What’s the NSS?

CONTENTS

1. What is the NSS?
2. What data does it collect?
3. Is it important?
4. How is the NSS used in our league tables
5. Top universities for Student Satisfaction  

What is the NSS?   

The NSS stands for the National Student Survey. Conducted annually since 2005, it’s an independent survey that asks final year undergraduate students’ opinions on the quality of their course.  

Its compulsory for most publicly funded higher education providers in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland to take part in the survey which canvases nearly half a million students across the UK.  

What data does it collect? 

The NSS collects opinions on a series of core questions around areas such as quality of teaching, learning opportunities given, the assessment process, academic support, resources, mental wellbeing and course management.  

There’s also a series of optional questions and you can give open feedback summing up your experience at university or college as a whole. 

Most of the questions are the same for all students but there are a few variations depending on whether you undertook a practical placement and where you studied in the UK.  

Is it important?  

The NSS is an influential and trusted source of information about higher education in the UK. It gives potential students an idea of what the learning experience has been like for current students so they can compare courses at different institutions when deciding what and where to study. 

As well as giving current students a powerful voice within the system, universities gain valuable information on what they do well and what needs improving.  

However, the National Student Survey is not a direct measure of quality. The results are based on student opinion and will be influenced by an individual’s conscious and unconscious bias. 

How is the NSS used in our league tables? 

Data collected by the NSS is used to inform our league tables around student satisfaction. Responses to various questions asked in the survey are collated to give an average satisfaction score.  

Adjustments are made for the subject mix at the university and divided by three. It is divided this way to stop the student satisfaction measure from changing the overall university score too much, as the data in this survey has quite small margins between universities.  

Top universities for Student Satisfaction  

Our university league table is based on ten different measures including student satisfaction. You can isolate any of the measures to determine their effect on the overall ranking of an institution you’re interested in.  

To filter for student satisfaction, simply visit our tables for 2024 and select the student satisfaction tab to sort the table that way.  
 
Alternatively, you can read our article featuring the top 10 unis for student satisfaction in 2024.