The National Student Survey (NSS) once again shows the University of Essex is one of the very best universities in the country for student satisfaction.
Overall satisfaction for Essex students stands at 92% well above the national average with Essex now ranked joint second out of mainstream UK universities (see note). This is the third year running Essex has been ranked in the top 10.
Pro-Vice-Chancellor Education, Professor Aletta Norval, said: “In our 50th year it is wonderful to receive such a strong endorsement from our students for our commitment to excellence in education and excellence in research.
“The NSS results underline the success of our strategy to deliver a truly transformational education informed by the work of our leading researchers.
“We support the personal growth of our students while helping them to develop the skills they need for a fulfilling future. Our students are at the heart of everything we do and our partnership with the Students’ Union is crucial to supporting and enriching their whole learning experience.”
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The results show 12 out of the 16 schools, departments and centres at Essex covered by NSS achieved overall satisfaction scores of 90% or more.
Six achieved 95% or above - the Department of Economics, the Department of History, the School of Philosophy and Art History, the Department of Psychology, the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies and the Department of Sociology.
The University is ranked in the top 10 for average satisfaction in seven out of 25 subjects taught at Essex which are covered by the NSS and another two are in the top 20.
The top ranking subjects are:
- American and Australasian Studies – Ranked 1st – 100%
- Cinematics and Photography – Ranked 1st – 100%
- Economics – Ranked 5th – 96%
- History – Ranked 7th – 98%
- Molecular Biology, Biophysics and Biochemistry – Ranked 8th – 96%
- Nursing – Ranked 9th – 94%
- Philosophy – Ranked 16th – 94%
- Psychology – Ranked 4th – 97%
- Sociology – Ranked 11th – 96%
The NSS results show Essex is amongst the top universities in the country for assessment and feedback, personal development, academic support, organisation and management, and learning resources.
The Students’ Union at Essex is in the top quartile for student satisfaction - showing the success of its partnership with the University.
University of Essex Students’ Union President Adrian Chira said: “We are committed to being the world's most student-centred organisation so we are thrilled to see such positive feedback from our students.
“We are working together with the University to invest in our facilities and services and we are excited that in the past year more students than ever before have joined our societies, taken part in sport clubs, volunteered through our vTeam and participated in our events.
“We will continue to talk to our students in the coming year to help the University really understand how to make the student experience even more fulfilling.”
The NSS results reinforce the findings of this year’s 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.
Essex is looking to build on this year’s NSS results by further improving the ratio of staff to students with the largest ever expansion of its academic community. This year also sees the opening of the £26 million student centre and library extension and landmark £22 million Essex Business School building.
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