Forums | Unistats group 7

04 November 2013, 20:39

Q:WHY is an authoritative database like this required?

A: The National Student Survey (NSS) is an annual survey which gives university and college students the chance to have their say about what they liked and did not like about their student learning experience during their time in higher education. The majority of students who complete the survey are in their final year. In the survey, statements are put to students who then rate their university/college and the course they took against these, answering on a five-point scale from 'definitely disagree' to 'definitely agree'. The groups of statements cover topics such as: The teaching on my course Assessment and feedback Academic support Organisation and management Learning resources Personal development NSS data is only shown on Unistats where at least 23 students have completed the questionnaire and where the respondents make up at least half of all the students on that course. If there are less than 23 students, data cannot be published even if they were all to complete the NSS questionnaire. In some cases, course numbers may be combined so as to meet the thresholds for publication but for some courses there will be no other relevant data that will serve the purpose. If the subject is new to the university, information about it may not be available yet. The National Student Survey is run by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) on behalf of the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), Department of Employment and Learning, Northern Ireland (DELNI) and the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW). The survey is undertaken on their behalf by Ipsos MORI.

FORM LY AND KENIS

12 November 2013, 16:09

The Unistats web-site was set-up in conjunction with UCAS to provide this information and publishes data supplied by institutions as part of the ‘Higher Education Statistical Agency (HESA) Individualised Student return', the ‘HESA Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) return' and the National Student Survey (NSS). Unistats covers, inter alia, entry qualifications, degree programme outcomes, student feedback and career and further study data and is accessible at: http://www.unistats.com/.

The data covers all full-time and part-time undergraduate courses planned for 2013-14 in institutions which subscribe to the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA).

The dataset contains information which prospective students have identified as useful, such as student satisfaction, graduate outcomes, learning and teaching activities, assessment methods, tuition fees and student finance, accommodation and professional accreditation.

So a database like Unistast is really useful and helpful to our IFP stuedents who are going to apply undergraduate in university. That is why Unistast exist.