The Student Experience Survey (SES) is a survey run jointly by the SU and university. It focuses on the student experience at a modular level. In 2020. The University response rate was 35.8%, producing 955 module reports and over 15,000 responses from students. 5000 more responses than in 2019. The top-level results are provided below broken down by school & institution.

Positives

The university has seen an increase in student satisfaction in engaging teaching, clear assessment criteria and academic staff are available to me. This is great to see an increase in these areas, and that the work of staff and students is leading to an improved experience, even in less than ideal circumstances. 

"It's great to see an increase in students' knowledge about the work that Met SU does, we will continue to work hard to deliver for students and ensure they are represented" - Chrystalle, SU President.

What still needs work 

Student satisfaction dropped in ‘I feel part of a learning community’ and ‘I understand how previous feedback has been acted upon’. This is disappointing, but we understand that moving to remote delivery may have impacted learning communities. The drop is especially significant in schools who previously had the strongest communities in the 2019 SES results. The university takes this seriously and is looking at what else can be done to strengthen the learning community within courses & schools. 

In terms of knowing how students feedback has been acted upon the university and course teams are trying to improve our comms to students, this very blog in itself is part of our work at ‘closing the feedback loop’. You, as students, have given us valuable critical feedback, and we are listening, we can see the results and actions will come of it. We hope the section on next steps goes someway to show you that actions are being taken based on your feedback.

Next steps

1. The University has asked all staff to give feedback to students at either a course or modular level by the 4th of December on the SES results. 

2. A paper summarising the results & lessons learnt has gone to the University Learning, Teaching and Quality Committee to look at what steps as an institution can be taken on some of the key themes that have emerged. Actions will be taken and we will try to ensure it’s clear to you, as students can see the impact that has on your time at university. 

3. Each school is organising Student Rep forums which will use the results of SES to develop solutions to some of the issues raised by students & work in partnership to solve them. These are planned to take place before the end of the term. 

4. There is an all-student forum taking place on the 16th of December with the SU president & the Deputy Vice-Chancellor. Any student can attend to celebrate what is working well and ask any questions you may have, including about the SES results. Link to sign up is here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/student-forum-december-2020-tickets-125632890357

We thank you for taking part in the SES 2020 and will continue to work to ensure students have the best experience possible. 

Chrystalle Margallo, Students' Union President & Conor Murray-Gauld, Student Engagement Manager