Excellent ‘Student Feedback’ – Uni stays on top
Wed, 26 Sep 2012 16:17:00 BST
University in top ten of National Student Survey AGAIN!
THE University of Huddersfield is firmly established as one of the UK’s top ten institutions for student satisfaction and has been confirmed as the very best in the country when it comes to providing prompt and helpful feedback on academic work.
The 2012 National Student Survey (NSS) – established as the major barometer of student opinion – shows that Huddersfield scored an average mark of 82 over a range of 22 questions about specific aspects of student life. This places it in joint ninth place in a table of 116 UK universities.
Huddersfield’s student fees of £7,950 are considerably lower than those charged at all the other highly-ranked universities, most of which levy the full £9,000.
In the vital assessment and feedback category, the University of Huddersfield scored 79 per cent. This is an increase of three per cent over last year and, as in 2011, it is higher than all of the UK’s other mainstreamuniversities.
Also, the NSS figures show that the University has kept its table-topping national position for student satisfaction in history and biology and it is joint second for teacher training. A third of the subject areas taught at the University of Huddersfield are ranked as the best in Yorkshire. They include nursing, physiotherapy, accountancy and teacher training.
The University of Huddersfield’s Pro-Vice Chancellor for Teaching and Learning, Professor Tim Thornton (pictured right), is delighted at a second successive table-topping performance in the NSS, showing that once again Huddersfield teaching staff are more on the ball with their feedback.
“Excellent feedback makes a real difference to the student experience and plays a big part in the future success of graduates,” he said.
“The increase in tuition fees, as the result of government policy, means that students now, more than ever, expect and deserve the very highest standards in assessment and we are determined to deliver that. We certainly aren’t going to rest on our laurels!”
Every year since 2005, the National Student Survey – conducted on behalf of the UK’s Higher Education funding bodies – has asked final-year students to pass their verdict on a wide range of factors. Assessment and feedback is one of the key categories.
Students were asked such questions as whether marking had been fair and if feedback on their work had been prompt and accompanied by detailed and helpful comments.
The University of Huddersfield has an Assessment and Feedback Strategy, which is available via https://www.hud.ac.uk/regs/.
Other categories in which the University has continued to perform strongly in the NSS include Personal Development, covering fields such as communication skills and confidence in tackling problems. A score of 83 per cent matches that of last year and keeps Huddersfield in the nation’s top 20.
- The figures given exclude specialist institutions – such as medical schools – which participated in the NSS survey and are based on an average of the scores for each of the 22 questions about students’ experience of the University posed in the survey.
