Student satisfaction increases in national survey

Results of the 2024 National Student Survey, published this month (July 2024) tell a positive story about student experience at the University of Reading. 

Across all departments, more students reported a positive experience across all areas surveyed, including 'academic support', 'assessment and feedback', 'teaching on my course', and 'student voice', with ‘learning resources’ achieving the same level as in 2023.

All seven areas exceeded the national benchmark, for the second year running.

The proportion of students who responded positively to the optional question “Overall, I am satisfied with the quality of my course” rose from 79.4% in 2023 to 80% in 2024.

Reading’s students rate their university higher than the UK average across all areas,  particularly for ‘student voice’, in which Reading ranks among the top quartile, and ‘organisation and management’, in which Reading is rated among the top 10% of universities in the UK.

Professor Elizabeth McCrum, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education and Student Experience, said: “The National Student Survey is an important indicator of how our students really view the experience they have when studying at Reading. 

“I’m delighted to see the progress we have made in some key areas, particularly the improvements around Assessment and feedback, an area where we have concentrated efforts to support targeted improvement.

“All of these positive results show that we have taken student feedback seriously. I am grateful to all the students who shared their views, and I appreciate the work colleagues have put into listening to and responding to their feedback.”

Subject strengths 

As an institution, Reading is above the benchmark, as defined by universities regular the Office for Students, across all seven themes measured by the survey.

A number of individual subject departments achieved particular successes:

• Biomedical Engineering students gave their course 100% positive rating for academic support, and 95.7% approval for ‘assessment and feedback’, up significantly from last year.
• Biological Sciences improved across all seven areas, with 90.2% positivity for ‘teaching on my course’.
• Computer Science saw a large jump in positive feedback across all areas, with 93.5% positive response in the ‘academic support’ category.
• Law has seen improvements in all areas, with positive measures of ‘student voice’ increasing by 15.2 percentage points.
• Psychology students rated their university experience of ‘student voice’ up by more than 10 percentage points higher than last year, with a 83.8% positive rating in 2024.

To view Reading’s response data in full, select ‘University of Reading’ on the Provider Level Dashboard on the Office for Students’ NSS results webpage.