Yesterday, the results of a Times Higher Education survey of more than 15,000 full-time undergraduates were announced, to present best UK universities for student experience.
The survey rates universities on 21 attributes which were selected by students. These attributes were categorised into very important, quite important and not important. Below are the attributes:
Very Important
- High quality staff/lectures
- Helpful/interested staff
- Well structured courses
- Good social life
- Good community atmosphere
- Good environment on campus
- Good extra-curricular activities
- High quality facilities
- Personal requirements catered for
Quite Important
- Good student union
- Good support/welfare
- Good relationship with teaching staff
- Centralised facilities
- Industry connections
- Good accommodation
- Security
Not Important
- Cheap shop/bar
- Tuition in small groups
- Fair workload
- Sports facilities
- Library
The top ten for overall scoring are:
| Rank | University name | Overall score |
| 1 | Loughborough University | 86.2 |
| 2 | Harper Adams University | 85.8 |
| 3 | University of Sheffield | 85.0 |
| 4 | University of Oxford | 84.8 |
| 5 | University of Bath | 84.4 |
| 6 | University of Leeds | 83.4 |
| =7 | University of East Anglia (UEA) | 83.0 |
| =7 | Newcastle University | 83.0 |
| 9 | University of Cambridge | 82.4 |
| 10 | Keele University | 82.1 |
The report writes, “Loughborough University tops this year’s Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey, moving up from second place in 2015. Loughborough is rated highly by students in all 21 aspects covered by our poll, winning particular plaudits for the quality of its teaching, its campus facilities and its library. Loughborough is widely seen as the UK’s premier university for sport, and so it is no surprise that its sport and fitness facilities are rated the best in the country;but the university also takes top spot for the quality of clubs, societies and other extracurricular activities.”
Bournemouth, in comparison to Loughborough University, scores as follows:
| Very Important Attributes | Loughborough University | Bournemouth University |
| Rank 2015 | 86.2 | 75.8 |
| High-quality staff/lectures | 6.1 | 5.7 |
| Helpful/Interested Staff | 6.1 | 5.6 |
| Well-structured courses | 6.1 | 5.5 |
| Good social life | 6.3 | 5.9 |
| Good community atmosphere | 6.1 | 5.6 |
| Good extracurricular activities/societies | 6.5 | 5.7 |
| Good environment on campus/around uni | 6.4 | 5.8 |
| High-quality facilities | 6.5 | 5.7 |
| Personal requirements catered for | 6.0 | 5.2 |
What comes as good news to new and regional universities is that the most improved universities are those that are ‘post-92 universities’, while London universities fall at the ‘lower end of the table’. Furthermore, the results show that ‘many students in the capital are less happy than their peers elsewhere in the UK’ which means that students are starting to expect more from their education than the HEI’s reputation. For example, Imperial College London ranks as 14 in the THE World Reputation Rankings, but only at 54 in this survey. The survey states:
‘London boasts about 40 higher education institutions of various sizes and specialities, attracting about 16 per cent of all UK undergraduates and 23 per cent of the UK’s overseas students, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (…) However, not everything is rosy in the capital’s higher education sector. In the Student Experience Survey 2016 – and,similarly, in the National Student Survey 2015 – London universities tend to score noticeably less well than those elsewhere.’
These rankings and surveys clearly put a lot of pressure on HEIs, sending a clear sign that they have to stay on top of multiple indicators for multiple stakeholders, in an environment of changing demands.
The THE Student Experience Survey can be downloaded here.