Imperial MBBS tops tables in all themes, National Student Survey 2024 shows

Imperial College School of Medicine’s MBBS programme has ranked highest in London in all seven themes examined by the National Student Survey (NSS).

The challenging ‘Assessment and feedback’ domain has improved by nine percentage points to 88%, placing the programme first across all UK medical schools. 

In 2023, the MBBS recorded a significant 21 percentage point increase for this domain, and it therefore boasts an almost 30-point increase over two years. 

Professor Amir Sam, Head of Imperial College School of Medicine (ICSM), said: “This area is often considered the toughest in which to make real, discernible change and to ensure high levels of satisfaction and student confidence, especially with the particularly challenging landscapes in which medical education is often delivered. 

“We have conducted a wide range of medical education research studies exploring novel assessment approaches and strive for an assessment and feedback provision that is evidence-based.” 

"Embedding robust assessment and meaningful feedback provision allows students to understand their progress and supports them in recognising their strengths, as well as where further support would be helpful.” 

Professor Sam notes collaboration as critical to the success in this theme, facilitating close working with students as key stakeholders. Working in partnership, the School brings together students with a range of key staff, from clinicians to professional services teams, assessment and digital experts, and with the Department of Primary Care and Public Health. 

“This collaborative approach, giving a platform to such a range of voices and viewpoints, is key to ensuring the high-quality experiences our students are reporting and that ICSM is increasingly synonymous with. We will continue our hard work to ensure the offering remains world-class. 

“We are very proud to have built even further on our huge improvement last year, which shows that continued change and improvement is possible even in the trickiest of themes.” 

Table-topping 

The MBBS programme saw high figures across all other domains, with ‘Organisation and management’ rising almost 10 percentage points on its 2023 figure, and ‘Student voice’ leaping 12 points and taking the MBBS to first in the Russell Group rankings for this theme. 

Imperial's President, Professor Hugh Brady, said, "Close collaboration with students, robust assessment and meaningful feedback are among the strengths of our School of Medicine, which led to its recent ranking as best in London in the National Student Survey.

"Our inspiring, research-rich medical education plays a vital role in training the next generation of doctors and clinician-scientists, for the benefit of the NHS and society as a whole.”

First introduced in 2023, this year survey respondents were again asked to give feedback on awareness of mental wellbeing support services and freedom of expression at their institution. The MBBS programme now ranks first in London and in the Russell Group universities for mental wellbeing services, and first in London and second in the Russell Group for freedom of expression. 

‘Teaching on my course’ and ‘Academic support’ each saw an increase of around five points on 2023, with ‘Learning resources’ also up by six points. 

Our inspiring, research-rich medical education plays a vital role in training the next generation of doctors and clinician-scientists, for the benefit of the NHS and society as a whole. Professor Hugh Brady President

Scientific satisfaction 

The BSc Medical Biosciences (BMB) also maintained its run of improvements, with key increases in the ‘Organisation and management’ domain, up nine percentage points on 2023, and ‘Teaching on my course’, up three points on 2023 to 90%, its highest scoring domain.  

The programme also saw improvements in ‘Learning opportunities’ and ‘Academic support’, for which it places fourth in the London tables with a nearly 87% figure.  

The programme also maintained a strong, positive response to the ‘mental wellbeing services’ question, increasing two points on 2023 with a figure of 81% and placing third in the London tables.  

Professor Deborah Ashby, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, said: “We are delighted to receive such positive feedback from our undergraduate students. This success is testament to the hard work of our programme leadership, Professor Amir Sam and Professor Alison McGregor, and the incredible teaching and professional services staff putting in tremendous effort, day in and day out. 

“My thanks go to all of these staff for their dedication to the education cause, which brings so much vibrancy to our Faculty of Medicine. It is wonderful to see recognition for their hard work directly from our students, and my thanks too go to all the students who contributed to the survey.” 

Continued improvement 

Mr James Wild, Head of the School of Medicine Secretariat, the team overseeing student experience in the School of Medicine, said: “We are very proud of these results and delighted that our students broadly are experiencing our programmes and their time with us so positively.

As always, we have the student voice at the heart of our change-making, and we will take away this data and work to develop an action plan to ensure that we focus on the right areas. James Wild Head of the School of Medicine Secretariat

“With healthy 84% response rates for the MBBS programme and 64% for the BMB, we can be confident that these figures reflect our final-year students’ views. It is encouraging both to have these significant response rates and an endorsement of the changes and improvements we have sought to make. As a School, our thanks go to our students who took the time to provide their thoughts via this year’s NSS. 

“Locally, we are particularly pleased to see increases in the figures for Student Voice, and in the maintaining of the strong figures for the provision of mental wellbeing services and freedom of expression, as these can be so critical to a student’s wellbeing as well as their overall experience across their university journey.  

“As always, we have the student voice at the heart of our change-making, and we will take away this data and work to develop an action plan to ensure that we focus on the right areas, as we seek to continually develop our programmes. We look forwarding to working closely with our students on these goals.”