Swansea University’s Student Experience Surveys
Hello all,
For this post I just wanted to let you know that very soon Swansea University will be undertake their annual Student Experience Survey Campaign, when us the students are asked to give feedback on your experience of the University.
In total there are three student surveys:
- Student Experience Survey (SES) – Non Final Year Undergraduates
- National Student Survey (NSS) – Final Year Undergraduates
- Postgraduate Taught Survey (PTES) – Postgraduate Taught Students
Swansea University uses the feedback from these surveys to help develop and improve the university experience for it’s students. This includes things like developing and improving courses and facilities that students have access to.
As a result of previous surveys outcomes have included more study spaces being created, improving and decorating internal spaces to improve the campus learning environment and improving the student bus service between campuses in addition to the actions undertaken by each College to enhance their student’s learning experience.
Outside of the University, the NSS survey results are an important factor in helping prospective students to make informed decisions about what to study and where. The results also enable prospective students to make viable comparisons of courses across different institutions.
The results of the survey also play a vital role in informing the university league tables and the ranking of Swansea University in a local, national and global context. Currently Swansea University is ranked ‘Best in Wales’, giving the university an excellent position from which to continue enhancing the reputation of the University and the student experience.
The data from elements of the NSS will help inform the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) outcome for Swansea University. The TEF aims to recognise and reward excellent learning and teaching and will rank Universities as Gold, Silver or Bronze. Whilst in England this will enable Universities with good TEF outcomes to raise tuition fees, in Wales the government is committed to ensuring that TEF outcomes are not used to increase tuition fees. This means Welsh universities and their students could benefit from recognition of their teaching excellence through the TEF award, without the potential fee increases that are proposed in England.
The NUS have proposed a boycott of the NSS survey because of its link to TEF and tuition fees in England, and you may have seen posters promoting this. The information contained within this poster does not relate to the situation in Wales and only reflects the situation in England.
Therefore it is the university’s stance that we as students should be encouraged to complete the survey after the commencement of the campaign on the 6th February, so that the university can continue to work in partnership with it’s students to improve the student experience at Swansea University for current and future students.
Thank you for reading.
