The University of Liverpool has maintained very high satisfaction levels in this year’s National Student Survey (NSS).
The NSS gathers students’ opinions on the quality of their courses, which helps to inform prospective students’ choices, provide data that supports universities and colleges to improve the student experience and support public accountability.
The University of Liverpool achieved an overall satisfaction score of 84.1%, above the sector average of 82.7% and ahead of its benchmark score of 83.6%. The result places the University eighth among participating Russell Group universities for overall satisfaction, ahead of the universities of Leeds, Newcastle and Manchester, and third in the group of North West universities.
The University was ranked top in the Russell Group for Student Voice with a satisfaction rating of 77% and in the top three for Learning Opportunities (83%), Assessment and Feedback (73%), Academic Support (79%), Learning Community (76%) and Learning Resources (89%), with high scores in this area for IT resources and facilities (86%) and access to course-specific resources (91%).
Very high overall satisfaction scores have been recorded across a broad range of University of Liverpool subject areas including Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology (97%), Ophthalmics (96%), Pharmacology (95%), Ecology and Environmental Biology (100%), Nursing (94%, ranking it 4th nationally), Veterinary Science (93%) and Accounting (96%, ranking it 10th nationally).
A number of subject areas also saw significant improvement on 2019 satisfaction scores, including Medicine, whose overall satisfaction rating increased by 21% to 92%, rising 14 places to rank 11th for the subject nationally. Large improvements in overall satisfaction were also recorded for Aeronautical and Aerospace Engineering (13% – placing the University 3rd for this subject nationally) as well as French Studies and Marketing which improved their scores by 12% and 10% respectively.
Professor Gavin Brown, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education, said: “These results are a stunning achievement in the context of major disruption due to COVID-19. The whole University community has responded brilliantly to the transition to online learning in order to maintain the high standard of our teaching provision.
“It’s extremely pleasing to see the hard work of many colleagues being recognised with significant improvements in student satisfaction in areas such as Aeronautical and Aerospace Engineering, French Studies, Marketing and particularly Medicine, where many of our students have been helping to support the NHS throughout the pandemic.
“In the coming months, we will be looking at how we can continue to improve student satisfaction with our programmes, as well as further understand and address some lower scores in a small number of subject areas.”
The University’s strong performance in the National Student Survey, despite the impact of COVID-19, is mirrored in a National Union of Students Survey involving around 10,000 students, of which 10% were University of Liverpool students. The survey found that 74% of University of Liverpool students taking part were confident that the institution is handling the COVID-19 crisis well, compared to 67% of students nationally.