National Student Survey changes: satisfaction out, free speech in

How relevant is the NSS anyway? Students are regularly surveyed at a module level to get feedback that can be assessed and actually utilised in improving each module, but this very 'high level' survey is well-nigh useless to the average academic as they work on next year's teaching materials... apart from being asked to sit through dull meetings analysing the NSS to very little effect.

The issue is that students are not encouraged within the survey to quantify their answers. They should be asked to explain their responses so that academics can use the feedback more meaningfully to shape and improve delivery. Too many of the questions are subjective. For example, when asked about feedback and assessment students often base their answers on how well they did or didn't do. I worry that a question about free speech will similarly be misinterpreted.

I didn't realise Toby Young got the job in the end.

Analysing NSS results is not only pointless because it is not verifiable for its veracity (i.e., students lie, misinterpret, forget) but also the differences in NSS points are often within measurement/sampling error. NSS is a useless exercise that only serves to create unwarranted and often harmful changes to educational policies in HE.

Any survey such as NSS give respondents a voice, and that’s never a bad thing. But in general, NSS serves little purpose in its current form. The free speech item is simply about fomenting culture wars, through a different means. The survey period distracts students at a critical time, when their attention lies elsewhere. Furthermore, it takes students a year or two out of university to accurately reflect upon the value, or otherwise of their university experiences when they’re using the knowledge and skills they gained in the ‘real’ world. It’s time for a re-think to truly capture the depth and breadth of university life. We often use mid-semester evaluations, they usually generate high response rates, tend to show less polarised views and generate meaningful answers we can use to improve the student experience more rapidly. A continuous performance improvement approach is a better alternative to improving the quality of students’ university experience. I have found myself in the past change course mid-module as a result of regularly capturing the students’ views with more success.