Over the past year we’ve been working with our partners at Cibyl (part of Group GTI) on a student insights platform.
It’s a partnership between a leading student research consultancy, Wonkhe – home of the UK higher education debate, and students’ unions.
It was designed to provide SUs (and the universities you work with) with a robust, reliable and regular way to understand the lives of students and their concerns.
A significant number of SUs were able to take part – both gaining insight into their own student body, and helping build a national picture too.
We’ve published compelling and impactful evidence on basic needs, student poverty, connection and belonging, disabled students, free speech and confidence, food and even on sleep, work and travel.
Now in the second full year of the project, we’ve made some changes to make it more impactful and easier for SUs to take part in.
How does it work?
Three times throughout the academic year, we’ll be working with Cibyl to run a national student experience survey that contains both quantitative and qualitative questions – with some questions asked each time so you can track how views change over the year, and some that are different each time to help drive the national policy debate over the student experience.
Every term the survey episode will run for a month or so, and will always contain questions on the student academic experience, SUs, careers, wellbeing and belonging and freedom of speech. Participating SUs will have access to a dashboard that shows your results and allows comparison with the national dataset. And it’s all free as part of your subscription with Wonkhe SUs.
Cibyl will also provide advice on promoting participation and digital assets to help promote the survey.
Our additional major themes this year will be:
Term 1 – Work: How much part time work students are undertaking, what sort of jobs they’re in, how hard it’s been to find work, terms and conditions, and how easy it’s been to fit that job (or jobs) around their studies and other commitments.
Term 2 – Health: We’re keen to get a picture of student health that goes beyond the widely understood mental health crisis. It will include physical, dental, social and sexual health, the services that students are accessing, costs they face, and the impacts on their experience.
Term 3 – Academic experience: We’ll be looking at the extent to which they’re experiencing what the national quality codes and local promises offer, how they’re approaching assignments and assessments, and what sort of support they get from their provider and eachother.
Fieldwork dates
These are the dates for each survey. You don’t have to promote for the whole period, but it would be helpful if you can promote in whatever way you can (emails, socials etc) to maximise your participation rate.
Term One
Opens Monday 21st October 2024
Closes Friday 14th November 2024
Term Two
Opens Monday 17th February 2025
Closes Friday 14th March 2025
Term Three
Opens Monday 5th May 2025
Closes Friday 30th May 2025
Sign up now
To get involved in Cycle 1, we’ll need you to register interest/sign up by Friday 11th October. You can sign up now, and if you have any questions do drop us a line.
Frequently asked questions
Do drop us a line if you’d like to add to this…
Q: Can an SU sign up and review the information collected without necessarily participating in the survey process itself?
A: As a subscriber SU you’ll see the key national findings from both the core and contemporary questions on a regular basis – but not a dashboard for your SU.
Q: Would it be possible to join the process later on in the academic year, or just take part in 1 or 2 of the three surveys?
A: Yes – obviously it’s great to be gathering data as early as possible to track changes, but do feel free to get involved when you’re ready.
Q: Can we see the question set?
A: We’re still revising the core questions, but it will include questions on the student academic experience derived from the National Student Survey (with additional qualitative comments by theme), mental health & wellbeing, questions on the SU, students’ preparedness for the future, student support and freedom of expression.
Q: How long will it take students to complete the survey?
A: We estimate it will take around 7 minutes for most students to complete each survey, depending on the detail they choose to go into in the qualitative questions.
Q: We’re a Welsh SU. Will the questions and promo be in Welsh?
A: Yes
Q: Is there a minimum response rate required to get results?
A: The commitment is to achieve a respondent sample size of 100 – and note that a response rate of at least 50 is needed to give conclusive insights. Support for an options on running incentivisation will be available.
