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Procedure
for Dealing with Results of the Annual Student Satisfaction Survey and the
National Student Survey in Departments
SSS
Quantitative SSS
results are publicly available; qualitative results, which take the form of free
text comments from individuals, are confidential and are available only to Heads
of Department and a small number of other office holders. Heads of
Department are responsible for the review of SSS outcomes, for ensuring that
follow up action is taken and that appropriate feedback to students is
published. These tasks may be delegated to other staff in the department. The
questionnaire for research students included a section targeted specifically at
Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs). The results from this section are dealt
with by the Graduate School sub-committee on GTAs and Demonstrators.
Heads of
Department should note that students were assured that their responses to the
SSS would be anonymous. Some textual comments include names and other sensitive
information and should be dealt with appropriately in departments, ensuring
compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998.
Heads of
Department should also note that the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic Standards)
will review all SSS reports, including textual comments, and that
Pro-Vice-Chancellors (PVCs) will review all SSS reports and textual comments for
their link departments. As a consequence, link PVCs may wish to discuss
particular issues with Heads of Department and refer them to the appropriate
body for further discussion.
The SSS covers 1st and 2nd
year UG students. PGR students are surveyed via PRES and PGT via PTES. Final year undergraduates are
no longer surveyed since they are surveyed by the National Student Survey (NSS).
The questions used in our SSS are designed to correlate with those of the NSS in
order to provide us with comparable data for all years of UG study. When
considering and responding to SSS results, therefore, departments should also
consider the outcomes of the NSS (see the procedure for dealing with the results, below, for more information).
NSS
Final year undergraduates are
surveyed by the National Student Survey (NSS).
The questions used in our own SSS are designed to correlate with those of the NSS in
order to provide us with comparable data for all years of UG study. Data
is provided by the company that administers the survey. The Strategic
Planning and Change Section provides the results to departments.
The Procedure
The timeline for the
management of both NSS and SSS reports and outcomes, taking follow-up action and feeding back
to students is described in the
flowchart of the
annual cycle.
The
two major outputs from the annual review of NSS and SSS reports and outcomes will be:
-
An action plan for following up issues
raised by the NSS and SSS. This will normally form part of the Annual Monitoring
Report.
-
A summary report on the review
of both the SSS and the NSS by the department , which is published to students (and other members of the University)
on the departmental website. The report will also be submitted to the Staff
Student Liaison Committee.
The
self-analysis generated by the summary report and action plan should feed
directly into departmental planning.
1. Annual Monitoring
The review of NSS and SSS reports and outcomes should feed into Annual
Monitoring of Degree Courses.
Annual Monitoring Reports should make reference to consideration of both NSS and SSS reports
and outcomes.
Deans
are responsible for ensuring that departments are managing the review of NSS and SSS
reports and outcomes in accordance with University policy. In practice, they will
discharge this responsibility when reviewing Annual Monitoring Reports at the
Faculty Boards.
The consideration of NSS and SSS within the Annual Monitoring Report should include:
-
Areas where significant satisfaction has been expressed;
-
Areas where significant dissatisfaction has been expressed;
-
Issues and concerns raised in the free text comments;
-
Issues that merit further research and how this will be undertaken, e.g. focus
groups, open meetings, discussion at SSLC meetings.
2.
Summary Report for
Students
The summary report for students should be published
on the departmental website and submitted to the Staff Student Liaison Committee
for consideration.
For
undergraduate courses of study the cycle should be complete by the end of the
Autumn term following the year of the survey.
For
postgraduate courses the cycle should be complete by the end of the
corresponding Spring term.
In common
with the consideration of NSS and SSS within annual monitoring, the summary report for
students should cover:
-
Areas where significant satisfaction has been expressed;
-
Areas where significant dissatisfaction has been expressed;
-
Issues and concerns raised in the free text comments;
-
Issues that merit further research and how this will be undertaken, e.g. focus
groups, open meetings, discussion at SSLC meetings.
The
summary report to students may also include acknowledgement of issues that
cannot be addressed with an explanation as to why.
Any comments submitted by
students which are not relevant to the department, e.g. they may be about the
quality of central support services, such as Catering or the Library, should be
referred to Richard Stock in the Academic Section.
Notes on Interpretation of
NSS and
SSS Results
Results are presented as % agree and %
disagree. The following responses are available to students for each question:
Definitely agree; Mostly agree; Neither; Mostly disagree; Definitely disagree.
The combined percentage of students responding 'Definitely Agree' and 'Mostly
Agree' are grouped as % agree, the combined percentage of students responding
'Mostly disagree' or 'Definitely disagree' are grouped as % disagree.
Student survey
data is
available from the Student Survey SharePoint site (https://mylife.essex.ac.uk/academic/surveys/default.aspx)
or can be requested from the Strategic Planning and Change section or contact
Christine Woods. |
