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 (Education) 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).
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 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 (word doc.).
The two major outputs from the annual review of NSS and SSS reports and outcomes will be:
The self-analysis generated by the summary report and action plan should feed directly into departmental planning.
The review of NSS and SSS reports and outcomes should feed into the Annual Review of Courses (ARCs) . ARC 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 ARC Reports at the Faculty Education Committees. The consideration of NSS and SSS within the ARC Report should include:
The summary report for students should be published on the departmental website and submitted to the Student Staff 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:
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.
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 or can be requested from the Strategic Planning and Change section or contact Christine Woods.
Page last updated: 30 September 2013