I have spent today juggling two major issues at either end of the 'student journey' - the preparations for the declaration of A level results next week and the consequent activity leading to the admission of a cohort of new students in 6 weeks time, and the National Student Survey results for students who have just graduated. It is a belief of the present coalition government, and particularly of the Higher Education Minister, David Willetts, that there is a connection between these two. It is argued that candidates for admission to university need as wide a range of information as possible about the possible choices open to them, and that key within this is the material that comes from the National Student Surevy - in other words, the opinions of students who have taken the courses they are considering.
I'm not so sure. If that idea is true, then courses for which the National Student Survey (NSS) results show a low level of satisfaction should see a reduced rate of applications, and vice versa. A few years ago I undertook some research to ascertain whether this was indeed so. I found that there was a positive relationship between NSS score and applications levels, but it was very weak and not statistically significant. From the perspective of a Pro-Vice-Chancellor this is a little unfortunate: had the relationship been demonstrably strong that would have given me ammunition for pointing out to departments that the long-term outcome of poor performance in terms of satisfaction could be a drying up of applications. Do candidates really look in detail at satisfaction scores for the possible courses they are consdiering, and if so does such information play a major role in their decisions on which course to apply to? A few months ago I took part in a round table discussion at the Guardian newspaper where we came to the conclusion that candidates are perhaps bamboozled with too much information, and that as immature consumers they are anyway more likely to rely on personal recommendation and anecdote than on surveys.
But I am clear that the national student survey does have a significant infleunce on the admissions position - although perhaps indirectly. And that influence is not nuanced for different departments. The influence coems via the way that NSS data are incorporated in the major university league tables published by newspapers such as the Times, the Guardian and other media. And those league tables take the aggregate data for whole institutions rather than the figures for individual departments and courses. Evidence from market research suggests that league tables are being increasingly used by candidates in choosing where to apply to.
And that actually does give me a lever to use with any poor-performing departments in the NSS. Instead of saying to them 'your scores are such that people won;t apply to you', what I can in effect now say to them is that their scores are such as to drag down the aggregate figures for the university as a whole, and thus affect the institution's league table position adversely. I suppose that sounds rather like the approach of the head teacher in the boarding school novels of the past - "Your poor behaviour is letting yourself down, but more importantly it's letting the SCHOOL down."
Sheffield continues to do very well indeed in produing high levels of satisfaction among our students. This year's data will be publicised next week when the embargo on doing so nationally is lifted. Not coincidentally, that is the same week as the publication of A level results. But I have already taken action over a very small number of under-performing departments to get the message to them that they are letting the University down.
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