The following notes are intended to help programme teams and departments to analyse results from the NSS and to plan and implement actions which may help to improve the student experience.

1. Look at the available data

 

1. Look at your subject results in comparison with similar departments in England and Wales (available on the PMI website - usual MMU login required). There is evidence (see Paula Surridge’s report for HEFCE and Herb Marsh and Jacqueline Cheng’s analysis for the HEA) that certain subjects generally do less well than others, regardless of institution, so it would be advisable to begin any departmental or programme analysis with a comparison with your subject area in other institutions rather than rely solely on looking at your results in the MMU context. You can also use the Unistats website to look at the results for departments or programmes from universities against which you would generally wish to compare yourselves.

 

2. Where there are several programmes covered by the same subject area, look at all the programme level data as well (available on the PMI website) in order to see if there are any obvious differences from the average results for the subject – if your programme has done significantly better, or worse, than the average for the subject at MMU, then you might wish to highlight different aspects of the results for development. You may also wish to look at the programme level dissatisfaction results as these pinpoint areas for possible improvement by not assuming that all who are not satisfied are dissatisfied (they may just be not interested and answering with a 3)

 

3. Look at the open comments for your subject area (these are not available at programme level) to see if they illuminate the findings of the 22 multiple-choice questions. Is there a particular issue which students are pleased with, or concerned with? There may not be anything obvious, but these comments can help to narrow down areas for improvement.

 

4. Revisit unit evaluation forms for the programme to see if there are any common themes.

 

5. Decide whether you need to find out more from students in order to clarify the results. We have a lot of data already, so this probably shouldn’t be a routine activity, but there may exceptionally be puzzles where data needs to be better illustrated. If the open comments don’t link very strongly with the scored questions, you might need to ask additional questions using course representatives or small focus groups. These might be questions such as “What would you think about if you were asked to say to what degree you agree with the statement ‘Feedback on my work has been prompt’?”, or “When have you needed to contact staff and for what reasons?” If your unit evaluations are at variance with the NSS outcomes, you might ask students why they think that is the case.

 

2. Make an improvement plan

 

1. As a programme team, try to pick out one or two areas which you think the programme team could realistically improve in the next year. These may be small things, or larger ones. Do you need a consistently implemented feedback policy? Is there a problem with timetabling? Has something happened this year which has made cancelled and rearranged sessions inevitable, and if so could it be avoided in the future? How are simple administrative issues such as room changes communicated?

 

2. Set objectives and deadlines: be realistic about what can be done and how much time people can commit.

 

3. Ask for help: do you need to talk to colleagues in Faculty SAS to talk about processes? Do you need to co-ordinate timetables differently with other departments? Do you need someone from outside the programme team to provide a view of what is happening elsewhere? CeLT can offer targeted workshops (recent examples include “Developing a Feedback strategy”, “Planning Assessment Tasks”, and “Teaching Large Groups”) or colleagues from CeLT can come along to departmental meetings to discuss particular issues or provide feedback on suggested actions. The searchable Academic Practice database contains many examples of tried and tested strategies which you may be able to adopt. The CeLT website also has extensive web resources on Lectures and Lecturing and on Assessment and Feedback which might form the basis for discussion at departmental meetings or for small scale projects. See the CeLT website for the full set of resources. Please contact Rachel Forsyth (Curriculum Development and Innovation: r.m.forsyth@mmu.ac.uk) or Alicia Prowse (Student Experience: a.prowse@mmu.ac.uk) if you would like individual advice or support. You can also talk to your Faculty Senior Learning and Teaching Fellow(s) about your plans and contact CeLT for help with any part of the improvement plan.

 

Information about Actions

If you take action in response to the NSS then you will probably wish to communicate this to students so that they can see the value of the survey. Please copy any information in to Rob Baker, Quality Enhancement Manager, CASQE (r.baker@mmu.ac.uk) so that he can get a picture of the actions that are being taken across the University.

If you would like any advice on communicating the actions or exploring individual issues in more detail with students, then you should consult with the Students’ Union (contact Becci Heard in the first instance (b.heard@mmu.ac.uk).

 

Useful Links

National Student Survey information for students

NSS questionnaire

Unistats site for students

HEFCE page about National Student Survey

HEA page about National Student Survey