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Show me the love

   

Camille Kandiko Howson argues that students need regular chances to express their regard for university

Students generally love UK higher education. Nearly half the population attends and, according to the National Student Survey, on average they rate their course over 4 out of 5 stars. The NSS also tells us that nearly 90 per cent have positive views about their teaching.

However, in this past year like no other, how do students feed back on the quality of their course, and not on the general misery of lockdown? Just what are they feeding back on? A student on an average three-year course has not only had half their experience disrupted by the pandemic but may also have faced disruption from staff strikes last year. How can institutions get students to show they love them, and let them know what has worked well?

Ups and downs

Students’ primary way of feeding back on their experience for the past 15 years has been the NSS. The relationship between students and the survey has been fraught, with some students’ unions initially refusing to join the great ratings game, but it has settled into a rite of passage for students completing their degree.

Regular reviews of the NSS have found a general sector consensus of ‘we don’t love it, but we cannot see how to live without it’. In 2017, student boycotts picked up again with the introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) and the mooted link to raising tuition fees, but most students dutifully continued to complete it.

The survey has been chased by accusations that institutions have been gaming student responses, that the easiest way to raise satisfaction is to raise grades and that there has been collusion with reductive league tables. However, the biggest problem for a government trying to drive a competitive market in higher education is that most students have continued to rate their courses highly—even the ones that do not lead to well-paid graduate jobs.

Root and branch review

The Department for Education’s mandated ‘radical, root and branch review of the NSS in autumn 2020 therefore rocked the sector. The review has not reported (yet) and it is not clear what national data will be available.

For the first time, the survey is not mandatory for institutions to run in England. While most universities seem to be promoting it at the institutional level, it is unclear how the usual trickle down (or iron fist from above) of encouragement by teaching staff prompting students to complete the survey is happening this year.

But the regular reviews of the NSS have shown that institutional leaders value the results and in these disrupted times they are particularly keen to get student feedback.

Year-on-year trends need to be treated with caution, as do comparisons across departments. Aspects of student angst may have been outside departments’ control, such as staff absence due to illness or lecturers having to balance recording, teaching, marking and dreaded home schooling.

But the desire to know just what students have thought of the thousands of hours of recorded lectures, theatre by Zoom and posted labs-in-a-box outweighs the fear that they will report it was all a waste and they just wanted to see their friends.

Keeping everyone happy

So, what makes for happy students? Research has shown it is not the sexy stuff: a well organised course with clear expectations, on which institutions deliver; knowledgeable, friendly and approachable teaching staff; assessments structured properly; guidance and marking criteria known in advance; and opportunities to interact and collaborate with peers. It is the basics of satisfaction: getting what you expected (and paid for).

What has not worked for students in these Covid-times are: accommodation charges, fee refunds, issues with placements, internships and professional qualifications and the job market—none of which universities have much control over, or are what the NSS measures. Will students appreciate the efforts made, or focus on what was lost from what is billed as ‘the best years of your life’?

And will students complete the survey? Probably. Not because of the pizza and beer bribes of yore, but rather a combination of boredom and a chance to be heard.

Communication is key

For institutions, the NSS will provide an opportunity to get feedback on what is working well—including what is working better now than pre-Covid—and on how to take advantage of the pivot on-line. This will feed into how courses can be reimagined for the future. Recorded lectures are probably here to stay—as is greater flexibility of provision and location.

What else can institutions do to ensure they get this kind of feedback? An open letter to staff from the UCL Students’ Union in September, expressing appreciation for their work during the pandemic, https://studentsunionucl.org/blogs/jim-onyemenam/open-letter-to-provost-and-ucls-teaching-community shows that students want to be included in decision making. They also understand that things have not been easy for staff.

Without national comparable data from the NSS (this year and possibly in the future), internal surveys and feedback mechanisms will be more important than ever—as will institutions sharing data to know where they stand in the pack.

The idea that a short checklist after three or more years of intense commitment is enough may be a thing of the past. Communication has been revolutionised and students need more frequent opportunities to feedback on their course than what the NSS offers.

What they—and their universities—will want to know is what is working today, what is needed for tomorrow, and how students can be part of shaping the future of a much-loved sector.

Dr Camille Kandiko Howson is associate professor of education at Imperial College London

This view was updated on 11 March to remove a reference to course-level data.