Union Priority
Targeting representation initiatives within specific Schools.
The most recent NSS results show lower levels of satisfaction across the Student Voice theme in several Schools. Notably, eight Schools fall below the overall institutional average, with the lowest levels of satisfaction in GSA, Health Sciences, and Mechanical Engineering Sciences. All students at Surrey should feel confident that their feedback is welcomed, heard, and acted upon.
We will work closely with our elected Course Reps and Head Reps in these areas to better understand the priorities for students in these Schools, and feedback to the University on where improvements can be made.
Measure: Improved NSS scores within Student Voice category in specific targeted departments.
University Priority
Improving the timeliness of assessment and feedback practices.
Assessment and feedback continues to be an area of lower satisfaction for our students. Students have repeatedly called for improvements to assessment scheduling, requesting the earlier release of academic and exam timetables. Feedback also shows that students remain concerned about the timeliness of the delivery of assessment feedback, limiting their ability to act on feedback ahead of their next assessment.
We want to see the University invest seriously into the improvement of academic scheduling practices, improving the timeliness of timetable releases, and earlier delivery of academic feedback. Compulsory lecture recording and exploring lecture live-streaming would facilitate improvements to scheduling through greater lecture room availability.
Measure: Improved NSS ranking for assessment and feedback (currently 60th) to meet University agreed KPI for this area in NSS 2026.
Partnership Priority
Communicating impact of student engagement, closing the feedback loop.
The University and Students’ Union share a common goal to ensure students have the right opportunities to share their opinions on their university experience. Students report lower awareness around the impact of their feedback, however, whether through engagement with the Students’ Union’s provision of representative student voice, or the University’s facilitation of student feedback opportunities.
We will focus on improving our shared provision by enhancing students’ awareness of their own influence, communicating the impact of our research and student engagement work. Through our partnership working, we will also work to explore improvements to existing systems such as Unitu and set up longer-term new, alternative opportunities to close the feedback loop to ensure students are motivated to express their views.
Measure: Publication of first Student Voice Report. Student Life Pulse score on ‘I can influence decisions made by the SU’ to increase.