Make your voice heard

thestudentsurvey.com

What is the NSS?

The National Student Survey (NSS) offers final year undergraduates the chance to give feedback on their time at Loughborough.

By taking part in the survey, you’ll be helping future students make the right choices about where and what to study.

No one knows the University better than you, so your opinions about being a student at Loughborough are really important.

The feedback you give will also help to shape the University and the student experience for students who are already here. The 2026 NSS will run until 30 April, 2026.

It takes around five minutes to complete and we recommend you do the survey early as Ipsos MORI – an independent market research company who manage the survey – will continue to remind you until you’ve completed it.

You are eligible for the NSS if you are a final year undergraduate or are on a flexible part-time programme. If your final year cannot be easily predicted, you will be surveyed after you are expected to have undertaken one full-time equivalent, and not before your fourth year of study. You are only invited to be surveyed once.

There are also some FAQs on the NSS website, and we’ve given you an advance look at the NSS questions so you can see what you’ll be asked.

The NSS questions

You’ll be asked to rate the following using a four-point scale. When answering, consider your whole experience at Loughborough, from your time as a fresher right up until now.

  1. How good are teaching staff at explaining things?
  2. How often do teaching staff make the subject engaging?
  3. How often is the course intellectually stimulating?
  4. How often does your course challenge you to achieve your best work?
  1. To what extent have you had the chance to explore ideas and concepts in depth?
  2. How well does your course introduce subjects and skills in a way that builds on what you have already learned?
  3. To what extent have you had the chance to bring together information and ideas from different topics?
  4. To what extent does your course have the right balance of directed and independent study?
  5. How well has your course developed your knowledge and skills that you think you will need for your future?
  1. How clear were the marking criteria used to assess your work?
  2. How fair has the marking and assessment been on your course?
  3. How well have assessments allowed you to demonstrate what you have learned?
  4. How often have you received assessment feedback on time?
  5. How often does feedback help you to improve your work?
  1. How easy was it to contact teaching staff when you needed to?
  2. How well have teaching staff supported your learning?
  1. How well organised is your course?
  2. How well were any changes to teaching on your course communicated?
  1. How well have the IT resources and facilities supported your learning?
  2. How well have the library resources (e.g., books, online services and learning spaces) supported your learning?
  3. How easy is it to access subject specific resources (e.g., equipment, facilities, software) when you need them?
  1. To what extent do you get the right opportunities to give feedback on your course?
  2. To what extent are students' opinions about the course valued by staff?
  3. How clear is it that students' feedback on the course is acted on?
  4. How well does the students' union (association or guild) represent students' academic interests?
  1. How well communicated was information about your university/college's mental wellbeing support services?
  2. During your studies, how free did you feel to express your ideas, opinions, and beliefs?

Supporting our students

Thanks to your feedback, here's what we’ve been doing to enhance your student experience:

Improving wayfinding and signposting across the campus via The AccessAble App.

We’re reviewing the hearing loops systems on campus to improve visibility, awareness and usage.

We trialled the introduction of a new prayer room on West Park.

DigiLabs is a unique and innovative digital experience that ensures our graduates are future-fit for the world of work. DigiLabs East and West are now open, with DigiLab Central planned for mid 2026.

Refurbished Martin Hall and new spaces for English. Spaces were designed to be welcoming and open to all with no access restrictions.

The new Law space has been delivered a year ahead of schedule and is being utilised for improved teaching space in the interim.

Improved sharing of space between LSU, LU Arts and Loughborough Sports to create better access to shared spaces for teaching, clubs and societies.

We’ve increased bookable study spaces in the Library by 12% to give more capacity during term time.

We introduced a website highlights all study space locations across campus so you can select a location that works for you. We’ve also added it as a tile to your MyLboro app.

The Library have doubled the length of its 24/7 opening to cover the whole of the summer term, not just during exam periods.

The Library induction has been refreshed and extra group and individual tours provided.

All additions to the online reading list system now have an ‘importance’ assigned to them by the lecturer to help you prioritise your reading.

You requested standing desks in the Library. These were piloted and positive feedback led to purchase and availability on floors 3 and 4.

We’ve moved several print journals to online access and have licensed increased AI functionality to Statista, Mintel and FT.com.

IT Services has invested over £2 million pounds in teaching facilities during the summer of 2025. This includes improved audio-visual facilities in rooms across the University campuses.

IT have updated WiFi in several halls and academic buildings to provide faster speeds, more capacity, and less buffering.

IT Services has bought a new remote access solution for computer labs which will provide improved access to a greater range of software.

We have invested in the Adobe suite to provide all students with access to Adobe Express.

We’ve launched a package of support including ‘Step-Up’; an initiative to ease the transition from Finalist to business idea to Graduate with a business.

Our School-based ‘Purple Ticket’ initiative identifies Final Year Projects from Degree Shows with commercial potential. There’s also a summer bootcamp, 1:1 business support, and the opportunity to access funding of up to £5k through our Start-up Fund to help you turn your business idea into a reality.

We’ve introduced a new, team-based Innovation and Entrepreneurship Programme in partnership with other universities that focuses on female founders. This gives our students the chances to network and build their business communities, knowledge and skills.

We’re re-locating our Start-Up Lab to EHB 2.02 from the end of January 2026 ready for Semester 2! This means you can access a central space to work on your business.

We’ve condensed Finalist Futures events into a shorter time-frame – and now we have Futures Festival as a dedicated week for Careers, Employability and Entrepreneurship activities for our students.

We’ve introduced a loyalty scheme as part of the new Futures Festival; this will include stamp card incentives where you could win LinkedIn Certificates and Recommendations or receive prizes.

We created and launched our new ‘Plan your Career Journey (PYCJ) interactive, online course incorporating the things our Finalists ask for: learning about yourself and jobs that you’d be suited to.

Our Talent Match programme partners exclusively with key sector employers to offer ring-fenced, paid internships exclusively for Loughborough University students. These opportunities are tailored to specific degree programmes.

We require organisations attending our careers fairs to share their EDI credentials and commit to our EDI expectations guidance. This information is now prominently displayed for all attendees, allowing you to quickly and easily assess if a potential employer's values align with yours before you engage.

Access to vacancy websites, on-demand courses and resources and support to help make your placement a success.

Go to thestudentsurvey.com to take part

Your data

Your contact details will be transferred to Ipsos for the purpose of the NSS only. Personal data is held in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. All your responses will remain strictly anonymous and at no point will you be identified. Any personally identifiable data will be securely deleted by Ipsos after the survey closes and will not be shared with any third parties. More information is available on the NSS website.