Evaluating the student experience: a critical review of the use of surveys to enhance the student experience

Universities and colleges now use a range of surveys to collect feedback from students at all stages of their journey from open days to graduation (Kember & Ginns, 2012). Surveys are also important sources of data in government approved datasets and newspaper league tables. This widespread use of surveys has resulted in a large international research literature examining their validity and reliability. However, this research often shows biases such as in responses to the UK’s National Student Survey (HEFCE, 2014) and North American student evaluations of teaching (Onweugbuzie, 2007). Despite these recognised biases, the use of these surveys as key institutional measures of quality has been accepted and adopted widely. The introduction of the UK Teaching Excellence Framework (BIS, 2016), which uses responses to questions from the National Student Survey and Destination of Leavers from Higher Education as key metrics, provides a timely prompt to review the validity and value of these measures used to monitor the student experience and to suggest tools and practices to complement the use of surveys