Quality Survey Outcomes
East 15 is pleased with its exceptionally high scores in teaching and
learning, both in the National Student Survey, which covers final year
students, and in the internal Student Satisfaction Survey which addresses
the views of students in earlier years. This is testament to the excellent
staff-student ratios, high-calibre intensive teaching and strongly pastoral
approach that we offer our students. We are also pleased to note that the
trend continues upwards.
Our NSS score for teaching is 94%, and our scores for academic support,
personal development and overall satisfaction are all over 80%. Our SSS
scores for degree content, teaching, academic support, personal development
and overall satisfaction are all 90% or more.
Assessment
and feedback scores a 64% satisfaction rating in the NSS and a respectable
77% in the SSS, but we hope to improve further on those numbers. Detailed
analysis of the data shows that our strengths are the prompt, detailed and
constructive feedback we provide, but we are looking to see how we can
improve our communication to make sure our students understand the marking
criteria and the assessment arrangements better in advance.
In terms of organisation and management, our SSS scores have improved
significantly, from 63% to 73%, but our NSS results covering final year
students show a 47% satisfaction rating. This indicates that our recent
improvements are taking effect, but came too late for this year’s cohort.
Analysis of the detailed organisation and management NSS responses shows
that the timetable is deemed to be working effectively but that changes to
rooms or teaching need to be better communicated. Our course leaders and
tutors often have ideas for events (such as attending a play in London)
which they may wish to implement straight away, with the motive of
responding to the needs of the particular students in their cohort: in other
words, the teaching environment necessarily has an element of spontaneity
and immediate responsiveness to it. However, we acknowledge that there is a
balance to be struck between predictability and responsiveness, and we will
re-emphasise to staff the importance of signposting changes in advance.
Our poorest scores relate to learning resources, but significant investment
has taken place on our campus since the last surveys. The scores are 41% for
the NSS final year students and 64% for the SSS students, hugely improved
from last year’s SSS score of 45%. This again suggests that recent
improvements are filtering through. The Loughton library was refurbished
over the summer and new studios have been built there too, so the score
should see further improvement this year. However, there are ongoing issues
with IT connectivity and the lack of dedicated student accommodation on
site. Discussions are taking place at the strategic management level about
how best to resolve these.
Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey 2010-11
E15 is pleased with its overall satisfaction rating of 88.9% in the
last survey of postgraduate students in 2010-11. 88.5% were satisfied with their
teaching and learning; skills, personal and career development scored 88.9%. The
school did slightly less well in terms of Organisation and Management (77%),
Assessment and Feedback (74%) and Learning Resources (74%). We have taken steps
to improve these factors, including investment in the Loughton library and
completion of new studio buildings.