The National Student Survey 2019 launches at Imperial

by Murray MacKay

15 January 2019

Final year undergraduates are asked to rate their experience at Imperial as the 2019 National Student Survey launches.

The survey, which is open until 30 April 2019, invites students to assess the College on areas such as academic support, learning resources and assessment and feedback.

Professor Simone Buitendijk

Professor Simone Buitendijk, Vice-Provost (Education) said: "It's important that final year students take this opportunity to reflect on their experience at Imperial. The College needs this information if it is to deliver the world-class experience all our students deserve. We’ve recently identified a number of actions we can take to respond to the feedback from the NSS 2018 and are working to implement these.

“In 2017 we launched a Learning and Teaching Strategy that will radically improve the student experience. Alongside the Strategy, NSS results have helped us identify the areas in which Imperial is a world-leader, and where can and will do better in future."

"It's important that final year students take this opportunity to reflect on their experience at Imperial. The College needs this information if it is to deliver the world-class experience all our students deserve." Professor Simone Buitendijk

The results of the survey, which are published later in the year, help inform key education-focused developments. Each department creates an action plan aimed at enhancing areas such as teaching and student support as part of the College’s strategic commitment to enriching the student experience.

Imperial College Union also produces a formal response to the survey’s results, to help the College and Union work together on improvements.

Alejandro Luy, Imperial College Union’s Deputy President (Education), said: “The NSS is the College’s opportunity to gain an insight from final year undergraduates on their learning experience. Each year Imperial College Union analyses the data and produces the NSS Response which outlines several evidence-based recommended actions to improve weaker areas of the student academic experience.

"The Union’s recommended actions are formed from an in-depth analysis of the free-text comments, which indicate practices which lead to higher student satisfaction, as well as the experience of the Academic Representation Network. This year Imperial’s NSS includes new questions covering student wellbeing services and course delivery methods which will allow College to gauge the impact of the Student Support Strategy as well as the Learning and Teaching Strategy.”

Eligible students can complete the survey on the NSS website.

The National Student Survey is open to all final year undergraduate students at the college. Students moving from a three year degree to a four year one are still required to complete the NSS in their third year. To ensure students don’t miss their chance, the College’s Registry has been working to notify all undergraduates who fall into this category.

This year’s survey closes on 30 April 2019. Eligible students can complete the survey on the NSS website.

For students who are not final year undergraduates there are other ways to offer feedback, including through departmental representatives, their lecturers, the Union sabbatical team and the departmental and College-run internal surveys, such as the Student Online Evaluation (SOLE).

The Student Experience Survey covers various areas relating to your life at Imperial and the services and opportunities provided by the Union and the College.

Participating in the survey will only take around 10-15 minutes and is your opportunity to make a difference to the rest of your time at Imperial and for those that will come after you.

Your response to this survey has real impact on major projects happening within Imperial. As an example, over the past two years you told us that the Ethos gym was too small, and had poor availability. The Union and the College worked together on the problem and have secured funding to expand Ethos over the next year.