Student surveys help us to understand our students' experience when they're here, and their success when they leave. This page focuses on the two main student surveys, the NSS and Graduate Outcomes.
The National Student Survey (NSS)
The National Student Survey (NSS) is a survey of final-year undergraduate students across every university in the UK, run by market research company Ipsos MORI.
The survey gives final-year students the chance to tell the world what's great about their course and about Solent University, as well as what could have been better. It's not just about lectures, but covers every aspect of academic life - resources, facilities, organisation, support and more.
Visit www.thestudentsurvey.com to find out more.
How is this information used?
Student feedback lets us recognise Solent's successes and identify those areas we need to improve.
NSS results are also published nationally, and are one of the measures which contribute to the main university league tables. They’re also listed on the Unistats website, which links through from UCAS - providing prospective students with information on what current Solent students feel about their time here.
Latest results: National Student Survey 2021
Solent scored higher than the sector in four of the nine measures, achieving highest satisfaction scores (%) in the areas of ‘teaching on my course’ and ‘learning opportunities’. Solent’s score for ‘learning community’ was the 34th highest in the sector, and the score for ‘academic support’ was the 36th highest in the sector.
Solent is higher than the benchmark set for the institution for five of the measures and is matching its benchmark across three, including overall satisfaction. Courses at Solent aligned to the subject areas of ‘literature and English’ and ‘nursing (non-specific)’ are ranked second across all institutions for ‘overall satisfaction’.
| | Solent scores 2021 | Sector average scores 2021 | Difference between Solent and sector |
|---|
| The teaching on my course |
79% |
80% |
-1% |
|---|
| Learning opportunities |
78% |
79% |
-1% |
|---|
| Assessment and feedback |
71% |
69% |
+2% |
|---|
| Academic support |
76% |
73% |
+3% |
|---|
| Organisation and management |
67% |
69% |
-2% |
|---|
| Learning resources |
69% |
73% |
-4% |
|---|
| Learning community |
71% |
66% |
+5% |
|---|
| Student voice |
69% |
66% |
+3% |
|---|
| Overall satisfaction |
72% |
75% |
-3% |
|---|
Graduate Outcomes
Student success is one of our three strategic priorities at Solent. Through our 2025 strategy we have pledged that 70% of our graduates will be in highly skilled employment or further study.
The Graduate Outcomes Survey is one of the key measures used to report on this, influencing our league table positioning, TEF and our own internal course reviews. The survey is administered by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and replaced the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey. Now in it’s third year, this survey captures the perspectives and current status of recent graduates.
Results from 2020 for Solent 2019 graduates showed that:
- Solent’s employment rate is higher than the sector average for the second year in a row. This year our employment rate (83%) is 2 percentage points above the sector average (81%).
- Most Solent graduates regard their current activity as meaningful. The percentage of graduates who agreed or strongly agreed with this statement increased slightly from 79% in Year 1* to 80% in Year 2**.
* 2017/18 graduates
** 2018/19 graduates
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