A new National Student Survey (NSS) Results Explorer is now available, allowing staff to analyse and understand feedback from our students at University, school and subject levels.

The NSS is an annual survey across all publicly funded Higher Education Institutions in the UK which asks final-year students their views on a range of questions relating to their university experience. It is a useful way for us to understand what our students value and how we can ensure that they have an outstanding university experience. It is also a significant component in determining overall position in the UK league tables.

As a result of the efforts of colleagues across the University, the NSS 2016 results are our best to date and the strongest year-on-year improvement since the NSS began. Most notably:

• We achieved our highest ever level of ‘overall satisfaction’ of 89%, and 24 subjects scored 90% or above.
• The corresponding score for overall satisfaction (question 22) was 4.29 – again the highest Nottingham has achieved and which exceeds the University’s Strategy 2020 target of 4.28.
• Our average score across all questions was also our highest at 4.16, placing Nottingham at 9th within the Russell Group (as compared to 17th in 2015).

There are, however, areas where we can improve further and doing so is central to the University’s overall strategy and priorities.

How the NSS Results Explorer can help you

The NSS Results Explorer is an important tool which will allow you to see and delve into NSS results at University, school and subject level, for the last five years, down to the individual questions. You can also see results for any subject at any other university, to understand better NSS performance in a competitive context. The Explorer also includes all open comments, which are now searchable.

This is the second year this tool has been provided, and this year’s has many improvements and new features based on feedback on last year’s version and dialogue with colleagues, including:

• For any school or subject, select a custom set of competitors to compare results with.
• For any school or subject, compare results at question level against competitors.
• See the five-year trend for any school or subject, as scores and as % agree.
• A portal page – so you jump directly to any analysis.

Downloading the NSS Results Explorer

You can get the NSS Results Explorer from the ‘SPP Tableau Catalogue’ in the Strategy Support Centre.

A Tableau Reader is available via UoN Applications. You can find it by searching for ‘Tableau’ in the Windows Start menu on your PC desktop. A Free Tableau Reader page download link is also provided in the Strategy Support Centre.

Further support

The NSS Results Explorer is provided by Strategy, Planning and Performance (SPP). SPP welcome feedback on the features available, usability or anything else you think might improve it.

If you have questions about any substantive aspects of the NSS Results or the NSS Results Explorer, please contact SPP directly; if you have questions or issues about installing the free Tableau Reader, contact the IT Service Desk.