The University of Westminster’s commitment to providing exceptional education has been recognised by an enhanced overall student experience score in the 2020 National Student Survey (NSS), with a number of courses enjoying an over 10 percentage point increase in satisfaction levels in the ‘Teaching on my course’ category compared to last year.
Westminster students have scored the University higher on the areas of Overall Satisfaction, Assessment and Feedback, Teaching, Student Voice and Academic Support when compared to last year's survey, whereas the sector at large saw decreased NSS scores in these categories this year.
Of our Post-92 London comparator institutions, Westminster has achieved the largest improvement in Overall Satisfaction and Teaching compared to last year’s NSS.
The University has invested significantly in the enhancement of Assessment and Feedback as well as Teaching, achieving an impressive increase of 2.7 percentage points and 2.5 percentage points in these categories respectively. The Overall Satisfaction score is up by 1.8 percentage points.
The Animation BA Honours and Sociology BA Honours courses achieved a whopping 100 per cent overall student satisfaction score, while the Master of Architecture (MArch) (RIBA pt II), Criminology BA Honours, Biochemistry BSc Honours and English Literature BA Honours courses all scored an outstanding 95 per cent or above.
Professor Dibyesh Anand, Head of the School of Social Science incorporating Sociology and Criminology, said: "The boost to our NSS scores is a result of various factors including the general ecosystem of student support within the University. When students find their lecturers more accessible and invested in providing a holistic education, they tend to respond more positively. No data analysis can take away the vital role of mutual respect between academics and students as well as of community building."
No less than ten courses enjoy a more than 10 percentage point growth in satisfaction in the Teaching category compared to 2019. Public Relations and Advertising BA Honours (up by 33 percentage points), Contemporary Media Practice BA Honours (up by 25 percentage points), Business Management (Entrepreneurship) BA Honours (up by 17 percentage points), Photography BA Honours (up by 14 percentage points), International Relations BA Honours (up by 13 percentage points) and Computer Science BSc Honours (up by 11 percentage points) are all among the courses that have performed such a remarkable achievement, sitting above their subject-sector benchmark in NSS 2020.
Dr Sal Jarvis, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Education, said: “I am so pleased to see that students have recognised the really positive developments in their education, as well as the hard work of their lecturers to achieve this. The University of Westminster’s vision is to offer an exceptional education to every one of our students. These results are a really positive step along our journey to achieve that.”
The NSS is an annual sector-wide survey of student experience in Higher Education, primarily for final year undergraduate students. The survey is managed by the Office for Students on behalf of the UK funding and regulatory bodies. This year 396 universities, colleges and alternative providers took place in the survey.
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