NUS/HSBC Student Experience Report

Aaron Porter

Vice President (Higher Education), NUS

Methodology• The quantitative phase consisted of an online

questionnaire, which ran between 2nd and the 24th of June 2009.

• 1187 students took part in the survey

• The qualitative phase consisted of an online bulletin board of 12 domestic students, designed to compliment the quantitative phase by providing an arena for discussing a range of issues.

“If we are to positively impact on students’ lives we need to understand the needs of all students better – we need to be the experts on students’

lives.”

Surfing the Wave, Jan 2010

Wider context

• Public Information

• Employability info

• New QA system

• Student engagement

• Online Taskforce

• Review of T Funding methodology

‘Toe Dippers’ 9%

‘Academics’ 22%

‘Next Steppers’ 60%

‘Option openers’ 19%

What motivates students?

68

53

44

29

62

48

3835

62

55

44

34

73

5249

23

76

63

34 32

To gainqualifications

Improve mychances of getting a

job

Improve myearning potential

For the experience

%TotalRussell groupPre 1992Post 1992Other institutions

Chart 1: Reasons for wanting to go to university influenced by institution type

Q1. What were the main reasons for wanting to go to university? Please indicate your top three reasons

Base: All first year students (630), Russell Group (143), pre 1992 (161), post 1992 (287), other institutions (38)

45

81

19

9

6158

24

17

71

24

41

28

79

39 39

26

Had the subject/course I wanted

Academicreputation of the

university

Close to home Suitable entryrequirments

%Russell groupPre 1992Post 1992Other institutions

Chart 3: Reasons for choosing university influenced by institution type

Q3. What were the main reasons for choosing your university? Please indicate your top three reasons

Base: All first year students (630), Russell Group (143), pre 1992 (161), post 1992 (287), other institutions (38)

22

31 30 31

53

Close to home

%ABC1C2DE

Chart 2: Students that fall into the lowest socio-economic group, DE, most likely to be motivated to choose a university that is close to home

Q3. What were the main reasons for choosing your university? Please indicate your top three reasons

Base: All first year students (630), A (100), B (157), C1 (132), C2 (68*) DE (68*)*small base

86

74

69

65

60

55

37

27

26

23

23

22

19

17

Accommodation options and costs

Sources of financial support sources and applicationprocedures

Students’ Union

Course content

Student advice & guidance services

Social/ cultural/ sporting activities/ clubs

Reading lists

Disability/ dyslexia support

Materials/ supplies requirements

Course timetable

Quantity of teaching/ contact hours

Private/ individual study requirements

Quality of teaching

Course marking scheme including exams and otherassessment procedures

%

Chart 5: Information students received before starting course

Q 8. What information did you receive from your university before starting your course? Please select all that apply

Base: All first year students (630)

• How would you rate the quality of the teaching and learning experience?

– 2008: 85%

– 2009: 89%

• How involved do you believe you are in shaping the content, curriculum or design of your course?

– 2008 5-7 57% 23%

– 2009 5-7 62% 31%

21

1413

28

11

7

554

6

28

17

19

21

1 Not at allinvolved

2 3 4 Somewhatinvloved

5 6 7 Veryinvolved

% How involved student are inshaping content of their course

How involved students want to bein shaping the content of theircourse

Chart 16: Divergence between how involved students are, and how involved they want to be, in shaping course content

Q25. How involved do you believe you are in shaping the content, curriculum or design of your course?

Q26. How involved do you want to be in shaping the content, curriculum or design of your course?

Base: All answering section 3 (2404)

How would you like to be involved in shaping the content, curriculum or design of your course?

– Being a course representative 18%

– Being involved in setting assessment criteria 31%

– Providing feedback on course design 74%

4.0

3.3

3.2

5.2

8.4

14.0

Other - such as drop-in sessions

Online - video /podcast

Individual teachingsessions/ tutorials

Interactive groupteaching sessions/

tutorials

Lectures

Total

Mean weekly contact hours*

Chart 3: Students receive an average of 14 contact hours a weekQ15. On average, how many contact hours a week do you have at this stage of your

course, and how are these split into:

Base: All who receive teaching (939)* Mean calculated excluding students who said none

% saying none

4%

10%

81%

20%

76%

94%

• Male: 78% vs Female: 73%• 18 year olds: 80% vs Over 21 year olds: 73%• Disabled: 66% vs non-disabled: 77%

Subject: Contact hours Satis. with contact hrs

Medicine and life sciences 19 80%Physical sciences and related 18 84%Arch., building and planning 14 68%Law 13 69%Business and admin. studies 13 73%Mass comms and doc. 13 76%Education 13 78%Creative arts and design 13 68%Social studies 12 65%Languages 10 65%Historical and philosophy 9 66%

9

14

14

15

19

20

22

27

35

36

38

38

Lecturers/ tutors with better academicqualifications

Library support

Internet discussion forums

Subject based networks

Wider range of lecturers/ tutors

Additional support such as study skills training

More lectures

Availability of facilities for practical work

Lecturers/ tutors with better teaching skills

More contact time with personal tutor

More individual teaching sessions/ tutorials

More interactive group teaching sessions/ tutorials

Chart 13: More contact time is the main thing that students say would improve the quality of their teaching and learning experience

Q24. What would improve the quality of the teaching and learningexperiences at your university?

Base: All answering section 3 (940)

Would you like to receive feedback on your exams?

– Yes 90%

– No 6%

– Don’t know 4%

Those that currently only receive written grades/ marks and/ or do not receive any feedback

4

18

33

16

7

Less than aweek

One to twoweeks

Three to fourweeks

Five to sixweeks

Seven weeksor more

Chart 5: Majority of students receive their feedback on coursework within a month

Q37. How long – on average – does it take for you to receive feedback on your coursework?

%

Base: All who receive feedback (967)

5%

18%

32%

18%

7%

5%

57%

37%

1%

Less than a week

One to two weeks

Three to four weeks

Five to six weeks

Seven weeks ormore

%

Q33 How long on average does it take for you to receive feedback on yourcoursework?Q35 How long would you reasonably expect it to take to receive feedback on yourcoursework?

Chart 23: Length of time taken to receive feeback set against expectations

Q33 Base: 2398Q35 Base: 734

14

55

61

45

69

27

20

20

42

26

34

15

9

10

4

16

5

6

1

1

6

2

2

1

Web-discussion forums

Mobile phone

Social networking sitessuch as Facebook

Virtual LearningEnvironment (VLE) suchas Blackboard, Moodle

Internet as a source forinformation

%Daily Weekly Monthly Termly Less than one a term

Chart 12: The majority of students use the internet and social networking sites on a daily basis as part of their studies

Q48. How often do you use these during term time as part of your studies?

Base: All using the internet as part of their studies (964); all using VLEs as part of their studies (709); all using social networking sites as part of their studies (406); all using mobile phones as part of their studies (276); all using web-discussion forums as part of their studies (258)

8993

8085

7 5

15 13

Russell Group 1994 Million+ Alliance

Yes

No

Chart 16: Students from Russell Group or 1994 institutions were significantly more likely to say the opening hours for computer facilities were long enough

Q57. Are the opening hours for computer facilities long enough?

%

Base: Russell Group (236); 1994 (148); Million+ (181); Alliance (226); insufficient base for GuildHE

2

3

3

3

6

4

11

20

14

30

33

34

53

37

45

1

1

1

My ICT skills meet thestandard required toenhance my studies

I feel that ICT hasenhanced my time atuniversity in general

I feel that the use of ICThas enhanced my studies

%1 - Totally disagree 2 3 4 - Neither agree nor disagree 5 6 7 - Totally agree

Chart 13: 46% of students agreed that ICT has enhanced their studies

Q50. To what extent do you agree with the following statements about the information and communication technology at university?

Base: All answering section 6 (1003)

46%

38%

54%

7167

54

7572

84

79 79

87

70

76

70

57

79

72

87

82 82

90

7470

67

54

7573

84

79 78

87

6967 67

51

69 70

81

7578

84

68

Quiet/individual

study areas

Group studyareas

Facilities forpractical

work

Books Periodicals/journals

Libraryaccess/openinghours

Computers Computeraccess/openinghours

Internetaccess

IT support

%Total

First year (meets my needs net)

Other year (meets my needs net)

Final year (meets my needs net)

Chart 30: Extent to which facilities meets students needs influenced by year of study

Q49. To what extent do the following learning facilities/ resources provided by your university meet your needs?

Base: All answering section 6 (2373), first year (600), other year (1206), final year (567)

2008 NUS/HSBC Student Experience Report

• What proportion of the costs of their tuition students thought they should be contributing – on the basis that the average cost of tuition was about £8,000.

• The Survey showed:– 44% of students think that they should contribute 25% or

less of the cost of tuition, – a further 15% (ie 59% in total) think it should be under

33% of the cost – an additional 23% (ie 82% in total) that it should be less

than 50% of the cost – the mean being a student contribution of 36.7%.

22

13

12

32

Higher thanexpected

%

18

19

20

21+

Chart 2: Older students are significantly more likely to have higher than expected debts

Q84. Are your current levels of debt about what you expected, or higher or lower?

Base: 18 (53*); 19 (203); 20 (236); 21+ (471)*Small base

7

48

35

10

6

54

26

14

9

50

25

17

7

53

19

19

4

53

23

7

I have no debts

Lower than Iexpected

As expected

Higher than Iexpected

%

A

B

c1

c2

DE

Chart 3: Students in higher socio-economic groups are the most likely to have no debts

Q84. Are your current levels of debt about what you expected, or higher or lower?

Base: A (186); B (263); c1 (149); c2 (120); DE (83)

9 12 30 8 11 1513

%

1 - Not concerned at all 2 3 4 - Neither concerned nor not concerned 5 6 7 - Extremely concerned

Chart 6: Around one third of students with debts are concerned about their levels of debt

Q85. Are you concerned about your current levels of debt?

Base: All with debts (813)

34%

31

27

42

39

25

31

30

28

31

47

36

42

27

29

28DE

c2

c1

B

A

%

Not concerned (net) Neither concerned nor not concerned Concerned (net)

Chart 8: Students in higher socio-economic groups are the least likely to be concerned about their levels of debt

Q85. Are you concerned about your current levels of debt?

Base: A - with debts (145); B - with debts (214); c1 - with debts (127); c2 - with debts (108); DE - with debts (77)

5

17

12

34

24

18

31

11

24

16

How integrated doyou feel withinternational

students (only askedof domesticstudents)

How integrated doyou feel with

domestic students(only asked ofinternational

students)

%

1 - Not at all 2 3 - Somewhat 4 5 - Fully

Chart 8: International students were significantly more likely to say they felt integrated with domestic students

Q65. How integrated do you feel with domestic students?

Q68. How integrated do you feel with international students?

Base: All international students (204); All domestic students (804)

55%

29%

2

3

1

7

3

25

20

20

15

17

18

21

37

5

How important doyou think that

integration withinternational

students is? (Onlyasked of domestic

students)

How important doyou think that

integration withdomestic studentsis? (Only asked of

internationalstudents)

%

1 - Not important at all 2 3 4 - Somewhat important 5 6 7 - Very important

Chart 9: International students were significantly more likely to think that integration with domestic students was important

Q66. How important do you think that integration with domestic students is?

Q69. How important do you think that integration with international students is?

Base: All international students (204); All domestic students (804)

70%

58%

62

36

15

12

9

7

7

6

4

3

… university as a place where you canfreely practise your faith?

… your time at university as a goodopportunity to explore or develop your

faith?

… feeling excluded from social activities atuniversity which focus on drinking alcohol?

… clashes between your academictimetable and religious holy days or

festivals?

… hostility from other people at universityabout your religious views?

… a conflict between your religious beliefsand the policies of your student union?

… difficulty with challenges or questionsthat your academic study raises for your

religious beliefs?

… not having access to suitable prayer orworship space?

… not being able to join a religious groupbecause of their conservative beliefs?

… not having access to helpful supportfrom chaplains or other faith leaders?

%

Chart 13: The majority of religous students said they could freely practise their religion at university

Q108. Have you experienced…

Base: All students who said they belonged to a religion (309)

1% of religious students said they had experienced problems with university regulations about religious dress, with a further 1% saying they have felt unsafe at university because of wearing particular forms of religious dress

Final thoughts…

• Diversity of the student body

• Students are becoming ever-more demanding

• Won’t be prepared to pay more for less