipsos MORI developed and piloted a centrally managed incentive scheme to encourage students to take part in the 2007 survey. The Teaching Quality Information (TQI)/NSS steering group will decide whether to include the bank of questions and the incentive scheme in the 2008 survey. This will be based on the current review of the 2007 survey by Ipsos MORI. Ipsos MORI will communicate the steering group's decisions to its contacts shortly.

11. Ipsos MORI will liaise directly with its NSS contacts at institutions concerning further details of the 2008 NSS, options for timing and for marketing materials. As with the 2007 survey, institutions will be able to select one of five starting weeks for their survey, from 7 January 2008.

12. HEIs can access their target lists for the 2008 NSS, via the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) data collection system, on submission of their 2006-07 data this autumn. They should provide the requested contact details for students on these lists to Ipsos MORI by Monday 26 November 2007.

13. FECs can access their target lists for the 2008 NSS following submission of their individualised learner record (ILR) F04 return via the HEFCE web facility. They should provide the requested contact details for students on these lists to Ipsos MORI by Monday 26 November 2007. Ipsos MORI will provide guidance to their contacts on how to supply them with this information.

14. More information on our plans for the 2008 NSS is available at Annexes A and B.

15. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those responsible for the continued success of the NSS. This success has enabled us to complete a valuable analysis of students' views of their higher education experience. The results are now a useful platform to try to understand why students are responding to the survey how they do. A key piece of work, being undertaken by the Higher Education Academy, will explore why students respond to the survey in the way they do, and this will lead to better information for the sector and enable it to improve the student experience. For this to succeed it is essential that we continue to work together to achieve high response rates to the 2008 and future surveys.

Yours sincerely

Professor David Eastwood
Chief Executive

Note

1. 'The National Student Survey 2006'

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Annexes

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