The National Student Survey launches at Kent on Monday 7 February 2022 and will run until Saturday 30 April 2022.
The National Student Survey is administered by Ipsos MORI and is mainly for final year undergraduate students. Those eligible will receive a direct email from Ipsos MORI, asking them to complete the survey.
The NSS provides us with valuable information from students about their experience at the University of Kent and on their course. We’re inviting all staff to promote the survey to your students to help raise awareness of the NSS, tell them why it’s important and encourage them to take part.
This year, Kent’s NSS campaign is focused on encouraging students to tell us what they think about their University, and provide us with valuable feedback to help make positive change. We launched a new Student Voice campaign in January 2022, ‘Your Uni, Your Say’, which promotes the existing Student Voice mechanisms already available to students. This has acted as a precursor to the NSS for 2022 and has focused on the benefits for students of providing feedback and engaging with their University.
How to get involved
Engagement is high on the agenda this academic year, so we are encouraging staff to get behind the NSS campaign and promote the survey to your students. Promoting the survey locally is one of the best ways to help students understand the survey and respond with their views. Although Ipsos MORI can send emails and texts to students who haven’t responded, staff can help students to better understand why the survey matters, and lecture shout-outs and staff promotion has proven to be the most effective way of raising awareness of the survey in previous years.
The more students participate, the better and more useful the data. The NSS helps us to improve the experience for future students. The NSS also provides essential official data for prospective students who are considering higher education, as the data is made public to help inform student choice through the Discover Uni website.
We are offering an incentive for the first 2 weeks of the campaign, where students who complete the survey by 21 February 2022 will be able to claim a free hot drink from any one of the catering outlets on the Canterbury campus, and from the Deep End at the Medway campus. More details on how students can claim this incentive are available on the Student Guide.
Guidelines and resources
Remember, it is important to be aware of the Ipsos MORI marketing guidelines and what may constitute inappropriate influence. It’s important that students are free to give their honest opinion in what they liked and did not like about their course and the University as a whole. Staff can explain the importance of the NSS, discuss improvements that students’ feedback has led to in previous years and how it will help prospective students, but staff cannot indicate that the survey is compulsory or oversee/monitor students when they are completing the survey.
There is a wealth of resources available on the Staff Guide NSS pages, including Ipsos MORI guidance, key dates and NSS marketing materials and templates. These are for staff to use throughout the NSS campaign to help promote the survey generally or through planned awareness events.
Thank you in advance for your help and hard work. Any questions can be directed to me via email or Teams.
Mica Rose | Head of Student Experience