NATIONAL STUDENT SURVEY (NSS)

Briefing notes for Departments

· The National Student Survey, of all UG finalists, will take place for the first time in January/February 2005

· It will be conducted electronically, and results will be published in August 2005 on the new Teaching Quality Information (TQI) website*

· In response to HEFCE’s national consultation on NSS in June, we stated our preference for the Survey to be conducted at Loughborough w/c 31 January, to avoid S1 exams (options were limited to four weeks in Jan/Feb 2005)

· Results will inevitably become part of national newspaper league tables, especially with the ending of ESR scores

· NSS will probably not be conducted every year, so data from one year will remain in league tables – it is therefore important that results are positive

· The University Registry will be required to provide contact details for UG finalists, including email addresses, and to inform these students about the Survey

· The Registry will also be expected to send email reminders to students who do not at first respond – although responses will be confidential and will not be seen by the University

• The University recognises that LSU’s role in encouraging high, and hopefully positive, responses to NSS is crucial
• At the request of Senate a Student Feedback Working Group was recently established, chaired by the PVC(T), to monitor the NSS. Members include LSU and representatives from each Faculty

· The questionnaire used in the pilot NSS in 2004 is attached. We do not expect there to be any changes to questions when the full NSS takes place in January. League tables are likely to tabulate results by subject, gender, ethnicity, etc

· The Student Feedback Working Group agreed that staff should be alerted to the kinds of questions on which we will be judged. It suggests that there are some areas of the questionnaire where the responses of students may be influenced by departmental actions in Semester 1 - for example:

- providing finalists with speedy feedback on assessed work;

- ensuring they contact personal tutees who are finalists early in S1, and meet them if possible;

- avoiding any problems with S1 exams by (for instance) double-checking question papers;

- spreading c/w deadlines for finalists (providing it is not too late, and acknowledging the constraints of joint programmes, options outwith the department, etc);

- alerting finalists to facilities and advice provided by the Careers Service.

• HoDs and Teaching Co-ordinators are therefore being requested to inform staff about the NSS, and to encourage them to take actions such as those suggested above

* The TQI website is part of HERO website: http://www.tqi.ac.uk/home/index.cfm

It ‘went live’ at the end of August 2004, although at present there is very little information available

mk, 29 09 04