Teaching Quality Information: National Student Survey 2010

To:

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

Dear Vice-Chancellor or Principal

1.   This letter provides information to all institutions on the plans for the 2010 National Student Survey (NSS) and also guidance on promoting the 2010 NSS. Action is required by all institutions.

2.   Details of plans for the 2010 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 which need to should update their relevant NSS contact details. This information should be supplied to Ipsos MORI by Friday 27 November 2009 using the 'HEI & FEC Details' form, which is available on the Ipsos MORI NSS extranet at www.ipsos-mori.com/nss/extranet.

4.   All institutions should populate their 2010 NSS target lists with the requested contact details for students on these lists and supply them to Ipsos MORI by Friday 27 November 2009. Ipsos MORI will provide details of how to do this securely to its institutional contacts in their 2010 Guidance document. A sample template will be provided by Ipsos MORI.

Results of the 2009 NSS

5.   The 2009 NSS was successfully completed earlier this year and the results have 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. The overall satisfaction rate for 2009 was 81 per cent.

6.   The total number of students who responded to the fifth annual NSS increased this year by over 3,000 to 223,363 students; this gives an overall response rate for the UK of 62 per cent. A total of 155 HEIs across the UK and 117 FECs in England took part.

7.   In addition, and to help institutions identify areas for improvement and good practice, more detailed results are available to institutions and students’ unions via the Ipsos MORI results site.

Analysis of the results

8.   Following on from the work of Paula Surridge on the NSS results ^[1], we are planning to publish an annual NSS digest consisting of trends and analysis of the results. It will also highlight specific areas of interest such as part-time study.

NSS 2010

9.   The NSS will be repeated in 2010 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 2010 NSS will have a similar format and timetable to the 2009 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 2010 NSS, so results can be directly compared to both the 2008 and 2009 surveys. As in previous years, an additional bank of questions developed by Ipsos MORI and the Higher Education Academy can 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 2010 NSS, options for timing, adding optional questions and for marketing materials. As with the 2009 survey, institutions will be able to select one of five starting weeks for their survey, between 11 January and 8 February 2010.

12.   Following agreement from the Teaching Quality Information/NSS Steering Group last year, eligible students will be invited to participate in the Futuretrack survey at the end of the 2010 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 Services Unit.

13.   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 2010 and future surveys.

Yours sincerely

Sir Alan Langlands
Chief Executive

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1. All three of Paula Surridge’s reports on the NSS can be read on the HEFCE web-site.

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