NSS results show positivity and progress

Results of the 2024 National Student Survey (NSS), which were published on Wednesday, tell a positive story about student experience at the University of Reading. 

Students are more positive than last year in six of the seven theme areas of the survey, and the seventh (Learning Resources) remains unchanged from 2023. 

Positivity has improved most markedly in the themes of Student Voice – which asks questions about the extent to which students feel their feedback is heard and acted upon - and Assessment and Feedback – which considers how timely and useful assessment feedback is -, with increases of 4.2 and 3.7 percentage points respectively. 

The proportion of students who responded positively to our optional question “Overall, I am satisfied with the quality of my course” also rose slightly, from 79.4% in 2023 to 80.0% in 2024. 

As an institution, Reading is above the benchmark, as defined by the Office for Students, in all seven themes, most notably in Assessment and Feedback (+4.0) and Student Voice (+4.3) - two of the areas used in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF).  

Hard work acknowledged by PVC 

Professor Elizabeth McCrum, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education and Student Experience, recognised the hard work of everyone who has contributed to the results.

She said: “The NSS is an important indicator of how our students really view the experience they have when studying at Reading, so I’m delighted to see the progress we have made in some key areas; particularly the improvements around Assessment and Feedback, an area where we have concentrated efforts to support targeted improvement.  

“The dedicated hard work of teams in Schools has resulted in the University performing 4.8% ahead of the benchmark in Organisation and Management. Student Voice has continued to improve and is some 4% higher than the benchmark, at 78.4%.  

“All of these positive results have been achieved thanks to the commitment of colleagues from across the University. They show that we have taken student feedback seriously and I appreciate the work colleagues have put into listening to and responding to that feedback.” 

Data analysis 

NSS results inform prospective students, contribute to league tables and boost our reputation. Most importantly they recognise the excellent experience we offer our students. 

Over the coming weeks and months, our Planning and Strategy Office (PSO) team will continue to examine the data in detail and provide further analyses and updated Tableau dashboards. 

A headline summary report, including a breakdown of results by School/Department, is available on the PSO Data Shares MS Teams channel. If you need access to the channel, please email PSO. 

To view Reading’s response data in full, select ‘The University of Reading’ on the Provider Level Dashboard on the Office for Students’ NSS results webpage.