Students to rate universities in government survey

The government is to publish an annual survey of how students rate their universities to enable them to become "informed consumers" in the era of the top-up fee, it was announced today.

An experimental version of its national student survey, involving nearly 15,000 people who studied at 23 universities and colleges in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, showed they thought the quality of services such as teaching was high.

The higher education minister, Alan Johnson, said the survey would enable would-be students to make "informed choices" about whether universities
offered value for money.

The survey proposal was included in last year's higher education white paper, which contained the controversial plan to allow universities to charge up to ?3,000 a year in fees from 2006.

Mr Johnson said the survey should help to reduce the UK drop-out rate, which is already one of the world's lowest.

"One of the biggest reasons for student drop-out has been students choosing the wrong course, one that does not suit them or their needs," he said.

"A national student survey will give students better information to help them make informed choices about where and what to study at university.

"It will also enable them to look at the quality of the course alongside the tuition fees to be charged for it.

"This pilot shows that the overall quality of our universities is of a high standard but the diversity within and across institutions and courses shows
the importance of and need for this student survey.

"Students need to know what to expect on a number of different issues from the quality of teaching to the quality of support, and learning resources
so that they can make informed decisions about what is best for them."

Students and recent graduates were asked to rate their alma mater for quality across seven areas - teaching, feedback, assessment, support, available
learning resources, the ability of the course to improve their skills and appropriateness of workload.

They were asked to think about a series of statements.
A rating of five meant they definitely agreed that, for example, teaching was good. A three meant they were either neutral or were unable to give a
definite answer and a one meant they definitely disagreed.

For most questions, a score of five was the best a university or course could achieve, while one was the lowest.

Average scores across 20 universities showed teaching quality in social studies, for example, ranged from 3.7 to 4.2.

Individual courses were shown to have strengths and weaknesses - for example, one business studies degree was rated 3.8 for teaching but 2.5 for feedback.

Universities are already familiar with being ranked by measures such as student drop-out and the proportion of their intake that comes from state schools every year in league tables based on data from the funding council Hefce.

Now they will have to get used to annual league tables based on what their students think of them.

The institutions that took part in the pilot survey did so on condition that their individual scores were not made public.

Mandy Telford, president of the National Union of Students, said: "NUS supports the introduction of a student satisfaction survey.

"We believe that prospective students should be armed with the best information to help them make a fully informed choice about their university and their course.

"For this to work there must be strict guidelines in place and a proper representative number of students questioned.

"What the government must not do is use these surveys to create university league tables to try and justify some institutions' desire to charge much higher top-up fees."

The universities and colleges involved were:

Belfast University
Birmingham University

Bournemouth University
Canterbury Christ Church University College

Chester College of Higher Education
De Montfort University
Edge Hill College of Higher Education
Essex University
Hertfordshire University

Kent Institute of Art and Design

Leicester University
Luton University
Manchester University

Newcastle University
University of Northumbria at Newcastle
Nottingham University
Open University
Portsmouth University

Royal Northern College of Music

Southampton Institute
University of Wales Institute, Cardiff
Ulster University
Westminster University