Students at Scotland’s oldest university are the most satisfied in the UK, according to a new poll.
According to the 2019 National Student Survey (NSS) St Andrews University is the most popular institution in the country amongst those who study there.
Dundee University is the only other Scottish university in the top five in the UK for overall satisfaction.
Clare Peddie, a vice-principal at St Andrews, welcomed the survey findings. She said: “This result confirms our commitment to the very highest standards of learning, teaching and student experience.
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Overall, the survey found students at Scottish universities were more satisfied with the quality of their course compared with last year.
Overall satisfaction in Scotland has improved by one per cent since 2018 and now stands at 84 per cent. The figure matches the UK average, but is higher than England’s 83 per cent, which is the same as last year.
Alastair Sim, director of Universities Scotland, said: “These results are a tribute to the dedication of staff to ensure students have the best possible experience at university.
“Students quite rightly have high expectations and in Scotland, we’re focused on enhancement and engaging with the student community to ensure we keep on raising the bar. There’s always room for improvement so we’ll want to understand how we can better this result next year.
Martin Fairbairn, chief operating officer for the Scottish Funding Council, said: “It’s encouraging to see this year’s results show a slight rise in student satisfaction across Scotland as a whole, but there is still more that can be done at the level of individual institutions.
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“We will work with our universities to understand how they will use these results as part of their plans to continually enhance the student experience.”
The NSS is carried out by the Office for Students on behalf of the UK funding bodies and is the largest student feedback survey in the world.
As well as capturing student views on the overall quality of their undergraduate degree, the survey gathers students’ responses to a series of questions relating to academic support, learning resources, teaching, management and assessment.
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