Teaching Quality Information: National Student Survey 2009

November 2008 | ref: Circular letter 31/2008

To:

Heads of universities in Northern Ireland, Heads of HEFCE-funded higher education institutions, Heads of HEFCE-funded further education colleges
Heads of some institutions in Scotland

Dear Vice-Chancellor or Principal

1. This letter provides information to all institutions on the plans for the 2009 National Student Survey (NSS) and also guidance on promoting the 2009 NSS. Action is required by all institutions.

2. Details of plans for the 2009 NSS and the action required of all institutions are at Annex A for higher education institutions (HEIs) and Annex B for further education colleges (FECs).

Actions for institutions

3. All directly funded FECs and HEIs should update their relevant NSS contact details. This information should be supplied to Ipsos MORI by Friday 28 November 2008 using the 'HEI & FEC Details' form, which is available on the NSS extranet.

4. All institutions should populate their 2009 NSS target lists with the requested contact details for students on these lists and supply them to Ipsos MORI by Friday 28 November 2008. Ipsos MORI will provide details of how to do this securely to its contacts in their 2009 Guidance document.

Results of the 2008 NSS

5. The 2008 NSS was successfully completed earlier this year and the results have now been published on the Unistats web-site, www.unistats.com. 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 are now available to institutions and students' unions via the Ipsos MORI results site.

Analysis of the results

7. Paula Surridge's third report on the NSS results¹ provides us with a rich source of information on how students are responding to the survey and looks at trends and analysis over the first three years of the survey. It also highlights specific areas of interest such as part-time study and institutions' residual scores.

Review of the 2008 NSS process

8. Earlier this year HEFCE appointed Alan Brickwood and Associates to undertake a review of the 2008 NSS. Ipsos MORI had previously reviewed the survey process as part of an internal post-survey review. It was decided to run this independent review of the 2008 NSS process in order to identify good practice and improve the 2009 NSS. This report will be available on the HEFCE web-site in December 2008.

NSS 2009

9. The NSS will be repeated in 2009 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 2009 NSS will have a similar format and timetable to the 2008 survey. Detailed guidance for HEIs is outlined in Annex A and FECs in Annex B.

10. The survey questionnaire will remain the same for the 2009 NSS, so results can be directly compared with the 2008 survey. As in previous years, an additional bank of questions developed by Ipsos MORI and the Higher Education Academy will be used for online respondents to make the survey more useful to institutions. In addition, Ipsos MORI will continue to run a centrally managed incentive scheme to encourage students to take part in the survey.

11. Ipsos MORI will liaise directly with its NSS contacts at institutions concerning further details of the 2009 NSS, options for timing and for marketing materials. As with the 2008 survey, institutions will be able to select one of five starting weeks for their survey, between 12 January and 9 February 2009.

12. Following a small number of allegations of inappropriate attempts to influence the outcomes of the survey in 2008, we have asked Ipsos MORI to strengthen its promotional guidance. This information is available as part of the 2009 guidance circulated by Ipsos MORI and has been sent to all participating institutions with a covering letter from the HEFCE Chief Executive and the Chair of the TQI/NSS steering group.

13. Following agreement from the Teaching Quality Information/NSS Steering Group this year, potentially eligible students will be invited to participate in the Futuretrack survey at the end of the 2009 NSS. Futuretrack is a longitudinal (five-year), single-cohort tracking study of the entrants to higher education in 2006, being undertaken by the Institute for Employment Research at the University of Warwick on behalf of the Higher Education Careers Service Unit.

14. I would like 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. It is therefore essential that we continue to work together to achieve high response rates to the 2009 and future surveys.

Yours sincerely

Professor David Eastwood
Chief Executive