National student survey ranks Lancaster sixth in country

Lancaster University is delighted with its performance in the first National Student Survey, commissioned by the Higher Education Funding Councils of England, Wales and Northern Ireland along with the National Union of Students.

The University was the highest ranked university in the North West of England and was rated 6th for overall satisfaction in a table, based on the survey information, put together by the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4265894.stm. It was also ranked joint first in the North of England.

The Times Higher Education Supplement, which ignores students overall satisfaction with their courses and focuses on responses to 21 questions in the survey, also confirms Lancaster University as the best in the North West.

Lancaster University Management School has been rated equal top for overall satisfaction among full-time providers of Business/Management degrees meanwhile the school's economics department has been rated top in the country for the 'enthusiasm of its staff'.

Lancaster students gave the University a rating of 4.2 out of five for ‘overall satisfaction’ in the new survey, which was conducted for the first time in the 2004/05 academic year.

This excellent result is underpinned by the high proportion of Lancaster students who participated in the survey. More than 70 per cent contributed their views compared to a national average of 60 per cent.

Lancaster University scored highly for teaching, personal development and course organisation with all three of these themes scoring an average of four or above out of five. Academic support at Lancaster was rated well above what is typical in the sector; three quarters of our subject areas were given a score which was within the top 25 per cent of responses to the survey.

Vice Chancellor, Professor Paul Wellings, said: “Lancaster University, with its college structure and high quality teaching departments, places great emphasis on the student experience. I am delighted to see the efforts of all our staff reflected in this feedback from our students.”

170,000 students at 141 universities and colleges in England, Wales and Northern Ireland responded to the survey, which asked students to evaluate their experience of studying their chosen subject by seven different criteria.

The full national results were published today, Thursday, September 22, on the Teaching Quality Information website (www.tqi.ac.uk).