Time to act on NSS
Sussex has this week taken important steps to address the issues raised by students who completed the 2011 National Student Survey (NSS).
Professor Clare Mackie, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning)
The NSS results show that, while Sussex students rated their teaching extremely highly – placing the University in the UK’s top 10 for teaching satisfaction – they highlighted ‘assessment and feedback’ and ‘learning resources’ as two key areas where improvement was needed.
This week I have sent a detailed breakdown of our results, subject by subject, to every single member of teaching faculty at Sussex and have asked them and their schools to address assessment and feedback as their very top priority.
I have also sent the results to every student representative at Sussex – that’s around 220 of our students. They are part of the ‘learning partnership’ that will help us improve further what we do.
Schools will, this term, discuss these results with staff and students, for example at their School Student Experience Group (SSEG), ensuring that positive ideas and improvements are developed to reflect local needs and experiences.
And, of course, once this important analysis and discussion has taken place it will be time to act.
Schools will be creating action plans setting out the measures they will put in place locally to deliver improvements in 2011-12 and beyond.
This will be enhanced by the significant improvements that will be made in how and when we assess and provide feedback to our students through the new structure of the academic year from 2012-13.
The associated portfolio review process with all schools is also enabling us to make systematic improvements in how assessment is planned and delivered as part of the curriculum.
Meanwhile, central professional services teams are tackling the other area where Sussex has fallen behind: learning resources.
We have already begun urgent work on improving our IT, agreeing last week a £1.3m fund to be spent on increasing the speed and availability of wireless internet (Wi-Fi) on campus and installing 400 new computers.
Reading through the comments left by our students who completed the NSS, it is clear that a considerable source of (understandable) dissatisfaction was with the 18-month refurbishment of the Library.
While noisy and disruptive in its own right, it also had a knock-on effect on access to IT equipment last year.
Now that this £6m project is completed, I am pleased that our current students seem to be enjoying the much-improved Library services we offer.
This period is also an opportunity to build on what we do well. After all, Sussex was above the sector average in 14 of the 22 questions asked in the NSS and individual schools and departments each have areas of best practice.
The challenge is to identify what it is that students like about the Sussex experience and then keep it, or, where possible, make it even better. And we need to make sure that we do this all with a Sussex flavour: a focus on excellence, interdisciplinary working and, above all else, quality.
Next spring term we will once again be asking hundreds of final year students to give their thoughts on their Sussex experience by completing the 2012 NSS.
I strongly believe that students are more likely to complete the survey if they see themselves as part of a continuous cycle of feedback, results, analysis and action.
If we want students to carry on giving us this invaluable feedback year after year, now is the time to show them that we are keeping our side of the bargain.