Essex in top 20 in England for 'student positivity' in NSS 2025

The latest National Student Survey 2025 shows the University of Essex rising into the top 20 in England for overall student positivity. To add to the good news, the Students’ Union is also in the national top 20 thanks to feedback from students..

The overall positivity score looks at the proportion selecting the top two most positive responses for all the questions in the NSS 2025, which asks students about their experience studying at universities across the country.

The University of Essex is 20th out of English broad discipline universities with an overall positivity score of 85%, up 2.5% on last year. Meanwhile, the Students’ Union at Essex rose to 19th nationally for the way it represents the academic interests of students.

This places Essex in first place for overall student positivity out of all broad-discipline universities in the East of England.

Student positivity scores at Essex increased across all eight of the themes covered by NSS - ranking in 10th in England for ‘learning resources’ and in the top 25 for ‘organisation and management’, ‘academic support’, and ‘learning opportunities’.

On top of all this, library services received fantastic feedback with responses from students placing Essex 9th nationally for student positivity around how well library resources have supported their learning.

"The NSS gives us lots of valuable feedback"

Vice-Chancellor Professor Maria Fasli said: “It is so good to see the positive feedback from students and the strong performances in key areas, which are so important to the educational experience of students from learning resources through to academic support.

“Our staff are passionate about delivering a transformative learning environment which combines living and learning, so I am really pleased to see this reflected in student feedback about learning opportunities.

“The student experience we deliver is inspired and informed by our world-leading researchers, while our global academic and student community creates a special international atmosphere which is incredibly welcoming and makes everyone feel at home.

“The NSS gives us lots of valuable feedback about how we can improve the learning experience even further and build on our strengths.”

"It’s all been about making the student experience better"

Chloe Jeffery, VP Education at Essex SU, said: “We’re proud to be recognised in the top 20 for representing students' academic interests. It reflects the brilliant work of our Education Team and Joe Holmes, VP Education, over the last year.

"From championing student insights, to supporting them through exams and shaping the new academic framework, it’s all been about making the student experience better. A huge thank you to our student reps too, for all your valued feedback.”

Outstanding departments

The School of Life Sciences was above average across all eight themes covered by NSS, while five departments were above average in at least six themes – East 15 Acting School, Edge Hotel School, School of Health and Social Care, School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science, and Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies.

Departments with powerful performances for ‘teaching on my course’ were East 15 Acting School (95.5%), School of Philosophical, Historical and Interdisciplinary Studies (90.9%), School of Health and Social Care (91.6%), School of Life Sciences (90.9%), School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science (95.8%) and School of Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Sciences (88.5%), Department of Language and Linguistics (91.4%), Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies (91.7%) and Department of Sociology and Criminology (87.7%).

Building on success

The University of Essex, which is part of the ResearchPlus strategic partnership of universities, is highly ranked in a number of university guides. Essex is a top 25 university, and in the top 5 for ‘value-added’, in the Guardian University Guide 2025 and 29th out of 130 UK universities in the Complete University Guide 2026.

Number one university in the UK for Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs), the flagship Innovate UK programme.

In the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2025, Essex is ranked in the top 200 globally for its work to promote the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

And Essex's commitment to global research and education was underlined by its ranking of  17th for international outlook in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2025.

Essex is also a research powerhouse with four Essex subjects in the UK top 10 for research quality -  sociology, economics and econometrics, politics and international studies, and modern languages and linguistics - and five Essex subjects in the UK top 10 for research power – sociology, law, economics and econometrics, politics and international studies, and computer science.

More information

This article refers to ‘English broad-discipline higher education institutions’ as defined by the ‘Cluster Analysis of Higher Education Institutions’ for Research England, 2018, updated in 2022.

The East of England includes Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

Full NSS results are published at: www.officeforstudents.org.uk/data-and-analysis/national-student-survey-data/provider-level-dashboard/