2. Student feedback

The National Student Survey (NSS) is the benchmark by which the Government, the media and compilers of university rankings measure how satisfied final year undergraduates are with their university, their course and their overall experience. Aston University takes great pride in the excellent results shown in the NSS in recent years.

The results are released around late August each year. The ADLT (or equivalent), the Associate Dean for Undergraduate or Taught Programmes (where the post exists), and the Quality Officer in each School will work on an NSS Strategy and Action Plan at School level in the light of these results.

Information about the NSS scores for a given programme will usually come from the SGL/HSG. If a score is below 4 on a given area of the survey, the Programme Director will need to include in their Annual Review Report and action plan how they will address, or how they have addressed, these areas moving forward. The NSS should be a standing item on the Programme Committee agenda.

The Programme Director needs to consider especially any low scoring areas but also consider how good scores have been achieved and how to disseminate such good practice within the School and wider University.

The NSS opens on a different date every year, it is always a Monday, but can (and has) been any time from mid-January to mid-February. The specific start date is not published until approximately two months before the survey opens each year. The NSS closes on the 30th April every year, irrespective of what day of the week that falls on. During this period Programme Directors and Module Leaders are encouraged to promote the survey using, for example, lecture ‘shout-outs’.