Every year you will be asked to participate in one University-wide survey (either the Student Barometer or National Student Survey, depending on your year). The surveys allow the University to compare your experiences with those of students in other departments and other universities. It is particularly important for the Department that Part IIB students complete the NSS as we need a critical mass for the data to be meaningful and the results have a real impact on the public perception of your course.
As these are national surveys the questions may not be an ideal fit for the Cambridge context, e.g. much of the feedback that you’ll receive on your performance will be via the supervision system so please consider this in your responses. See the Department's statement on assessment types & expectations for further info.
All responses are anonymised before they are seen by the Department.
| Student Barometer (SB) | National Student Survey (NSS) | |
| Population | Part IA, IB and IIA students | Part IIB students |
| Timing | Michaelmas Term (mid-November-early December) | Lent Term (early January-early April) |
| Purpose | Tracking and comparing the decision-making, expectations, perceptions and intentions of students from application to the end of the BA. | The NSS provides IIB students with an opportunity to provide honest feedback about their experiences at CUED (from IA through to IIB). |
| Use of data within the University | The Department’s Faculty Board and Teaching Committee will scrutinise the results to see whether changes that we’ve made in response to your feedback have been effective and to identify where further actions are needed. The results are also scrutinized by the University’s central bodies and any areas of concern are followed up with CUED. | The results play an important role in steering the evolution of the Tripos and are considered by the Faculty Board and Teaching Committee. The Teaching Office produces an action plan each year detailing how it will address any concerns. The results are also scrutinized by the University’s central bodies and any areas of concern are followed up with CUED. |
| Use of data outside University | The SB allows for both national and international benchmarking but the data will not be made publically available. | Provided that >50% of the cohort complete the NSS the results (but no students comments) are published on www.unistats.com so that prospective students can make informed decisions about where and what to study. They are also used to inform various national league tables. |
| Result and action archive | NSS results and action plans |
Last updated on 21/08/2019 12:26