University of Sunderland shines in national survey

A diverse range of programmes running at the University of Sunderland have received a 100% satisfaction rate from delighted students.

Results from this year’s National Student Survey (NSS) show that in 31 of the University’s 51 courses, 80% of the students, or higher, said they were satisfied overall.

In the Overall Satisfaction category, 78.91% of University of Sunderland students said that they were satisfied with the quality of their course, compared with a figure of 76.24% for the higher education sector as a whole.

Sir David Bell KCB DL, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University, said: “For the University of Sunderland, the National Student Survey is one important indicator of satisfaction as it gives us direct insight into the views and experience of students.

“This has, of course, been a highly unusual year with a series of national lockdowns and other disruption caused by the pandemic. Despite that, the feedback from students will help us to identify what we do well, and highlights areas where our students think we could make improvements.”

The NSS was open to Sunderland students from 25 January 2021 to 30 April 2021 – overlapping with the UK entering its third ‘lockdown’.

Despite what has been a turbulent 16 months for higher education, the University of Sunderland scored higher than, or on par with, other universities in all the questions put to students

Leaders at the University say that this is particularly positive feedback as many professions-facing programmes – including education, social care, and nursing – required students to be on placement for at least part of their programme.

University leaders were also delighted to see the strong showing of the Sunderland Students’ Union, compared to other student organisations in the sector. This reflects the close partnership working between the Union and the University to support students’ academic performance and general wellbeing.

Colina Wright, CEO at Sunderland Students’ Union, said: “We are pleased with the progress made this year and are extremely keen to work with the institution, at an organisational level but also with specific departments, to ensure that we support students to identify and address issues of importance to them, not only in relation to the specific SU focused question on academic representation, but also the survey holistically.

“Going to University should be an exciting and life changing opportunity and the SU want to empower students to ensure that their time here is positive and their feedback is acted on, for the betterment of the student experience, now and in the future.”

This year, the survey captured the views of 332,500 mainly final-year undergraduates, studying for higher education qualifications at UK higher education providers and at further education colleges in England, Northern Ireland and Wales students. The views were taken from 397 universities, colleges and private providers.

The NSS is the biggest survey of final-year students’ views in the UK. The main questionnaire provides widely published data that informs university league tables.

See the full 2021 NSS results here.