The 2014 National Student Survey (NSS) has placed Kent joint third* in the category for ‘overall satisfaction’ alongside universities such as Cambridge, Durham, and Oxford, with a score of 91%; substantially above the national average of 86%.
Many of Kent’s programmes were also rated highly by its students, with programmes in the Schools of Architecture, Arts, Biosciences, Economics, Engineering and Digital Arts, European Culture and Languages and Social Policy, Sociology & Social Research receiving ‘overall satisfaction’ scores of between 90 and 100%.
The NSS is a national initiative, aimed at final-year undergraduates in Higher Education Institutions in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, and gives them the chance to have their say. The survey covers different aspects of the student learning experience, including teaching, assessment and feedback, academic support, organisation and management, learning resources, personal development, overall satisfaction and students union.
Kent’s Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor David Nightingale said: ‘Once again, this is a clear and welcome endorsement of our ongoing investment in the student academic experience. It also reflects our swift and positive response to student feedback and the ways in which we involve our students with major decisions and developments.The University’s reputation for academic excellence remains one of the best in the UK’.
The NSS is organised by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) in partnership with the government and the National Union of Students, and is carried out by independent market research company Ipsos-MORI.
* out of all publicly funded, multi-faculty (i.e. not single-subject/specialist institutions) universities.