The National Student Survey (NSS) results show the University of Essex is in the national top 10 for overall student satisfaction for the fourth year running.
Essex is joint 8th out of all English mainstream universities* with 90% of students saying they are satisfied with their course – well above the national average of 86%.
The University of Essex is top nationally for American Studies and Genetics with student satisfaction scores of 100%. A further five subjects are in the top 10 and another three in the top 25%.
The subjects in the top 25% nationally are:
- American and Australasian Studies – Ranked 1st – 100%
- Biology – Ranked 8th – 97%
- Drama – Ranked 25th – 93%
- Electronic and Electrical Engineering – Ranked 14th – 91%
- Genetics – Ranked 1st – 100%
- History – Ranked 9th – 97%
- Others in European Language and Area Studies – Ranked 8th – 91%
- Philosophy – Ranked 6th – 94%
- Politics – Ranked 12th – 96%
- Sociology – Ranked 8th – 98%
10 out of the 16 Essex schools, departments and centres covered by the NSS also achieved overall satisfaction scores of 90% or more. These are East 15 Acting School; the Department of History; the School of Philosophy and Art History; the School of Biological Sciences; the School of Health and Human Sciences; the Department of Psychology; they Department of Economics; the Department of Government; the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies and the Department of Sociology.
The University of Essex is also amongst the very best for organisation and management, learning resources and personal development of students with the University of Essex Students’ Union also ranked 20th in England.
"Our students really do value an Essex education"
Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education) Professor Aletta Norval said: “I am very proud that we are once again in the top 10 nationally for student satisfaction for the fourth year in a row – showing our students really do value an Essex education.
“I am particularly pleased to see such positive feedback about access to learning resources as we have invested significantly in delivering outstanding new student facilities. This includes our award-winning Silberrad Student Centre and library extension and our new Essex Business School building at our Colchester Campus which both opened this year.
“The satisfaction score has also increased for our Students’ Union which is such an important part of helping to deliver an outstanding student experience.
“At the same time we are seeing substantial improvements in other areas of the student experience such as employability with our best ever Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) results on record.”
The NSS results reinforce the findings of the recent Quality Assurance Agency review which highlighted Essex’s high-quality learning experience, strong extra-curricular opportunities, close working relationships with students and extensive support for developing employment skills.
We've got a great Students' Union too!
Students' Union President Zoe Garshong said: "We are thrilled that, as the University of Essex Students' Union, we have increased our NSS score. We work hard to improve the student experience at Essex, and it’s fantastic to see that students are benefitting from these improvements.
"We are extremely proud that we’re now ranked in the top 25 of University Students’ Unions nationwide, bringing us one step closer to becoming the worlds most student-centred organisation. Our activities and services are organised and run by students, for students, and this result shows that we are having a positive impact on the lives of students during their time here at Essex."
Investing in the future
The University is continuing to invest in its facilities for students with a new £13.2m science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) building due to open in 2017 thanks to a £5m award from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). The University is also investing in state-of-the-art new sports facilities.
Essex ranks in the top 20 UK universities for research excellence and the top 5 for social science research according to the most recent Research Excellence Framework. It is committed to encouraging students to get involved in the world-leading research taking place at Essex with the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Placements offering students a structured route to paid participation in real-life research.
A truly global community, the University of Essex has students from more than 140 countries and allows students to study abroad or undertake a placement year in their chosen industry at no extra cost.
* Note: We define mainstream universities as non-specialist Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) with a survey population of at least 500 excluding further education colleges and small and specialist HEIs
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