The National Student Survey (NSS) is an annual survey for undergraduate students in their final year or equivalent. The NSS gives you the opportunity to voice your own opinion and give honest feedback about the quality of your course and university. It’s an anonymous survey run by Ipsos, an independent market research company. This year the survey is open from 11 January to 30 April 2023.
The NSS invites over half a million students each year to participate voluntarily and is widely recognised as an important evaluation of student satisfaction. This measure of student satisfaction will also reflect on the decision of prospective students who are looking to apply for university, as the responses from the survey will help shape their decision about what they want to study and where. It is an influential source of information and, as a student, you have a powerful collective voice that will help shape the future of your course and the University.
Why should you complete the NSS?
The NSS leads to real change in both courses and at the University. Based on feedback we’ve received in past surveys from students who have now graduated, we’ve:
- Created new student spaces across campus
- Invested in supporting your wellbeing with more team members, new processes to help you access support and events like Wellbeing Wednesday
- Created events to help you connect with other students including Bake-Off and PassionFlash
- Extended opening hours for specific food outlets
- Hosted employability events within schools to connect you with industry
Their feedback allowed us to enhance your student experience. Could you do the same for students coming after you?
How does the NSS work?
The NSS is a survey complied of 28 single-choice questions. You can also provide comments about your overall student experience in an open-ended question. Questions vary on the nine topics that relate to the course such as teaching, the organisation of the course, resources, student voice and more.
The survey is anonymous, voluntary and it is quick to fill out, taking on average around 10 minutes to complete.
If you’re eligible to complete the NSS this year, we will send you some reminders. Ipsos will be contacting you directly as well. We sent you a GDPR notice back in December 2022 to your student email.
How do I complete the survey?
Accessing the survey to complete it is straightforward and trouble-free through the NSS website. All you will need to fill out the NSS is your 8-digit student number (this should follow after the @ sign e.g. @12345678) and a few personal details to confirm that you qualify for the survey. This information is not stored with your answers as the survey is anonymous.
