National Student Survey 2012
The National Student Survey (NSS) is an annual survey of undergraduates across the UK. It is commissioned by the Higher Education Funding Council for England and is conducted by an independent body, Ipsos-Mori.
The Survey consists of 23 questions grouped into a number of categories with space at the end for free text comments. All responses are anonymised.
We do act on what you tell us so please take the time to complete the survey.
The results of the 2011 survey, published in the summer, revealed that over 88 per cent of students studying within the School of Biomedical Sciences were satisfied with the quality of their degree course as compared to the national average of 83 per cent. Whilst that headline figure is encouraging and very pleasing there is clearly room for improvement and a more detailed analysis of the NSS results has helped us to pinpoint areas where we “could do better”. Since the results were published we have been working with colleagues across the College to respond to student concerns and listed below are some examples of what we have been doing:
Students commented that they did not get enough “careers advice”
early in their degree programme.
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We now have careers sessions embedded in the “Common Year One” curriculum and this year for the first time we arranged for colleagues in the careers office to provide a bespoke programme of careers oriented skills sessions directed towards second and final year bioscience students. Find out more.
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Pharmacy students now receive careers advice at key junctures in their programme, details of which are provided in a dedicated careers section on “Blackboard”. This includes a careers fair in third year, before students decide on their pre-registration destinations, plus a day devoted to hospital and industry careers which includes lectures, interview practice and Q&A with current practitioners.
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The careers service has started a ‘clinic’ at the Franklin Wilkins Building, available to all students.
Students commented on some of the general facilities available on
the Waterloo and Guy’s campuses. We continue to improve these in
a number of ways including;
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Refurbishment of the ground floor area in New Hunt’s House and the opening of a new café in the ground floor of the Henriette Raphael Building
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Major refurbishment .of the library in the Franklin Wilkins Building and improved study space in the New Hunt’s House library.
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Improved computing and printing facilities in the PAWS rooms.
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Expanded student support services at both campuses (Compass and Academic Centre) including extended opening hours (open until 6 pm Monday to Thursday; 5pm Friday).
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Refurbishment of the Greenwood Lecture Theatre complex
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Sufficient lockers to provide one for each student studying at the Franklin Wilkins Building.
Students commented on the quality and timeliness of the feedback
they receive on submitted work.
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Using a barcode system we monitor how quickly work is returned to students and the vast majority of work is returned within 4 weeks of submission.
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To ease the transition from examinations that utilise multiple choice and “short answer” questions to those that depend on students preparing essay style answers, workshops on essay writing skills have been arranged in a number of second year modules, including “Drugs & Disease”, “Physiology & Pharmacology of the CNS”. “Gene Cloning and Expression” and “Immune System in Health and Disease”.
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This year we have piloted providing students with a detailed breakdown of their module marks including marks received for individual pieces of coursework and individual examination questions.
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The Department of Pharmacy have timetabled specific sessions to feedback on coursework, particularly in years 2 and 3. Some coursework sessions have been redesigned to provide immediate in-class feedback.
Comments relating to the MPharm degree programme.
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Students requested fewer, more substantive, pieces of coursework and the department has reorganised assessments in several modules to accommodate this.
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Students requested more clinical work and the department has taken steps to arrange earlier and longer workplace placements and to incorporate an ever greater clinical emphasis in the degree programme.
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Students requested a wider range of research projects and more support during their project placement. The department has addressed this by developing a “projects laboratory” within the Franklin Wilkins Building and drawing up a monitoring and support system that allows final year projects to be performed in industry or academic institutes in countries in Europe and beyond.
Contact
To raise any questions relating to the NSS or your student experience in general, you can contact us directly at:
Dr Ian McFadzean
Dean of Undergraduate Studies, School of Biomedical Sciences
Email: ian.mcfadzean@kcl.ac.uk