You can expect a high-quality student academic experience here at Westminster, with resources and support to ensure you succeed both in and beyond your time with us.
For the University that means meeting official minimum requirements for the quality and standards of your course, and doing our best to exceed those in a number of different ways.
Because we want students to take control of their education, here we have set out:
- what all students can expect from all courses at or delivered on behalf of the University of Westminster
- how you can get involved in ensuring our courses are the best they can be
- what to do if you think your course isn’t meeting the minimum requirements
What you can expect
The University of Westminster is registered with the Office for Students (OfS), which is the official regulator for higher education in England.
The OfS requires all universities to meet “conditions of registration”, which are rules that ensure that students are protected - covering everything from our finances to the way in which we work to promote equal opportunities.
One important part of these requirements is called the “B Conditions”, and relates to the quality of your course, and the standards that surround the award that you get if you pass at the end.
We think that it’s important that you know what these requirements are - that way you’re more likely to tell us if you think your course is falling short, and then we can do something about it!
There are four important areas to take note of:
This is about what happens on your course - mainly the teaching and learning activities. All courses have to be:
- Up-to-date: That means the material you are taught should be representative of the current thinking and practices in your subject, profession or industry;
- Provides educational challenge: That means that at each stage or level most students should neither find the course too hard nor too easy;
- Coherent: You will learn the important foundations in your subject before tackling more complex areas, you have the chance to choose specialist options, and any practical aspects will be related properly to the theory;
- Effectively delivered: There will be a range of engaging learning activities, good opportunities to engage directly with teaching staff, regular and effective supervision where the course involves research, and where there are professional or practice-based elements that should be integrated with academic elements’
- Relevant skills: This means you get the chance to both develop and demonstrate intellectual skills like evaluating evidence, mobilising an argument, and solving problems - and if your course is designed to lead to a particular profession, you develop and demonstrate the skills necessary for success in that profession.
Here are some questions you can ask yourself to ensure that your course is meeting the quality requirements for academic experience:
- How good are staff at explaining course content/things? How often do teaching staff make the subject engaging and intellectually stimulating?
- How often does my course challenge me to achieve my best work? Do I have the chance to apply theories and concepts that I have learned? Is there a chance to explore ideas or concepts in depth? Does my course allow me to bring together information and ideas from different topics? When working with other students, how helpful is this for my learning?
- To what extent does my course introduce subjects and skills in a way that builds on what I’ve already learnt? Is the content on my course up-to-date? Is the balance between directed and independent study right? How well does my course develop the knowledge and skills that I think I’ll need for my future?
If you think that generally we are meeting these requirements but there is room to get better, we are keen to hear your feedback either directly or through a student representative. But if you think we are consistently not meeting these requirements, we need to know straight away - so we can put that right.
This is about the things we put in place to support you to achieve your best - and the interactions we have with you and other students to learn from your experiences. All courses should involve:
- Good staff: This means enough staff for the size of the cohort of students, who have a mixture of experience and expertise in the subject, sufficient trained and qualified teaching staff, and for research students, staff who are undertaking research at the forefront of relevant discipline(s)
- Learning resources: This means, without having to pay more, that you have things like appropriate hardware and software so you can effectively access all aspects of course content, good technical infrastructure, reliable access to the internet, and access to a (quiet) space that is appropriate for studying. It also includes any help you might need with the technology or equipment to make the best use of the resources that are there
- Academic support: This includes support from staff to help you with course content or on placements so you can identify and address your gaps in knowledge or skills, and help with making decisions about future study choices
- Academic integrity: This means support to avoid academic misconduct, including understanding the consequences if you’re caught cheating, and support for essay planning and accurate referencing
- Careers support: This includes information, advice and guidance you might need to identify your capabilities and the way in which these may be suited to particular careers, and to articulate these in a way likely to result in successful job applications
- Feedback and engagement: This means that students on your course are given a range of opportunities, either individually or through representatives, to provide feedback on the course and the way it is delivered. It also means student representatives raising issues and evaluating the student experience, and you getting to know what is being done with that feedback and input
Here are some questions you can ask yourself to ensure that your course is meeting the quality requirements for resources, support and student engagement:
- How easy is it to contact staff when I need to? How well do staff support my learning? Do I get good advice about study choices? How well organised is my course? How clearly are changes to the course communicated?
- How often am I able to access the learning resources (either digital or physical) that I need? How well do the resources support my learning? How well do library resources (eg books, online services and learning spaces) support my learning?
- To what extent do I get opportunities to give feedback either directly or to reps? Are students' opinions valued by staff? How clear is it that feedback is acted on? Is the students' union effective when representing students?
Again, if you think that generally we are meeting these requirements but there is room to get better, we are keen to hear your feedback either directly or through a student representative. But if you think we are consistently not meeting these requirements, we need to know straight away so we can put that right.
This is about the things that students want to get out of their course, including what happens after graduation. There are lots of types of “good outcomes” that students get from taking part in higher education, but as a minimum, a certain percentage of all types of students in all subject areas at the University have to:
- continue in their studies (that means get to the second year of their course if there is one)
- complete their studies (that means finish the course and get a result at the end); and
- progress into managerial or professional employment, or further study
Here are some questions you can ask yourself to ensure that your course is meeting the quality requirements for student outcomes:
- If my course has a second year, are there reasons why some students are struggling?
- What stops students from being able to complete the course and are there things the University could put in place to help?
- Do I feel prepared for life after Westminster? Is the support for further study or careers accessible, does it come at the right time, and is it targeted appropriately?
If a subject area or type of student falls below the minimum percentage required by the Office for Students, the University may be required to take action to address that gap. If you think there are reasons why students on your course might not be getting to year two, completing the course or getting a graduate job, we need to know so we can take action.
This is about the way in which we make sure that your assessment is fair, valid and reliable; what we do to stop students from cheating; and the way in which our rules and regulations support you to be able to demonstrate your best even if something goes wrong. This means:
- Effective assessment: Assessing you in a challenging and appropriately comprehensive way, by reference to the subject matter of the course (including stretch and rigour that is consistent with the level of your course) and testing skills and knowledge that are relevant
- Avoiding misconduct: Designing assessments in a way that minimises cheating and helps us spot it where it does happen
- Valid and reliable: This means testing the things that have been covered on the course and making sure that students who show the same level of achievement through different assessments get consistent marks; and
- Credible: Making sure that the number and percentage of good results that we award is reflective of student performance
- English: We also have to make sure that we assess your technical proficiency in the English language in a way that reflects the level and content of the course
Here are some questions you can ask yourself to ensure that your course is meeting the quality requirements for assessment and awards:
- How often do assessments allow me to demonstrate what I have learnt? How clear are the marking criteria used to assess my work? How fair is the marking and assessment on my course and in comparison to other courses at the University?
- Is my feedback timely and does it help me to improve my learning? If students hit an unexpected problem while at university, are the rules that allow students to have longer to submit or make more attempts fair?
There are lots of other things that we have to do. For example, we have to operate the University’s finances in a sound way, we have to take steps to secure equality of opportunity and we must comply with consumer protection law - that means giving applicants honest and accurate information about courses and keeping the promises that we make. We also have to take steps to ensure students and staff have freedom of speech within the law.
You can find out more about the range of requirements we have to meet on the OfS website.
Getting your feedback
During your time here, you'll be asked for feedback on your student experience, which helps us to improve the experience for all students.
Surveys
- Student Module Evaluation (SME) is your opportunity as a student to feed back on taught modules in a simple and confidential way to help your school to better understand your needs and expectations, and inform future module developments and enhancements
- The Transformation in Students Survey is an annual survey for all undergraduate students at Westminster. It is focused on how confident you feel about your academic abilities, the extent to which you feel you belong at Westminster and whether you feel you have developed the skills to deal with challenges at university
- The National Student Survey (NSS) is a census of all final year undergraduate students in the UK.
- The Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) is a national survey of postgraduate taught students inviting them to comment on their course and experience
Getting involved
There are lots of ways that we involve students in making education better at Westminster:
- Each course has a student course representative that collects feedback from students and presents it to course leaders at regular meetings throughout the academic year, as well as helping to evaluate the course against the sorts of areas outlined above
- School representatives are appointed jointly by the students’ union and the university. They meet with Heads of School at least once per semester, gathering feedback from course representatives and sit on the University’s Student Voice Forum (SVF) to report on school-level activities
- Students as co-creators provides opportunities and resources for students and staff to work together on research projects and enhance learning and teaching at the University
- The Student Experience and Opinion Panel is a community of Westminster students who engage in research activities to help improve the student experience, in exchange for a reward
- UWSU, the students’ union at Westminster, involves students, gathers feedback, sits on university committees and meets with the University’s management to make sure that we are responding to student opinion and needs
- Student Panel Advisers bring the student perspective to the process of approving and validating our courses
Making a complaint
If you think we are not meeting the requirements that are set out above on your course, it’s important that we know as soon as possible - so we can put that right.
You can do that by:
- talking informally to the staff that run your course - making clear the area(s) where you think we’re falling short;
- raising your concerns with your course representative or school rep;
- raising the issue with the students’ union - as well as elected student reps they have a professional, confidential advice team who will be able to help you understand how to raise your issue
- making a complaint - an expression of dissatisfaction about the University’s action or lack of action, or about the standard of service provided by or on behalf of the University. To find out more about making a complaint, including the Students Complaints Procedure and what to do if this doesn’t resolve the issue, go to our Student complaints page