Monday 20-01-2020 - 00:00

The National Student Survey (NSS) opens this week and we at Durham SU have decided not to actively promote the survey. The NSS has long sparked debate, and we want to present our views so you can make an informed decision on whether or not to take part.

What is the NSS?

The survey asks finalists to answer 27 questions about their experience at university, ranging from questions about the quality of teaching on courses and the availability of student support, to the appropriateness of resources that the University provides. This is by no means a bad thing; we want the University to be asking students what they think about the things that matter to them, and teaching, student support and resources are certainly things that matter!

However, students are only allowed to answer how much they agree or disagree with fixed statements, not provide a nuanced response to open-ended questions, which would provide a much more comprehensive understanding of the university experience. These statements are aimed at every single final year student in the country, so they inherently fail to capture the breadth of the opportunities that universities offer to students and don’t provide an adequate chance for students to talk meaningfully about their individual experiences of university life. In reducing the whole student experience to a few questions which are important to the University, they miss out on hearing the real experience of their students. To use an example, knowing whether there is enough study space in the University estate is only important if students need desk space to complete their assessments and want to use University study space to work in.

We have concerns with the NSS…

One of our main concerns with the NSS is the role it plays in the marketisation of higher education through its influence on the Teaching Excellence Framework (the gold, silver or bronze rating universities are awarded in regards to their quality of teaching) and university league tables.

We know that the accuracy of TEF in determining good teaching quality is highly debated, and league tables often don’t capture the full university experience. However, they are still often used as a measure of future success by students and prospective students, as well as schools, colleges, and many other organisations involved in helping someone get to university. 

What these metrics and tables promote is often unhelpful competition between universities who are striving to be the best according to these narrow measures, instead of investigating whether every university provides an educational experience that supportively challenges and inspires its students to reach their full potential. This is not to say that a true reflection of all of the intricacies of the university experience is able to be measured in an online survey, but it is important to be aware of what the survey measures and how that differs to what we consider when choosing a university.

NSS plays a role in the marketisation of education, which has its problems.

This is where marketisation comes into play again. These metrics are overwhelmingly used in promotional materials to attract prospective students to a university, and are often used without proper explanation of what this equates to in real terms. Better stats often equate to more applications, so many universities, especially Durham, have rapidly increased in student numbers, without increasing the accompanying infrastructure to accommodate a larger number of students. This is because the current fee arrangement incentivises higher ranked institutions to recruit quickly to increase revenue, and only after this revenue is raised are universities able to invest in the supporting infrastructure – meaning many cohorts of student do not feel the benefit of investment from the fees they paid. 

This commodified view of education also impacts on how we as students view our role in our time at university, sometimes putting unhealthy pressure on ourselves in our studies because we feel the need to make the most of an education we feel we have “bought”. This focus on cost and getting our money’s worth impedes our ability to benefit from the opportunities for personal development our education should offer.

NSS isn’t accessible for everyone

What’s more, the NSS isn’t even accessible for everyone. When tested with a web accessibility tool, the site hosting the survey doesn’t show up properly, meaning it may be more difficult for people with various disabilities to navigate the page and fill in the survey. 

The results can be used as a force for good

However, it is because it is easily comparable and linked to University budget that universities tend to sit up and listen to the results of the NSS. At all levels of the University NSS results are often the first item discussed at the beginning of the year, shaping departmental strategies for the coming year. More importantly, as answers are based only on students’ perceptions, it incentivises the University to better engage with students and take action on the requests students are making of them.

The results often flag up important issues students have had with their education which students might otherwise have struggled to raise, and as Officers we have had many constructive conversations with the University about changes they need to make off the back of the NSS results. They have led to work being carried out on how we can improve lecture capture, how we can make students’ academic representation more effective and more.

As students at many other institutions across the country also fill out the NSS, it means that we are able to compare scores with other universities all across the country. This means that we, as your SU, are able to champion what’s going well in your education, and are able to see easily what you aren’t so happy with and what we can do to change that. 

Free text answers bring out attention to Durham-specific issues

You also have the option to write a free text answer, so if there’s something important that you feel the answer scale doesn’t take into account in the questions, you can write it in if you so wish. This often brings to attention the Durham-specific, widely felt issues that we as a Students’ Union are able to lobby for change on.

It’s up to you

Now you have all the info, as a Union we’d encourage you to consider these issues and make your own call as to whether to complete the NSS or not.