When asked what an ‘excellent education’ meant to them, participants most frequently replied: ‘inclusive’ and ‘skills’, often in close conjunction with ‘transferable’. Also appearing frequently were: ‘Supportive’, student-centred’, ‘research-informed’, ‘collaborative’, ‘engaging’ and ‘innovate’. These most frequent responses were well aligned to the strategic priorities for education as articulated in the LTS.

Participants were also asked to rank the LTS priorities in their own order of importance. ‘Discovery-based degrees that challenge students to achieve their full potential’ and the way in which students are taught were ranked as the most important of our priorities by the greatest number of respondents. The use of our physical and virtual spaces, the expansion of continuation opportunities and diversifying our student body were rated of lower importance by some respondents but this reflects an expressed notion that generally individual students and members of staff have less agency and ownership of these areas.

Furthermore, participants were asked to rate how well they felt the College was achieving the LTS priorities. Respondents tended to rate the university as doing well in achieving discovery-based degree programmes, providing a diverse range of assessment and feedback approaches, and using a range of experiential teaching and learning opportunities. Conversely, respondents tended to rate the College as not doing well in using physical and virtual space creatively, fostering collaboration across disciplines and expanding continuing education.

When asked what the Imperial community needed to do to achieve a participant’s own vision for excellence, teaching approaches and curriculum content were most frequently cited in comments, closely followed by assessment. Workload for staff and students were cited as a key barrier for excellence, as was facilitating communities for staff and students.