Essex once again one of the very best for student satisfaction

The National Student Survey (NSS) results show that Essex is 14th in England for overall student satisfaction.

This means that Essex has achieved a top 15 ranking for the fifth year running in the NSS. Essex is 14th out of all English mainstream universities* with 88% of students saying they are satisfied with their course – above the national average of 84%.

Six subjects were ranked in the top 25% nationally. These were:

• Economics
• Electronic and Electrical Engineering
• Others in subjects allied to Medicine
• Psychology
• Sports Science
• Cinematics and Photography

Eight out of the 16 Essex schools, departments and centres covered by the NSS achieved overall satisfaction of 90% or more. These are: 

• East 15
• History
• School of Philosophy and Art History
• School of Biological Sciences
• Department of Psychology
• Department of Economics 
• Department of Government 
• Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies (now the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies)

Pro-Vice-Chancellor Education Professor Aletta Norval said: “I am very proud that we are once again in the top 15 nationally for student satisfaction for the fifth year in a row – showing our students really do value an Essex education.

“I am especially pleased to see such positive feedback about student access to learning resources, including specialist course-specific resources, as we have invested significantly in delivering outstanding new student facilities. This includes our award-winning Silberrad Student Centre and library extension, our Essex Business School building at our Colchester Campus, and investment in access to learning technologies.

“We are also seeing major improvements in other areas of the student experience such as employability with our best ever Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) results.”

The NSS results reinforce the recent Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) ratings where Essex was awarded the highest rating of Gold. The TEF Panel stated that at Essex “students from all backgrounds achieve outstanding outcomes with regards to continuation and progression to highly skilled employment or further study, notably exceeding the University’s benchmark”.

With our top 20 ranking in the Research Excellence Framework in 2014^, this highlights that Essex is a leader in delivering excellence in education and research and is in a very select group of universities that excel at both. For our students this means that the research-led education they receive is of the highest quality, delivered by academics who are world leaders in their fields.

Josh Gulrajani, Essex Students’ Union VP for Education, added: “It’s fantastic that once again our University is getting the recognition it deserves for the amazing experience it gives to all students. As a Students' Union, we’re extremely proud to be ranked 6th, putting us firmly amongst the Top 10 Students' Unions of English mainstream universities.

“We’re also pleased to see improvements in the scores from BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) students, who we have been working with to remove barriers and ensure a transformative education at Essex. These results are demonstrating that the work we are doing is having a real impact, and we are very proud of the great things we are achieving together.”

Essex has students from more than 140 countries and over a third of our students are from outside the UK. This makes Essex the most international mainstream university in the UK outside London (The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2017).

* We define mainstream universities as non-specialist Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) with a survey population of at least 500 excluding further education colleges and small and specialist HEIs.

^ Ranked 19th in REF after excluding specialist research institutions the Institute of Cancer Research and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the University of the Highlands and Islands which submitted less than 70 full-time equivalent members of staff.