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Student Satisfaction at UCL increases above sector and Russell Group averages

6 July 2022

The 2022 National Student Survey (NSS), published today, shows that nearly 80% of UCL final year undergraduate students are satisfied with the overall quality of their UCL education, up 1.9% on 2021.

A student with colourful plaited hair studying some papers

UCL is now ranked in the top quartile in the Russell Group for the first time for Learning Resources, Learning Opportunities and Student Voice, and in the second quartile for every other category.  

Scores increased for almost every category of the NSS, except for Assessment & Feedback which decreased slightly by 0.6%. The biggest improvements compared to last year are in Learning Resources, which increased by 9.2%, putting us second among the Russell Group universities, which have increased by 5.5%. 

Professor Kathleen Armour, UCL Vice-Provost (Education & Student Experience), said:  

"Student feedback informs the improvements we are making to education and the student experience at UCL. After welcoming students back to campus, we are pleased to see a positive increase across so many areas. However, our students are telling us we still have work to do particularly in Assessment & Feedback.  

Through the strategic plan, we will develop a Teaching and Assessment framework which will set out the principles for how we make sure that all students benefit from an excellent approach to education, as well as addressing some of our underlying challenges through investing in our structures and campus.” 

Current developments in UCL Education  

We are working hard to improve our students’ experience. Areas for development are identified in UCL’s Strategic Plan 2022-27 consultation, Discussion Paper Five Education Priorities and Programmes including: 

Assessment & Feedback  

  • Developing a new Teaching and Assessment Framework to look at principles underlying our approach and to support departments to deliver a distinctive and inspiring education.  

  • Developing a brand-new skills unit to bring together education and practice development, Careers, and student skills. It will deliver training to improve teaching and assessment and provide students with opportunities to develop academic and employability skills.  

  • Restructuring the academic year to optimise teaching time, space-out and reduce clustering of assessment and therefore relieve the pressure on students, whilst also creating space for other learning opportunities that add value to the student experience.  

  • Introducing a new Pro-Vice-Provost Education (Student Academic Experience) to help faculties and departments respond to teaching and assessment challenges. 

Other areas of improvement include:  

Academic Support 

  • Creating a new Student Support Framework which draws together UCL's main academic support processes to help students better understand the options open to them.  

  • Introducing a new Pro-Vice-Provost Education (Student Academic Engagement) role to lead on personal academic tutoring and student voice, working closely with the Student Union and student Mental Health and Wellbeing services. 

Student Voice 

  • Developing a new continuous module dialogue process to improve the process of student evaluation of modules and programmes and encourage dialogue between staff and students. 

Student feedback is shaping UCL 

Professor Armour added: "71% of our final year undergraduates took part in NSS 2022 – I’d like to thank every student for their feedback. Such a high response is also a tribute to the hard work of UCL staff to engage with their students and let them know that their feedback helps to shape UCL.”  

The NSS is managed on behalf of the Office for Students (OfS) by Ipsos MORI, an independent survey research agency, which runs the NSS during the second term each year.