Providers can access their own detailed NSS results, including subject-level question responses and open text comments, through the NSS Results Portal.
The National Student Survey (NSS) gathers students’ opinions on the quality of their courses which helps to:
Every university in the UK takes part in the NSS, as do many colleges. Response rates are consistently high.
The NSS is managed by the OfS on behalf of the UK funding and regulatory bodies – the Department for the Economy (Northern Ireland), the Scottish Funding Council and the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales.
The survey is delivered across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. However, the freedom of expression question will be asked to students in England only and the overall satisfaction question will be asked to students in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland only.
The optional bank questions and their response scales remained the same in 2024 using the Likert response scale.
We will publish arrangements for NSS 2025 in the autumn 2024.
Explore the data dashboards and download the data.
Data graphic
In 2020 the Office for Students (OfS) and the UK funding and regulatory bodies began a two-stage review of the NSS with an aim to ensure the NSS remains fit for purpose and continues to support regulation and student information across the UK.
In 2022, we consulted on potential changes to the NSS that would take effect from 2023, and we have now published the analysis of responses and our decisions.
As a result, the survey questions and response scales have changed for NSS 2023. The changes include:
The optional bank questions and their response scales will remain the same. These will be explored further in 2023-24.
We have also updated the methodology used for identifying students who are eligible for the healthcare, allied health and clinical practice placements questions (previously known as NHS practice placement questions). This expands coverage of these questions to include all students studying a course that is associated with a health or social care regulatory body. This includes students studying pre-registration nursing, midwifery, allied health profession, social work and clinical practice subjects.
For NSS 2022, the core questions did not change, but there were a few changes to parts of the survey in agreement with the UK funding and regulatory bodies:
Providers can access their own detailed NSS results including subject-level question responses and open text comments results via the NSS Results Portal.
The NSS data is published in the same way as in previous years; however, there are minor changes in the way the data is presented:
For NSS 2021, the core questions did not change, but there were a few changes to parts of the survey which had been developed in agreement with the UK funding and regulatory bodies:
The COVID-19 question results were not published at provider level, but the findings were presented by several broader sector splits such as subject and mode.
Providers can access their own detailed NSS results including subject-level question responses, open text comments and COVID-19 question results via the NSS Results Portal.
To see information on how the NSS results and Covid-19 question results could be used by providers, please see the related FAQs.
The NSS data was published in the same way as in previous years; however the OfS and UK funding and regulatory bodies took some decisions in the way that the NSS 2021 data was presented:
30 January 2024 Added link to the NSS site as the survey is now open. 24 October 2023 Added link to guidance for NSS 2024. 24 October 2023 Changed to reflect the details of the 2024 survey. 10 August 2023 Updated to reflect details of the 2023 NSS. 29 June 2023 Added intended date for publication of data for NSS 2023 06 June 2023 Minor updates to the page as the consultation on the approach to publication of results for NSS 2023 has now closed. 29 March 2023 NSS 2023 example results files published, accompanying the new consultation on our approach to publishing NSS results for the 2023 survey and beyond 14 December 2022 Full list of NSS 2023 questions published 09 November 2022 Detail about the 2023 survey added, and link to full guidance for providers 06 July 2022 NSS 2022 results published 06 July 2022 Results infographics published for NSS 2022 25 October 2021 Information added on NSS 2022 and link to guidance for providers 15 July 2021 Updated with 2021 NSS data 07 June 2021 Added link to plans for publication of NSS 2021 14 January 2021 Information added regarding new coronavirus pandemic questions in the survey 26 October 2020 Added link to the publication detailing arrangements for the 2021 NSS, and updated NSS questionnaire 24 September 2020 Link added to details of the review of the NSS. 15 July 2020 Page updated with the results of the 2020 NSS 10 June 2020 Update on the publication of the 2020 National Student Survey data 07 May 2020 Added link to information about the publication of NSS 2020 data 19 February 2020 Added link to the NSS 2020 publication
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