Press Releases

Reading students give University the thumbs up - National Student Survey 2009

Release Date : 30 September 2009

Students at the University of Reading have given the thumbs up to their university, with 87% of those responding to the National Student Survey 2009 stating they were satisfied with the quality of their course. The rating is significantly above the national average for higher education institutions (82%).

Highlights of the areas of the survey in which Reading scored highly include:-
• Quality of teaching – 89%
• Intellectually stimulating course – 87%
• Ease of contacting staff - 86%
• Academic Support – 78%
• Organisation and management – 82%
• Personal development – 80%
• Two departments in the University also received 100% positive feedback from their students for overall satisfaction – Clinical Language Sciences and Applied Statistics in the School of Biological Sciences.

Professor Rob Robson, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Teaching and Learning at the University said: "We are delighted that our students rate the teaching we offer them so highly and that our academic support also meets high standards. We are always striving to improve especially in any areas where students indicate we could do better. However, as a research-intensive university, we are proud that this year's results yet again demonstrate the high quality teaching our students enjoy, delivered, as it is, by staff conducting highly relevant research."
ENDS

Notes to editors:
The National Student Survey (NSS) is a national initiative, conducted annually since 2005. The survey runs in the first quarter of the year across all publicly funded Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and participating HEIs in Scotland.
The survey asks final year students on undergraduate courses or equivalent to provide feedback on their courses in a nationally recognised format. Students are asked to indicate the extent to which they agree with a series of 22 positive statements relating to the following aspects of the student learning experience:
The results of the survey are provided to participating institutions to help inform future practice and experience enhancement, and are also made available to prospective students and schools as part of the suite of data and information about universities on Unistats, the UCAS-managed website.