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
What motivates students?
‘Academics’ 22%
‘Option openers’ 19%
‘Toe Dippers’ 9%
‘Next Steppers’ 60%
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
%
73
76
Total
Russell group
Pre 1992
Post 1992
Other institutions
68
63
62 62
55
53
48
52
49
44
44
38
35 34
34
32
29
23
To gain
qualifications
Improve my
Improve my
chances of getting a earning potential
job
For the experience
Base: All first year students (630), Russell Group (143), pre 1992 (161), post 1992 (287), other institutions (38)
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
%
79
81
Russell group
Pre 1992
Post 1992
Other institutions
71
61
58
45
41 39
39
24
28 26
24
19
17
9
Had the subject/
course I wanted
Academic
reputation of the
university
Close to home
Suitable entry
requirments
Base: All first year students (630), Russell Group (143), pre 1992 (161), post 1992 (287), other institutions (38)
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
%
53
31
30
31
22
Close to home
Base: All first year students (630), A (100), B (157), C1 (132), C2 (68*) DE (68*)
*small base
A
B
C1
C2
DE
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
86
Accommodation options and costs
Sources of financial support sources and application
procedures
74
69
Students’ Union
65
Course content
60
Student advice & guidance services
Social/ cultural/ sporting activities/ clubs
55
37
Reading lists
27
Disability/ dyslexia support
26
Materials/ supplies requirements
Course timetable
23
Quantity of teaching/ contact hours
23
22
Private/ individual study requirements
Quality of teaching
Course marking scheme including exams and other
assessment procedures
Base: All first year students (630)
19
17
%
• How would you rate the quality of the
teaching and learning experience?
– 2008:
– 2009:
85%
89%
• How involved do you believe you are
in shaping the content, curriculum or
design of your course?
– 2008 5-7
– 2009 5-7
57%
62%
23%
31%
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?
%
How involved student are in
shaping content of their course
28 28
How involved students want to be
in shaping the content of their
course
21
21
19
17
14
13
11
5
1 Not at all
involved
7
6
5
4
2
3
Base: All answering section 3 (2404)
4 Somewhat
invloved
5
6
7 Very
involved
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%
Chart 3: Students receive an average of 14 contact hours a week
Q15. On average, how many contact hours a week do you have at this stage of your
course, and how are these split into:
% saying none
4%
10%
14.0
Total
8.4
Lectures
20%
Interactive group
teaching sessions/
tutorials
76%
Individual teaching
sessions/ tutorials
94%
Online - video /
podcast
81%
Other - such as dropin sessions
Base: All who receive teaching (939)
* Mean calculated excluding students who said none
5.2
3.2
3.3
4.0
Mean weekly contact hours*
• Male:
• 18 year olds:
• Disabled:
78% vs
80% vs
66% vs
Subject:
Contact hours
Medicine and life sciences
Physical sciences and related
Arch., building and planning
Law
Business and admin. studies
Mass comms and doc.
Education
Creative arts and design
Social studies
Languages
Historical and philosophy
Female: 73%
Over 21 year olds: 73%
non-disabled: 77%
19
18
14
13
13
13
13
13
12
10
9
Satis. with contact hrs
80%
84%
68%
69%
73%
76%
78%
68%
65%
65%
66%
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 learning experiences at your
university?
More interactive group teaching sessions/ tutorials
38
More individual teaching sessions/ tutorials
38
36
More contact time with personal tutor
35
Lecturers/ tutors with better teaching skills
27
Availability of facilities for practical work
22
More lectures
Additional support such as study skills training
20
Wider range of lecturers/ tutors
19
15
Subject based networks
Internet discussion forums
14
Library support
14
Lecturers/ tutors with better academic
qualifications
Base: All answering section 3 (940)
9
Would you like to receive feedback on
your exams?
– Yes
– No
– Don’t know
90%
6%
4%
Those that currently only receive written grades/
marks and/ or do not receive any feedback
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?
%
33
18
16
7
4
Less than a
week
One to two
weeks
Base: All who receive feedback (967)
Three to four
weeks
Five to six
weeks
Seven weeks
or more
Chart 23: Length of time taken to receive feeback set
against expectations
%
5%
Less than a week
5%
18%
One to two weeks
57%
32%
Three to four weeks
Five to six weeks
Seven weeks or
more
37%
18%
1%
7%
Q33 How long on average does it take for you to receive feedback on your
coursework?
Q35 How long would you reasonably expect it to take to receive feedback on your
coursework?
Q33 Base: 2398
Q35 Base: 734
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?
Internet as a source for
information
69
Virtual Learning
Environment (VLE) such
as Blackboard, Moodle
45
Social networking sites
such as Facebook
10 11
20
55
14
41
42
61
Mobile phone
Web-discussion forums
26
20
27
34
9
6 2
15
5 2
16
6
%
Daily
Weekly
Monthly
Termly
Less than one a term
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)
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?
%
93
89
85
80
Yes
No
7
Russell Group
15
13
Million+
Alliance
5
1994
Base: Russell Group (236); 1994 (148); Million+ (181); Alliance (226); insufficient base for GuildHE
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?
46%
I feel that the use of ICT
has enhanced my studies
3 4
14
34
45
1
38%
I feel that ICT has
enhanced my time at
university in general
3 6
20
33
37
1
54%
My ICT skills meet the
standard required to 2 3
enhance my studies
11
30
53
1
%
1 - Totally disagree
2
3
4 - Neither agree nor disagree
Base: All answering section 6 (1003)
5
6
7 - Totally agree
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?
%
Total
First year (meets my needs net)
Other year (meets my needs net)
76
Final year (meets my needs net)
79
75 75
71 70
67
70
67 6767
69
87
84 84
81
727273
70
82
79 79
75
82
79 7878
Computers
Computer
access/
opening
hours
90
87 87
84
74
70 69
68
57
54 54
51
Quiet/
individual
study areas
Group study
areas
Facilities for
practical
work
Books
Periodicals/
journals
Library
access/
opening
hours
Internet
access
Base: All answering section 6 (2373), first year (600), other year (1206), final year (567)
IT support
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%.
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?
%
12
18
13
19
Higher than
expected
22
20
32
21+
Base: 18 (53*); 19 (203); 20 (236); 21+ (471)
*Small base
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?
19
Higher than I
expected
%
23
25
26
A
35
50
As expected
48
4
Lower than I
expected
7
6
7
I have no debts
7
53
53
B
54
c1
9
10
14
19
17
c2
DE
Base: A (186); B (263); c1 (149); c2 (120); DE (83)
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?
%
34%
13
9
1 - Not concerned at all
12
2
3
Base: All with debts (813)
30
4 - Neither concerned nor not concerned
8
11
5
6
15
7 - Extremely concerned
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?
A
39
B
c1
c2
DE
31
42
27
Not concerned (net)
29
28
30
31
28
%
27
42
31
25
Neither concerned nor not concerned
36
47
Concerned (net)
Base: A - with debts (145); B - with debts (214); c1 - with debts (127); c2 - with debts
(108); DE - with debts (77)
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?
How integrated do
you feel with
domestic students
(only asked of
international
students)
How integrated do
you feel with
international
students (only asked
of domestic
students)
1 - Not at all
%
55%
5
12
24
31
24
29%
16
17
2
34
3 - Somewhat
Base: All international students (204); All domestic students (804)
18
4
11
5 - Fully
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?
%
How important do
you think that
integration with
domestic students 21 3
is? (Only asked of
international
students)
How important do
you think that
integration with
international
students is? (Only
asked of domestic
students)
1 - Not important at all
70%
20
15
18
37
58%
5
3
7
2
25
3
20
4 - Somewhat important
Base: All international students (204); All domestic students (804)
17
5
21
6
7 - Very important
Chart 13: The majority of religous students said they could freely
practise their religion at university
Q108. Have you experienced…
… university as a place where you can
freely practise your faith?
62
… your time at university as a good
opportunity to explore or develop your
faith?
36
… feeling excluded from social activities at
university which focus on drinking alcohol?
15
… clashes between your academic
timetable and religious holy days or
festivals?
12
… hostility from other people at university
about your religious views?
9
… a conflict between your religious beliefs
and the policies of your student union?
7
… difficulty with challenges or questions
that your academic study raises for your
religious beliefs?
7
… not having access to suitable prayer or
worship space?
6
… not being able to join a religious group
because of their conservative beliefs?
4
… not having access to helpful support
from chaplains or other faith leaders?
3
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