As universities and colleges become increasingly student-focused, they are taking the results of the National Student Survey (NSS) seriously, and acting on the results.

Already a wide range of innovations and improvements has been introduced across higher education institutions as a result of the first student satisfaction survey last year — many of them involving students working with lecturers and administrators to improve the teaching and learning experience for all.

In some cases, there have been changes across the board, while in others services or individual courses have been selected for particular scrutiny.

We’ve seen new facilities and student support schemes, extended opening hours for libraries and other services, new assessment and feedback systems, and better student consultation procedures. I wrote to all 11 institutions in Yorkshire to ask what they had done off the back of the 2005 survey. All replied listing significant developments.

Many universities have responded to their students’ suggestions about resources, and I am pleased to see that this year’s scores have improved by a couple of per cent. I am confident that the 2006 results will lead to further upgrades, and increasing levels of satisfaction over the next few years (although differences between scores might appear small, they do reflect significant variations in the student experience).

Against the background of high levels of satisfaction with learning and teaching (81%), a striking outcome was the relatively low satisfaction scores for assessment and feedback (60% satisfied) for both the 2005 and 2006 surveys. Most concern surrounds timeliness, quality and effectiveness of feedback, with this category often being the lowest-scoring section.

Differences between student expectation and institutional delivery, perhaps in part related to increased student:staff ratios, may underlie these results, but the emergence of this issue as a national message from students to their universities and colleges is a key outcome for the NSS.

As a consequence many are focusing effort and resources on improving feedback to students — a great example of the NSS leading to real improvements in the quality of higher education.

This year, more than 157,000 final-year students responded to the NSS. Across universities and colleges in England, Wales, Northern Ireland — and, for the first time, three universities in Scotland — this represents a fantastic rate. Those students who took part were overwhelmingly satisfied with their experience — so it’s an overall confidence boost to higher education.

Although the response rate was slightly lower this year than last, it stood at 56%, which is incredibly high for a survey of this kind. It is also higher, for example, than the kinds of market research findings on which private-sector companies make huge financial commitments.

It would be nice to see the response figure increase, and we will continue to monitor and improve the process of encouraging students to take part. In order to promote the robustness of the survey in the first few years, we deliberately went for a very high threshold (of a 50% student response rate from an individual institution) before we would publish their results.

That three Scottish universities and the private University of Buckingham took part voluntarily for the first time this year is a glowing endorsement of the survey. Next year we plan to trial some additional questions for individual universities. We are also updating the teaching quality information website to make it even more user-friendly.

At our university, Leeds, we fed the NSS results into a new strategy for students, with many changes, including a new partnership agreement with our students so that they know what to expect from us, and vice versa.

The National Union of Students has long argued for a survey such as the NSS, and is working closely with us to ensure its continued success.

Tomorrow’s students are faced with a bewildering array of information about the relative merits of institutions and courses. The NSS provides them with “gold standard” feedback from those already drawing close to their final-year exams.

The NSS is a useful source of information for students and their advisers and a powerful tool for change in our universities. It’s well on the way to becoming a survey of value to current and future students for decades to come, and a national resource for everyone in higher education — that is our ultimate goal.

Professor Michael Arthur is chairman of the National Student Survey Steering Group and vice-chancellor of the University of Leeds

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