More than eight out of ten postgraduate students on taught courses are satisfied with their overall experience, according to a new report. That means overall satisfaction has now fully recovered following a Covid-related dip and now stands at its highest level since 2016. Advance HE’s Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey 2023 draws on responses from nearly 84,000 postgraduate taught students in 101 institutions across the UK.
Among its findings it showed:
- 83% of students were satisfied overall with their experience, up one per cent on 2022 and the highest since 2016 and 2014 when it also reached 83%.
- Satisfaction levels among non-EU overseas students have continued to increase and now exceed by a sizeable margin those of UK students across all measures of the postgraduate experience – including teaching, engagement with the course, assessment, skills development and course organisation.
- 18% of postgraduate taught students had considered leaving their course and, of those, the number who cited financial difficulties increased from 8% in 2022 to 11% in 2023.
- UK students were considerably more likely to consider leaving their course than overseas students – with 29% of UK students considering leaving in comparison to, for example, students from India, of whom only 6% had considered leaving.
- Women and non-binary students were more likely to consider leaving their course, as were those who studied mainly online.
- Students who had had free school meals as children were more likely to consider leaving their course, particularly because of financial difficulties, and this differential continued even among students aged 36 and above.
