Drafting an ‘Improvement Plan’ Using NSS Data

Catherine Rendell – Deputy Director Academic Quality Assurance and Enhancement, University of Hertfordshire

Helen Bennett – Assistant Registrar Academic Quality, University of Hertfordshire

BackgroundThere are over 22,000 students registered at the University of Hertfordshire (UH)

Around 18,500 students are based at the home campuses in Hatfield, Hertfordshire

Over 1,500 UH students are within the Hertfordshire Higher Education Consortium which includes four Further Education Colleges:

•Hertford Regional College•North Hertfordshire College•Oaklands College•West Herts College

University of Hertfordshire StructureFour Faculties:

• Health and Human Sciences• Humanities, Law and Education• Business School•Technology and Creative Industries

Each Faculty has a number of Department/Schools within it For example: Health and Human Sciences has:

•School of Nursing and Midwifery•School of Health and Emergency Professions•School of Pharmacy•School of Postgraduate Medicine•School of Psychology•School of Life Sciences

Each of the Schools within the Faculty are recognised as ‘Strategic Business Units’

Data Analysis: identifying the students

UH completes analysis for Schools by JACs subject and Dept ID The NSS groups by HESA course JACs codes

Where a UH programme has several branches each with different combinations of JACs codes, the programme may be split across different NSS JACs subjects

Example:HHBIO at UH is split across many different JACs subject Biology, Molecular Biology, Biotechnology; Applied Biomedical Science; Biochemistry; Biological Sciences, Molecular Biology and Genetics; Pharmaceutical Science; Pharmacology and Physiology

DATA ANALYSISHHEC (UH collaboration with four FE Colleges)

The four FE Colleges are combined together under one Dept ID for analysis purposesThe students numbers from the HHEC on UH programmes were too small to meet:

A the 23 respondents necessaryB 50% publishable threshold identified by Ipsos Mori

In order for the data to be statistically robust UH had to group all HHEC programmes together in one Dept ID

NSS Results CycleJune/July – start planning by reviewing the UNISTATS data to be

used in the analysis September – analyse data from Content Management Website and Dissemination Website

October - distribute results to Schools, who review the results in consultation with their student body

Late October – Heads of Schools take Action Plans to Pro Vice Chancellor and key actions are communicated to the student body - overview of University results presented to Academic Board and Action Plan agreed. Key points posted on StudyNet (MLE)

May - Follow up on University and School Action Plans

96.9

92.9

90.3

89.4

88.4

88.1

86.3

85.6

85.0

84.8

83.9

83.8

83.1

83.0

81.8

80.9

80.6

78.7

77.6

76.4

76.1

75.5

74.6

73.8

73.6

73.5

72.1

71.2

70.7

63.5

62.1

59.5

57.6

30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0 90.0 100.0

A6

A5

A4

A3

A2

A1

Z

Y

X

W

V

U

T

S

R

Q

P

UH OVERALL

O

N

M

L

K

J

I

H

G

F

E

D

C

B

A

Teaching % Agree

81.7

76.3

74.2

70.7

69.2

68.3

66.6

64.5

63.6

62.6

59.9

59.9

58.2

57.6

57.6

56.8

56.4

55.5

54.7

53.1

52.1

51.8

51.5

51.3

50.2

50.1

48.5

47.8

47.4

44.1

44.0

43.4

35.6

30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0 90.0 100.0

A6

A5

A4

A3

A2

A1

Z

Y

X

W

V

U

UH OVERALL

T

S

R

Q

P

O

N

M

L

K

J

I

H

G

F

E

D

C

B

A

Assessment % Agree

UH Strengths and WeaknessesTop 5 Areas

1. I have been able to access general IT resources when I needed to.

2. The library resources and services are good enough for my needs.

3. I have been able to access specialised equipment, facilities or rooms when I needed to.

4. My communication skills have improved.

5. Staff are enthusiastic about what they are teaching.

Bottom 5 Scores

1. Feedback on my work has been prompt.

2. Feedback on my work has helped me clarify things I did not understand.

3. I have received detailed comments on my work.

4. Assessment arrangements and marking have been fair.

5. The course is well organised and is running smoothly.

TOP FIVE AND BOTTOM FIVE DEPARTMENTAL IDsIN NSS COMMENTS OUR STUDENTS ARE TELLING

US ……..

TOP FIVE

• Supportive lecturers• Feeling that someone is

there to help• A sense of belonging to a

community• An overall sense of

personal development

BOTTOM FIVE• Lack of organisation• Last minute changes to

classes• Changes to teaching teams

mid module• Lack of support and help

from tutors/lecturers, particularly with reference to not receiving replies to emails

• No sense of an academic community

RESPONSE (1)

• Heads of Schools Action Plan

• Feedback to Learning and Teaching Institute

• Review at Faculty Level

RESPONSE (2)2008/9 Learning and Teaching Institute focussed on :• managing student expectations and understanding feedback;• improving the assessment and feedback practice of both staff and students;• reviewing summative feedback turnaround time;• and reviewing assessment practices.

Faculty Learning and Teaching Groups are to give high priority tothe enhancement of academic support and assessment and feedback practices.

Continuing Professional Development programme included moreguidance on assessment (including design) feedback within modules.

A review of academic support mechanisms. 

RESPONSE 3CUSTOMER SERVICE CAMPAIGN

• Agreed commitments - 8 principles

• Implementation by January 2009

• Culture change

Data provided to Heads of Schools

•Graphs showing UH results by JACs code compared to top 5 subject competitors

•UH and Sector mean scores, % agree and % disagree by question and section

•Raw data from the survey Dept ID highlighting the mean, % agree and the % disagree for all questions of the survey

•UH league table by section of the survey based on the % students agreeing using Dept ID and JACs Code

•All open comments

FEEDBACK TO STUDENTS ON NSS RESULTS

Institutional level results: • A poster campaign endorsed by UHSU• Feedback via StudyNet on actions taken

Departmental ID Level:• Students involved in analysis of the results• Feedback on actions to be taken using

StudyNet

2009THANK YOU