NSS Student Survey recognises teaching excellence at Huddersfield
The University of Huddersfield has scored highly in the latest National Student Survey with the results in two key areas recognising its teaching excellence.
The Survey, known as the NSS, is one of the largest surveys of student satisfaction in the world and takes place every year.
All final-year undergraduate students from UK universities are invited to take part and are asked a total of 27 questions about a range of factors related to their academic experience. This includes the teaching on their course, assessment and feedback, and how well courses are organised.
In the 2024 survey, areas of strength for the University include assessment and feedback as well as learning and resources, placing it in the top quartile for both among 90 institutions.
Assessment and feedback
The University remains ranked best in Yorkshire for two of the survey questions about how often students receive feedback on time and how often this feedback helps them to improve their work. It placed in the top quartile nationally for four individual questions, three of which were in the Assessment and Feedback section.
Pro Vice-Chancellor for Teaching and Learning, Professor Jane Owen-Lynch, said she was delighted with latest feedback from students.
She said: "We would like to thank all of our final year students for their rich and thoughtful contributions to the NSS. The written comments place significant emphasis on how our staff work hard to give our students the best possible experience both academically and in supporting them through their studies. The assessment and feedback scores reflect this goal of helping our students to achieve their potential."
As an institution, the highest ranked question remained one around how often students received feedback on time, which was ranked fifth, improving by five places from last year.
Compared to last year, the University’s ranking improved across four of the questions – with the biggest improvement in the response to a question about how often a student’s course challenges them to achieve their best work – which experienced an increase of 30 places.
Teaching excellence
The results of the 2024 Survey highlight the University’s commitment to world-class teaching, which was recognised when it was selected as the first winner of HEA’s Global Teaching Excellence Award in 2017.
The University is also first in the country for the number of National Teaching Fellowships marking the UK’s best lecturers in Higher Education, winning a total of 22 since 2008. At 96 per cent, the University also has the highest proportion of lecturers with higher qualifications at Masters-level or above in the UK.
The NSS is an independent survey compiled by the Office for Students. The latest results can be found on the OfS website here.
All comparisons are to institutions with a £100 million turnover or above, based on HESA finance data from 22/23.