The above article states that there was an average of 81 per cent overall satisfaction at Russell Group universities this year. In fact Russell Group universities had an average of 85 per cent satisfaction. The English sector average was 81 per cent.
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THE table of NSS rankings in full
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Overall satisfaction falls, but small places win big smiles
13 August 2009
Courtauld Institute tops THE rankings, with London Metropolitan bottom. Hannah Fearn writes
They may be learning how to manage reputations, but the views of students on a publicity studies course have done little for the standing of their own university.
The undergraduates at Liverpool John Moores University are the least-satisfied students in the UK, according to the 2009 National Student Survey, with just 31 per cent happy with the course.
Sociologists at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff were almost as disappointed, with just 32 per cent of students satisfied.
At the other end of the scale, a number of courses had a 100 per cent satisfaction rating.
Computer scientists at the University of Sheffield, historians at Nottingham Trent University and medics at the University of Liverpool were all unanimously satisfied with their course.
John Derrick, head of computer science at Sheffield, attributed the popularity of his course to its combination of theory and practical application, which gave graduates a good chance of getting a job.
The Courtauld Institute of Art came top of the Times Higher Education ranking, which calculated a grade-point average across all questions answered by students, while the University of Buckingham, last year's leading university for overall satisfaction, came second.
London Metropolitan University had the lowest score in the Times Higher Education ranking. A spokeswoman said the university was disappointed by the results and was reviewing student feedback to see what improvements could be made.
Overall satisfaction dropped marginally across the UK in the past year - 81 per cent of students said they were satisfied, compared with 82 per cent in 2008. Students were most satisfied with the teaching they received, but concerns about assessment and feedback remained.
Wes Streeting, president of the National Union of Students, said universities had "a responsibility to improve standards in accordance with their increased resources".
Students were happiest in Scotland, where 86 per cent said they were satisfied.
Robin McAlpine, public affairs manager at Universities Scotland, said: "For all the politics and the worries about funding, it's nice to be reminded that what universities do is change people's lives for the better."
Among the mission groups, the 1994 Group fared the best, with an average satisfaction rating of 88 per cent. In the Russell Group, 81 per cent of students were satisfied.
The top two institutions were small and specialist: Medway School of Pharmacy, a partnership between the University of Greenwich and the University of Kent, topped the overall satisfaction table with a 97 per cent score, followed by Brighton and Sussex Medical School.
The Open University came third in the table, with 94 per cent of its students registering satisfaction, which it attributed to its teaching materials and its student support.
Students at the University of the Arts London were the least satisfied - just 63 per cent said they were happy with their course.
Nigel Carrington, rector of the University of the Arts, said he had made changes since taking up his post in 2008 but it "will take time to show results".
A spokeswoman for Liverpool John Moores said there were 41 students on its publicity studies course, but as only 26 participated in the survey, the low response rate may not accurately reflect student views.
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Correction: 18 August 2009
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Postscript
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hannah.fearn@tsleducation.com.
Readers' comments
The bottom table reveals yet again an English-centric view!! Institutions in Wales and Scotland (and also NI) also participated in the NSS - they too have scores - so please, let's include figures for them too! In fact, the above are for FECs as well as Taught HEIs, so for the latter (where data for non-English returns are available), here are comparable figures: England 2008 2009 Scale Taught HEI Taught HEI 1 - The teaching on my course (Q 1-4) 83 83 2 - Assessment and feedback (Q5-9) 64 64 3 - Academic support (Q10-12) 73 74 4 - Organisation and management (Q13-15) 72 72 5 - Learning resources (Q16-18) 81 81 6 - Personal development (Q 19-21) 78 79 7 - Overall satisfaction (Q 22) 82 82 Scotland Scale 2008 2009 1 - The teaching on my course (Q 1-4) 86 86 2 - Assessment and feedback (Q5-9) 59 62 3 - Academic support (Q10-12) 76 77 4 - Organisation and management (Q13-15) 77 75 5 - Learning resources (Q16-18) 82 83 6 - Personal development (Q 19-21) 80 81 7 - Overall satisfaction (Q 22) 86 86 Wales Scale 2008 2009 1 - The teaching on my course (Q 1-4) 83 83 2 - Assessment and feedback (Q5-9) 63 65 3 - Academic support (Q10-12) 76 76 4 - Organisation and management (Q13-15) 73 73 5 - Learning resources (Q16-18) 81 80 6 - Personal development (Q 19-21) 78 79 7 - Overall satisfaction (Q 22) 84 83 Northern Ireland Scale 2008 2009 1 - The teaching on my course (Q 1-4) 81 83 2 - Assessment and feedback (Q5-9) 60 60 3 - Academic support (Q10-12) 72 74 4 - Organisation and management (Q13-15) 77 77 5 - Learning resources (Q16-18) 84 85 6 - Personal development (Q 19-21) 79 82 7 - Overall satisfaction (Q 22) 83 84 Interestingly the overall satisfaction figures are better in all other parts of the UK than in England. In Wales this is an especially impressive achievement given the much lower unit of resource with which they are being delivered...
More proof that London Met just ain't working. For how much longer are the government going to throw good money after bad and allow this farce to continue?
The comment about "the low response rate may not accurately reflect student view" is interesting. I've heard a lot of people say "those who are unhappy make the most noise" suggesting a bias in the respondents towards dissatisfaction. I did a quick bit of number crunching (across two broad disciplines) and found (via some tortuous assumptions) that students who were happier were slightly more likely to fill in the NSS, so if anything *happier* students are over-represented. A low turnout may then be a positive thing because if the students who didn't take part had done, they would have veered more towards "dissatisfied" and made the end result worse. Statistics aside, it doesn't get individual courses away from the fact that a certain number of students are unhappy, regardless of the percentage and how representative they are. Why they're unhappy - that's the key question and it may be related to the course, or expectations, or ability or whatever (I once asked a student rep what the biggest issue was among students, and he said the quality of the gravy in the canteen. Seriously). Arguing over stats (though fun) is less important than identifying the root of the problem.
Is there any point in these surveys? For example, student at imperial thinks the following: imperial is a great university and they let me in - i am therefore great too. Thankyou imperial - cue high score on satisfaction test. Student at london met thinks: oooo, all this bad stuff going on - every one slagging the place off - i only went there at the last moment without really planning it. The odd thing goes wrong over three years and hey presto, bad score on satisfaction ranking. The whole thing is, by and large, biased and rather pointless. One last point - it does provide the THS with one more opportunity to have a go a london met though, which should keep the readers comments following for a couple of days - close the place etc.
Nick: yes that institution should be slowly closed down...
Your point is an interesting one when it comes to extreme, but what about, for example, Leicester placing above Cambridge in the exert above?
"yes that institution should be slowly closed down" so it appears there is value. If I use the above system but only in my own subject area [a JACS level 3 Science entry with 70 institutions under that entry] - BOTTOM 5 = University of East London (3.40), Kingston University (3.51), University of Westminster (3.60), London Metropolitan University (3.54) and University of Northumbria at Newcastle (3.62). So if we should use data to support closure. What about the top 5 shuld we use it as we would other league tables? TOP 5 = University of East Anglia (4.29) Staffordshire University (4.22) University of Glasgow (4.22) University of Sheffield (4.21) Open University (4.19). Do we pick and choose the use of the tables or accept them as useful?
should*
Issues around the quality and speed of student feedback have been a burning issue for students long before the inception of the NSS. However with the trebling of fees, students are demanding change and it is an issue that can no longer be ignored. Academics are finding increasing demands are being placed on their time, ranging from dealing with larger, more diverse student cohorts to producing higher levels of research output and quality. Therefore how can academics be expected to make any significant changes in this area? One way will be to exploit the online tools they have in place for supporting student learning. This will save staff time for the whole assessment and feedback process whilst also making it possible for staff to provide feedback in flexible ways such as, written or voice or multi-media feedback. It will also enable their feedback to be stored online in one dedicated place so that students can go back and view, review and reflect on this whenever they wish to do so.
The paragraph "The undergraduates at Liverpool John Moores University are the least-satisfied students in the UK, according to the 2009 National Student Survey, with just 31 per cent happy with the course" is very misleading. The 31% relates to the students on the publicity studies course not their overall UG population.
But that sentence is preceeded by this one, which makes it perfectly clear they're talking about the publicity studies course: "They may be learning how to manage reputations, but the views of students on a publicity studies course have done little for the standing of their own university. The undergradautes at LJMU are the least-satisfied students in the UK..."
To "to nick". I agree there are some oddities in the list. I noted that LSE did pretty bad. Maybe i should start a hate campaign similar to the London Met one?
Nick: well, you'd have the support of 'whippet', at least, who seems to be running a one-person campaign, across a variety of threads, to close down everything that moves! In seriousness, I agree with you (and 'to nick') that there are some quite odd outcomes; and they do raise questions in regard the reliability of the whole structure. I think (as has been suggested by other posters) its not just a question of the particular expectation/experience correlation of the faction of the student body who have chosen to respond, but the interpretation of the terms of the survey (by that faction of students) and the motivation of that faction for responding in the first place. Having acquired the data, subject to these (and, and I would guess, other) influences, it then has to pass through a process of interpretation. League tables are notorious for their potential in terms of widely (and wildly) differing interpretation. I'm not sure if there is a better alternative; but this doesn't necessarily seem the most reliable form of information on which to base assessment of the success (or otherwise) of institutions involved. The views of students ARE an important part of this process; but is there a better, more accurate, way of reflecting them?
As students at LJMU and not on the publicity studies course, we and many others on a variety of courses aren't satisfied with the university as a whole so whilst these figures may be viewed as misleading, student satisfaction at the university is generally viewed as lukewarm at best.