The pandemic was arguably the biggest disruption to the delivery of higher education in over 50 years.
Unsurprisingly, despite the best efforts of staff across the UK there was a notable drop in student satisfaction across a range of national measures.
The National Student Survey saw overall student satisfaction drop from 83 per cent in 2020 (the survey having largely been completed before the pandemic hit) to 74 per cent in 2021 and despite much less disruption in 2022, satisfaction still only rose by 2 percentage points to 76 per cent which was still 7 percentage points lower than pre-pandemic levels.
For the last decade, Whatuni has been collecting student reviews to capture the experience of students too. Unlike the NSS, Whatuni reviews capture students in all years of study, but unsurprisingly there is a close correlation between the satisfaction of students in all years of study and final year undergraduates as captured by the NSS. The Whatuni reviews span the experience of students both inside and outside of the classroom with categories that include teachers and lecturers, facilities, career support, students’ union and a question on overall satisfaction.
