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Student Voice

The University gathers student feedback on your experience in a range of ways.  Your voice is important to us to help us understand what is most important to you, what is working well and what we need to work on (and how) to enhance your experience.

Set out below are the range of ways in which we seek your views and feedback. As well as the formal feedback mechanisms below, we are always interested in hearing from you informally. You may be offered chances to feed back within a teaching session, or be invited to a drop-in session organised by your tutors and the wider team in your institute.  Services – including Disability Team, the Library, Skills@Cumbria and the Sports centres – also value your feedback and will run events and surveys to get your views. Please do take advantage of these informal opportunities to make your voice heard.

  • Student Representatives

    The University’s student academic representative system is managed in collaboration with the Students’ Union.  Student representatives operate at course level, playing a critical role in enabling us to understand our students’ experience of the courses – focussed on teaching, learning, assessment and academic support.   Representatives gather feedback from their fellow students, liaise with the academic team and attend Staff/Student Forum meetings to feedback the views of students on the course.  Representatives are inducted, supported and trained by UCSU.  Further information. 

  • Staff Student Forums

    Staff Student Forum meetings bring together student representatives and staff involved in the delivery of courses to discuss the student experience and to discuss any matters of note, providing the opportunity to consider what is working well and any suggestions for beneficial changes.  They focus on discussion of the student academic experience on programme. Actions agreed in each Forum are posted on BlackBoard for all students to see, with the response from the programme team added when available.  The meetings take place twice a year and a summary of this information is fed into Quality Enhancement Committees which are chaired by the Dean/Director of the Academic Institute.

  • Module Evaluation

    All undergraduate and postgraduate taught students are asked to engage in mid-module evaluation.  This provides the opportunity for you to feed back on your experience during module delivery so that appropriate actions/enhancements can be identified.  The process is led by the Module Leader.  There is no prescribed format for this, you may be asked to populate an online noticeboard, take part in online voting, or join in a discussion during a live session, for example.  Taking part in mid-module evaluation provides an opportunity to have your voice heard and it enables you to tell us what is working and what we can improve whilst the module is still running.  Feedback from mid-module evaluations is shared with students and a summary posted on your Module Blackboard site.

  • Internal Student Surveys

    From 2023/24, the University will be operating mid-year student surveys, seeking to understand what is working, working well and what we may improve on.  The feedback will be used to identify actions, which may be at programme, subject or university level.  Taking part in this new survey is an important opportunity to have your voice heard, reflecting on your experience of taught modules and also on wider aspects of your university experience, in one short survey. Your feedback will help us to identify changes that can improve your learning experience and that of future students.  You will receive more information on this in Spring 2024.

  • National Student Survey (NSS)

    The University actively encourages and promotes participation in the National Student Survey (NSS). Responses are reviewed and analysed to inform enhancements, and the sharing of best practice, across learning, teaching, assessment, student support and the provision of services to youRecent examples of university level enhancements arising out of NSS feedback include:

    • Improving the way we communicate your assessment results to you, so they are clearer and easier to understand
    • Ensuring that you will normally receive feedback on an assessment within 20 working days, and in a form that helps with your next assignment
    • Investing in more electronic books and journals so that you can access everything you need to support your learning, whether you use the campus library or study from home or your workplace 

    Further details about the NSS.

  • Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES)

    The Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey is a national survey of postgraduate taught students inviting them to comment on your course and experience. The questionnaire takes around 15 minutes to complete. The Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey is your chance to tell us your thoughts about your course. The results help us compare how we are doing with other institutions, to make changes that will improve what we do in future, and to keep doing the things that you value most. This will help improve the experience of students like you in the future. 

    Further details about the PTES.

This document/page is reviewed annually.

Owner: Jess Robinson - Deputy Academic Registrar  

Last review: February 2024

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