National survey shows students happy in Huddersfield
Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:30:00 BST
THE most important barometer of student satisfaction is moving firmly in favour of the University of Huddersfield, which is now well established high in the top half of the UK-wide table, and is one of the top 10 mainstream English universities.
And the University has recorded one of the highest rating gains in the 2011 National Student Survey, which is conducted annually on behalf of Government higher education agencies.
Every year since 2005 the NSS has asked final-year students at all the UK’s universities and other higher education institutions to pass their verdict on factors such as teaching standards, academic support, facilities and overall satisfaction.
This year the University of Huddersfield has scored an overall satisfaction rating of 85 per cent place, alongside Birmingham, Edinburgh and Imperial College in London. Top of the table is Cambridge, with an overall satisfaction rating of 94 per cent, with Oxford and St Andrew’s joint second on 93 per cent. At the foot of the table are institutions scoring in the low seventies.
Huddersfield has shown one of the biggest improvements, adding six percentage points to its 2010 score – only three universities and colleges have recorded higher gains – and entering the second quartile of the table, just six points behind the top group of 27 universities, which includes the likes of Oxbridge and the University of London.
The 2011 overall satisfaction score at Huddersfield is just one percentage point behind the University of Leeds and two behind the University of York.
Within the overall figures, several courses at the University of Huddersfield have recorded impressive scores. For example, both subjects of Pharmacy and of Initial Teacher Training came in with perfect 100 per cent satisfaction ratings and other high achievers include the subjects of Biology and Nursing both (97 per cent), History (95 per cent), Business Studies (91 per cent) and Engineering (90 per cent).
After analysing the 2011 NSS findings, University of Huddersfield Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Slee commented: “We are delighted that our students have given such a resounding vote of confidence in the Huddersfield experience. Huddersfield offers students a top quality professional education on a fabulous campus. We are now in the top ten universities for graduate employability and seeing year-on-year growth in applications from students looking to benefit from what we offer.”
