University news

The University has shown sustained positive improvement in all categories of this year’s National Student Survey (NSS), with increased positivity scores in all seven themed categories, and in all but one of the questions.  

After achieving our highest ever response rate of 80%, Sussex’s NSS results show continuous improvement over four years, both in absolute terms, and in terms of our benchmark positions.  

The results, published yesterday are based on feedback from final year undergraduate students, and show that our strategic focus on student voice and assessment and feedback has been paying dividends in improving our students’ experience at Sussex.  

Some highlights include: 

• 8th nationally for the question ‘how well organised is your course?’ 
• improvement of 4.6% in the Student Voice theme to 80% andup 31 places in the national ranking, supported by our new approach to module evaluations   
• improvement of 2.4% in the Assessment and Feedback theme to 79.5% 
• a score of 95% for ‘how good are teaching staff at explaining things’ 
• 93% of students say library resources have helped support their learning   
• positivity scores of over 90% on individual questions have been achieved for several subjectsin each Faculty, and the Faculty of Media, Arts and Humanities saw some impressive increases in several subjects. 

Sector comparison is against the 131 providers ranked in the 2026 domestic institutional league tables.

The University of Sussex Students’ Union also scored well again this year and improved on last year, rising by 10 places to 35th nationally. Student unions make an essential contribution to the overall student experience and the student voice, and we work closely with our Students’ Union on all aspects of student life.  

Vice-Chancellor Professor Sasha Roseneil said: “I am very pleased to see the continued year-on-year improvement in our 2026 NSS results over four years now, and I would like to express my gratitude to every member of staff who has contributed to this. The success and impact of our strategic commitment to ensuring the best possible student experience, and in particular our focus on giving prompt and consistent feedback, as well as on seriously engaging with our students’ feedback to us, are demonstrated clearly in this year’s results.  

“The response rate this year of 80% was our highest ever and I know this would not have been possible without the combined efforts of a multitude of staff across our community, so thank you all. With such a high response rate, we can be confident that our finalists’ views are truly reflected in these results and we can use them to identify further opportunities for improvement within the priority areas identified in our Education and Student Life strategic plan.” 

The NSS is organised annually by the Office for Students (OfS) and gathers final year undergraduate students’ opinions on their experience of their course and the support provided by their higher education institution. 

Improved results in the NSS help to make Sussex a more compelling choice for staff and students, and the results inform league tables and university guides.