The National Student Survey (NSS) 2023 results were released last week, providing us with data and insight to understand how the class of 2023 have experienced their time at Sussex, and to help us focus our efforts to improve our educational offer and the wider student experience.

The survey design was a little different this year, with question wording changes, the removal of the ‘overall satisfaction’ question in England, and new questions about communication of information around mental wellbeing services and freedom of expression.

Although comparison with last year’s performance is difficult because of these changes, we can compare Sussex’s data with other institutions across the country and identify strengths as well as areas we need to focus more attention. Our top performing subjects this year were artificial intelligence, development studies, and psychology and health, and we achieved 100% scores in questions across a wide variety of other subjects.

The Times Higher Education (login required, free with your University email address) has calculated an ‘overall positivity measure’ from the NSS 2023 results for 114 institutions of higher education with over 1,000 responses. This league table sees Sussex ranked 79th overall.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Sasha Roseneil said: “The NSS gives us vital feedback on all aspects of the student experience here at Sussex, and this year’s results will help us focus our efforts in the coming year, and as we develop our new University strategy. The benchmarked data, in particular, enable us to see where we are performing well and less well for our particular body of students, and, this year, indicates that students were very pleased with the organisation and management of their courses, and with how well the students’ union represented their academic interests. Assessment and feedback remains an area in which we are not meeting student expectations. I was delighted to see our courses in artificial intelligence and psychology and health so clearly appreciated by students.”

Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education and Students) Professor Kate O’Riordan said: “The NSS provides very useful insight into how our final year students have found life at Sussex. This cohort of students have been hugely impacted by the pandemic, industrial action and the cost of living crisis, so we have a lot to learn from their feedback. Mental health has been a huge focus for us, and the data shows there is more we can do to ensure our students know how to access our excellent student wellbeing and support services. I will make this a top priority.”

What is the NSS and how is it measured?
The NSS is one of the most influential sources of information about Higher Education, helping prospective students, their families and advisors make informed choices about what and where to study. Data is gathered through surveying all undergraduate finalists on an annual basis, with the survey open from January through to April. Final year students are asked to share their honest views of their time at university, and results and feedback are vital in shaping the student experience here at Sussex. We encourage as many students as possible to take part, and this year our response rate was 68%, a 7% increase on last year’s rate.

The outcomes of the NSS 2023 will be used in the UK league tables and are expected to inform student experience indicators for future Teaching Excellence Framework awards. Both have an influence on reputation and recruitment.

What’s next
Now that we have the full results, all Schools will develop detailed plans to focus on issues raised in the survey, and to celebrate and build upon areas where we have done well. Our Student Services teams will also review and update their plans to improve student life here at Sussex using the rich data of the survey. More details and analysis will be shared with teams, and actions agreed, in due course.