National Student Survey (NSS)

The NSS 2023 was conducted early this year between January and April. The students were asked various questions about their student experience, including teaching, learning resources, assessment and feedback, academic support, student representation. Our response rate was a staggering 96.5% compared to a national average response rate of 71.5%. Significantly, students taking part in the survey answered a completely new set of questions under seven themes, preventing further comparison of this year’s result with the results of the previous years.

Our Results at a Glance:

• For most statements, the proportion of our students expressing positive views about their experience has remained very high (over 95%) compared to around 80% positive responses among students in England.
• 97.7% of our respondents were satisfied with the quality of the teaching on their course (Theme 1) compared to 84.7% of students in England.
• A huge proportion of LSME students (97.3% compared to 81% in England) were positive about their Learning Opportunities (Theme 2).
• 98.1% of LSME students gave positive responses about the quality of their Assessment and Feedback (Theme 3), compared to 78% of students in HE institutions in England.
• A high proportion of LSME students (97.3%) were positive about their Academic Support (Theme 4) compared to 78% of students in England.
• 96.6% of LSME students (compared to 73.8% in England) agreed their course was well organised and managed effectively (Theme 5).
• A high proportion of LSME students (92.4%) gave positive responses about their learning resources (Theme 6) in comparison to 86.1% of students in England.
• In terms of Student Voice (Theme 7), 96.6% of LSME students were very positive compared to 71.9% of students in England.
• Institution-level data shows slight but insignificant variations in the views of students studying different subjects such as Health and Social Care and Business Management at LSME.
• LSME students responded positively to all the sub-questions within these broad themes, including the question on Freedom of Expression in Student Voice.
• This year students in England were not asked for their overall satisfaction but our perception from the general positive responses is evident of a very high overall satisfaction rate.

Implications for Future Development

The NSS is one of the most important sources of information available to the London School of Management Education’s Governing Body about the Undergraduate student experience and satisfaction levels. Hence, it is a piece of evidence of the students’ endorsement of our improvement in the 2023-24 Academic Year. We made a lot of improvements, particularly in the digital learning resources and the quality of academic staff as suggested by our students during the Post-Pandemic period. In addition to that, we continued to maintain our good practice in student support to ensure that students with difficult circumstances are benefitting from our teaching and learning processes.

Naturally, we are very pleased that the positive responses from our students are well above the provider-level benchmarks for each question as this gives us an idea of our performance against what might be expected for institutions with similar student characteristics as LSME. However, we will continue to analyse the results in depth and reflect on it to look for any loopholes we need to plug.

For instance, relatively low scoring questions across the sector include timely feedback, well organised and smoothly running courses and student voice. Interestingly, at LSME, our lowest scoring question was 92.4% and this was on Learning Resources. For us the 7.6% negative response suggests the need to continue to invest in more learning resources to meet the diverse needs of our students. We pledge to make this a priority and to reflect on our results further to ensure that the quality of courses remains high.

Our strong NSS results potentially provides an important source of evidence of quality for our specialist subject areas and we hope that the trend remains the same for the other courses we plan to introduce in the coming years.

For further details on our NSS 2023 results, visit  https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/data-and-analysis/national-student-survey-data/provider-level-dashboard/

At LSME, students are at the heart of everything we do. This has remained our priority during the pandemic when conditions were challenging and complex.  Despite this, we endeavoured to provide continuity of learning and keep our campus community safe. We appreciate the feedback provided by our students and are humbled by their honest and reflective opinion of the institution.

Conducted earlier in the year by an independent organisation, the NSS survey asked students various questions about their student experience, including teaching, learning resources, assessment and feedback, learning community, student voice, and their overall satisfaction. The response rate for this year’s survey was a staggering 95%, which is over 25pp higher than the overall sector average response rate (69%).

Our NSS results for 2022 are not very far from what we anticipated. It is encouraging to note that our student satisfaction rate for every survey question was higher than the average for English higher education providers. Again the overwhelming majority (92.6%) of LSME students are satisfied with all the services we provided in the 2021/22 academic year outperforming several higher education providers with a satisfaction rate of over 15pp above the national average for England (76.3%).

The students’ responses to the questions on the learning community were very encouraging and reflected our commitment and dedication to improving the learning experience for all learners. The responses ranged from 87% to 93%. The majority of learners feel they are a part of a community of staff and students and have been provided with the right opportunities to work with other students, provide feedback and remain confident that the institution utilises their feedback appropriately.

Almost 92% of students felt that they received appropriate support from lecturers who also made the subjects interesting and intellectually stimulating. This proportion is much higher than that of the English sector average of 80%. Over 91% of students felt they have been stimulated to achieve their best and this demonstrates the hard work and commitment from both staff and students. In addition, the good majority of students were very satisfied with the learning resources and management and administration of the programmes.

To enhance the provision and learning experience of our students, we are introducing more high-quality courses and have invested in an Employability and Enterprise Hub. We also continue to improve on the learning resources to facilitate flexible delivery very shortly. Our Access and Participation projects continue to support learners with hardship funds and are currently networking with a large number of local and national organisations to support disadvantaged young people to access higher education. We continue to train and build the capacity of our academic and non-academic staff to support our students to engage and succeed in higher education.

We are confident that our students will remain satisfied but we always look forward to using their feedback to enhance and build on what has already been achieved.

Once again, our continuous dedication and commitment to the welfare and academic achievement of our students have been appreciated by the student body. The NSS 2021 survey results have shown that the overwhelming majority of LSME students are satisfied with the entire services we provided in the 2020/21 academic year.

The overall student satisfaction of 96.36% ranks LSME among the top 25 providers in England, according to the NSS 2021 survey results. The institution has outperformed several higher education providers with a satisfaction rate of almost 20pp above the national average for England. There was an improvement in the quality of responses this year in comparison to the 2020 results irrespective of all the adversities faced by LSME and most higher education providers in the 2020/21 academic year.

In response to the publication of the results, Dr Sarita Parhi, the Principal of the College remarked that the result of the survey is another example of the accomplishments of the institution and its student community. She expressed her sincere appreciation to her staff for their commitment to student support and the provision of quality education in these difficult times. The students were also commended for their honesty and loyalty to their institution.

On this special announcement, the Chair of LSME Board of Governance, Professor Stephen McKinney states added: “This is a wonderful achievement by the LSME, especially during these very challenging times for education. This demonstrates once again the commitment of the all of the staff to the educational development and welfare of the students. This is a public recognition of the excellence of this institution.”

Conducted earlier in the year by an independent organisation, students were asked various questions about their student experience, including teaching, learning resources, assessment and feedback, learning community, student voice, and their overall satisfaction. It is encouraging to note that our student satisfaction rate for every survey question was higher than the average for English higher education providers. The response rate for this year’s survey was a staggering 99%, which is over 20pp higher than the overall sector average response rate.

Considering the hard work and commitment of our staff to enhance the learning experience of our students during the year, the survey results did not come as a surprise but rather a true reflection of our performance. To further enhance the online learning introduced in the previous year, our academic staff were trained on how they could engage students more effectively in online lessons. We also continued to improve on the learning resources for online delivery. Our term-wise Student Rep orientation programme continued to improve the awareness of the extent of the opportunities available to students via their student representation. Our Access and Participation projects also supported students in financial difficulties with bursaries and hardship funds. Academic staff have also worked hard and continuously improve on their practice as per feedback and comments provided by students. The survey results provide another opportunity to reflect on how we can continue to build on our strengths and overcome our weaknesses. We continue to look forward to future growth and development that is aligned with our existing ethos, values and culture.