Satisfaction with high quality local degree provision at the University Centre Wigan & Leigh College has continued to improve after the latest National Student Survey (NSS) results.

The University Centre improved in every area of the survey from last year’s results and achieved an overall satisfaction score of 86.84% compared to 82.61% in 2021.

The new score compares favourably with, and is significantly higher than the national satisfaction rate of 76.29% reflecting strong satisfaction in the quality of the courses being undertaken at the college.

Results are notably above the national benchmark in every category of the NSS; teaching, learning opportunities, assessment and feedback, academic support, organisation and management, learning resources, learning community and student voice.

Most notably, amazing feedback was received in the area of student voice.

A very high 89.47% of students thought that staff value students’ views and opinions about the course and 88.16% of higher education learners felt they have had the right opportunities to provide feedback on their course.

These figures are well above the national sector average of 68.64% and 79.28% respectively.

Securing another year of positive results has undoubtedly been as a result of the investment made in student support and a commitment to high quality, face to face teaching. Throughout COVID classes have continued and wider personal care has been in place throughout. Individual support and regular contact with tutors has been shown to be a major factor in higher education students choosing the college for their studies and feedback has shown that students undertaking HNC, HND and degree programmes at the college really appreciate the smaller class sizes, access to tutors and one to one guidance. This is further evidenced in the survey results 92.11% of HE learners felt they had been able to contact staff when they needed to. This is in comparison to 80.29% nationally.

Students also get the opportunity to add comments when completing the survey and stated the following:

“My tutors are fantastic, really enthusiastic and make the course enjoyable; I look forward to my university day every week.”
“The staff are always being supportive and giving us guidance for our future opportunities; for example, the job role we would like to do, they talk to us about what steps should be taken and what things I can look into that can be helpful.”
“I have enjoyed doing this course, and feel that it was easy to settle in as I had been out of education for a while. The work expected off me and other students is clear and the tutors have supported me well.”

College Principal, Anna Dawe, said:

“These achievements are not only down to the incredible commitment of our lecturing staff but also a result of our collaborative relationships with our employer networks and our local communities. The results are extremely positive but the real value of the NSS are the areas it highlights for further improvement and we will respond to these and look to further improve our student experience again next year”

These impressive results came shortly after news that the college’s higher education engineering students achieved excellent results in their degrees assessments. On the BEng (Hons) Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering 82% achieved either a first or an upper-second degree classification and on the BEng (Hons) Electrical and Electronic Engineering degree an impressive 68% of students achieved a first class pass.

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