Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI): The Student Academic Experience Report June 2018

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Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI): The Student Academic Experience Report June 2018

Recently, Professors Terence Davis and Janet Wilson, President and Vice-President of NCUP, made contact with the Higher Education think-tank HEPI and discussed ways of working with them in future. HEPI’s administrator, Sarah Isles, informs us that NCUP members can access their publications and reports on tertiary education which are produced regularly by visiting their website.

Colleagues are invited to keep up-to-date with HEPI outputs by subscribing via email, at no cost. You can do this via the HEPI homepage.

Once a subscriber you will receive alerts of everything HEPI publishes. For NCUP Members only: if you wish to receive hard copies of any of HEPI’s reports, email Sarah and she will arrange for them to be sent out. Sarah’s email address is S.Isles@hepi.ac.uk

All HEPI’s current and past publications can be viewed here: www.hepi.ac.uk/category/publications/

HEPI’s most recent report published with Advance HE and co-authored by Nick Hillman.

Director of HEPI is The Student Academic Experience Survey (SAES).

The main headline from this year’s survey is a marked reversal of a five-year downward trend; students in the United Kingdom are reporting statistically significant improvements in perceptions of value for money from their higher education experience.

  • 38% of students in the UK perceive ‘good or very good’ value from their course, a three percentage point improvement over last year’s survey.
  • Fewer students studying in the UK, 32%, perceive ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ value when compared with 34% in 2017
  • The report covers the different experience of ethnic groups. While 65% of UK-domiciled white students report they are learning ‘a lot’ and 40% say they are receiving ‘good’ or ‘very good’ value for money, UK-domiciled Asian students report a poorer experience, with only 57% saying they are learning ‘a lot’ and just 23% perceiving ‘good’ or ‘very good’ value for money.

More than 14,000 students took part in the SAES, an annual survey that began in 2006 and that records the views of students about their academic experience and their attitudes towards policy issues that impact upon them. The SAES offers insights and commentary and is widely quoted and used to inform policy and practice in higher education in the UK.

Responses to the SAES were sourced from YouthSight’s student panel, which is made up of over 80,000 undergraduate students in the UK. Over 70,000 members of the panel were invited to complete the Survey between 5 February and 10 March 2018. In total, 14,046 responses were collected, representing a response rate of 20%.

The full HEPI news release on the Student Academic Experience Report can be seen here: http://www.hepi.ac.uk/2018/06/07/turning-corner-value-money-2018-hepi-advance-student-academic-experience-survey-highlights-students-belief-value-money-higher-education-improving/

NOTES

  • The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) was established in 2002 to influence the higher education debate with evidence. It is UK-wide, independent and non-partisan. It is funded by organisations and universities that wish to see a vibrant higher education debate. HEPI is a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity.
  • Advance HE is a not-for-profit organisation created from the merger of the Equality Challenge Unit, the Higher Education Academy and the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education in March 2018. Its purpose is to advance the professional practice of higher education to improve outcomes for the benefit of students, staff and society. www.advance-he.ac.uk

Professor Janet Wilson, University of Northampton.