Recommendation 7

The OfS carries out the annual National Student Survey to collect students’ views on, for example, the quality of teaching and learning they are getting. The 2021 survey ran from January to April and was open only to final-year undergraduates.13 The OfS commissions a separate survey each year, seeking students’ views on the value for money of their courses. It also engages with the National Union of Students and listens to a panel of student representatives – the chair of which also sits on the OfS’s own Board.14 We asked the OfS why the National Student Survey was restricted to final-year students, and whether this meant that it missed out on the opportunity for some early warning signals from other students. The OfS responded that it considered that students would have a 6 Q 19 7 C&AG’s Report, paras 9, 2.8 8 FSE0003 Financial Sustainability of the higher education sector in England, The Russell Group, 21 March 2022, para 6; FSE0005 Financial Sustainability of the higher education sector in England, Universities UK, 21 March 2022, pages 1–2 9 Qq97–102 10 Qq 96–97; FSE0001 Financial Sustainability of the higher education sector in England, UCAS, 21 March 2022, page 2; FSE0005 Universities UK, 21 March 2022, page 2; C&AG’s Report, para 2.12 11 Q 25 12 Qq 19, 21; C&AG’s Report, para 3.15 13 Qq 33, 72; C&AG’s Report, paras 4.6–4.7 14 C&AG’s Report, paras 4.6, 4.8 10 Financial sustainability of the higher education sector in England better sense of the overall performance of the university and their experience in the final year. But it also admitted that it was missing out on early warning signals from other students and said it would consider widening the survey to include other students.15