‘Best in City’ Student Satisfaction ratings for University Centre Leeds

@UniCentreLeeds (UC Leeds) has achieved the highest student satisfaction rates of all higher education providers in the city – for the second year running.

An impressive 80.6% of students rated the overall experience of their courses at UC Leeds positively in the newly published 2021 National Student Survey (NSS), compared to the national average of 75%.

There were also strong results for the University Centre in the main categories of Teaching (86%), Learning Opportunities (86.2%), Assessment and Feedback (82.8%) and Academic Support (82.8%).

This year’s survey closed on 30 April and the response rate from students at UC Leeds was as high as it has ever been, at 75%.

Success despite ‘a challenging year’

Janet Faulkner, Dean of University Centre Leeds, said the results were particularly pleasing given all of the extra challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic had posed. She said: “This year’s results show how much UC Leeds values the feedback from students and how that feedback has helped us continually improve their experiences.

“Though students have had to adapt to a new way of studying, the University Centre has integrated effective online teaching support and resources to ensure that they get the best out of their courses.

“The staff have worked consistently and the survey statistics are a reflection of the hard work that they have put in. This has immensely contributed to these impressive scores and bodes well for the future direction of the University Centre.”

Pride in a job well done

Dr Jo Tyssen, Head of WP, Outreach and Projects at UC Leeds, added: “We are incredibly proud of how satisfied our students are here at University Centre Leeds, particularly after a challenging year of tiers, lockdowns, blended learning and fully remote learning.”

The NSS is a high profile, independent annual survey which asks students to give honest feedback about what it’s like to study at their institution.

A total of 332,500 undergraduates, spread across 397 universities, colleges and other providers in the UK, took part in this year’s survey.

The 2021 questionnaire included new questions about students’ experiences during the pandemic. The national results, published on 15 July, showed that satisfaction levels across all categories had fallen since 2020, with the overall rating, at 75%, down from 83%.

Commenting on the decline, the Office for Students (which manages the NSS) said: “The data cannot tell us whether the fall in NSS agreement rates is due to the pandemic. But this explanation appears the most likely.”