UEA sees improvements across all areas in National Student Survey results
By: Communications
The University of East Anglia (UEA) has seen improvements across all seven areas of the 2024 National Student Survey (NSS) results.
The NSS is commissioned annually by the Office for Students (OfS), and invites final-year undergraduates to provide feedback on their experience of the University, including their views on academic support, the student voice and learning opportunities. It is the biggest survey of final-year students' views in the UK.
In 2024, 72% of UEA final-year undergraduates completed the survey, up from 65% in 2023.
UEA has seen marked increases in scores on the Student Voice theme, which considers students’ feedback on their courses and the extent to which that feedback is valued and impactful on course teaching.
UEA Vice-Chancellor Prof David Maguire said: “This set of NSS results represents solid and important progress against key measures of what students have told us that they value and prioritise.
“I’m pleased that students are rating us highly in areas such as the importance of the student voice in the way the University is run, the academic support offered, the teaching on their course and importantly feedback on academic work, all of which are crucial to an excellent student experience.
“Our 2024 results are promising. I thank all the students who took part in the survey in an improved response rate this year and staff who have helped deliver these results.”
Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Student Experience and Education Prof Emma Sutton-Pavli said: “These results show a positive direction, meaning students feel empowered and able to influence their educational experience. We have made real efforts to ensure that the student voice is heard and acted upon.
“The new Student Education and Experience Strategy, launched this year, commits us to ensuring consistent performance across our taught provision in the delivery of a positive teaching and learning student experience.
“While we embed this approach across our teaching, and expand the ways in which all UEA students can choose to feedback on their experience and hear about the outcomes of their feedback, it is pleasing to see early signs from our students that they feel that we are offering them support and a strong voice in the way they are taught. I thank staff whose hard work has contributed to these improved results. We will continue to listen and put students at the heart of UEA.”
UEA has achieved an increase in positivity scores across all three questions on Student Voice of at least 5 points, and of 6 points at the overall theme level.
The University now significantly outperforms universities from competitor Institutions on the question relating to Students’ Union representation, and on the Assessment and Feedback question ‘How often have you received assessment feedback on time?’ .
In particular, UEA saw increased positive responses to questions including:
'How clear is it that students' feedback on the course is acted on?', scores were up 7 points in 2024.
And in response to the question, 'To what extent do you get the right opportunities to give feedback on your course?', positive scores were up 6 points in 2024.
The question, 'To what extent are students' opinions about the course valued by staff?', received positive scores up 5 points in 2024.
Scores across all questions in the Learning Opportunities theme also improved in 2024.
Scores for Assessment & Feedback improved in nearly all areas, including by 5 points for 'How often does feedback help you to improve your work?'.
Scores for both questions within the Organisation and Management theme improved – most notably for 'How well were any changes to teaching on your course communicated?', which was up by 5 points in 2024.
Additionally, scores for both questions on Academic Support improved in 2024.
The 2024 NSS results saw verbatim comments from students noting UEA’s staff as "knowledgeable, passionate and supportive".
In general, scores across the University improved, and notable successes included 100% positivity scores in subject areas including Physics, Liberal Arts, Counselling Psychotherapy and Occupational Therapy, American and Australasian studies, Earth Sciences, Chemistry, and Chemical processes and Energy Engineering.
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