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Satisfied students give Reading the thumbs up – University of Reading

Students at the University of Reading are among the most satisfied in the country, figures released today have revealed.

The third annual National Student Survey (NSS) shows students across the country have a high and sustained level of satisfaction with their experience of higher education. Overall, 81 per cent of students were satisfied with their experience at university or college.

But 88 per cent of Reading students polled said they were satisfied with their course at Reading – putting the university in the top 20 in England and in the top 23 nationally out of more than 140 universities and HE colleges nationally.

Professor Gordon Marshall, Vice Chancellor of the University of Reading, said: "It's great to hear the majority of our students are happy and satisfied with their courses. Our staff and the students' union work very hard to ensure students choosing to study here get the very best out of their time at Reading.

"Reading is consistently one of the most popular higher education choices in the UK.

"But, we are not complacent and recognise that for whatever reason, a percentage of students were not satisfied, and we will be doing our best to make sure we improve their experience."

Sally Pearman, president of Reading's Students' Union, said: "We encourage students to do more than just their degree so that when they graduate they've made more friends, had more experiences and they really feel they've made the most of their time at university. Reading is relentlessly dedicated to supporting and developing our students and the NSS results show that our efforts are paying off!"

Percentages are for respondents who 'definitely' or 'mostly' agreed with question 22 of the survey: 'Overall, I am satisfied with the quality of my course'.

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Intellectual Property and Quality, Lord Triesman, speaking at the launch of the 2007 NSS results, said: "An overall satisfaction rating of 81 per cent is an excellent endorsement of higher education in this country. The survey itself is also a helpful tool for institutions to identify areas that might need sharpening up."

ENDS

Notes to editors

1. The percentages used in this press release relate to students registered with English higher education institutions, including the Open University, who are not funded by the NHS.

2. Summary data are available on the attached spreadsheet. The full dataset is available at: www.hefce.ac.uk/learning/nss/data/2007

3. The National Student Survey (NSS) is part of the Unistats web-site. The NSS covers higher education students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This year, eight Scottish universities and the independent University of Buckingham are also taking part, as are students on initial teacher training courses funded by the Training and Development Agency for Schools and students on NHS funded courses.

4. The NSS was carried out by Ipsos MORI. The data will be available on the Unistats web-site which is developed and maintained by UCAS and Hotcourses.

5. Due to differences in quality assurance arrangements in different parts of the UK, some types of information are not published for all institutions.

6. The survey covers all full-time and part-time undergraduate students in publicly-funded higher education institutions in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and some institutions in Scotland during their final year of study (or for flexible programmes where the final year cannot be predicted, during their fourth year of study). In 2007, over 177,000 students responded to the survey, out of over 290,000 students in the population, a 60 per cent response rate.

7. A small proportion of part-time students who completed the survey may not have been in their final year.