Category Archives: Canninglist

Latest NSS 'Canning list'

The 2016 'Canning list' data is available for download.

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Coventry maintains Number 1 position on the NSS Canning list

I've just calculated the 2015 for the Canning list. The full data will be uploaded soon.

The top 10 institutions for average score are a mix of large and smaller providers, perhaps demonstrating that insitutations of all sizes can score well (or badly). Among the larger providers (minimum 20 programmes)  Coventry maintains its number 1 position.

 

 

 

 

Top 10 universities for National Student Survey (2015) Minimum 10 courses

Institution Number of courses Mean WSSS
City College Plymouth 11 1550.1
Coventry University 51 1502.4
The University of Surrey 36 1489.7
North Lindsey College 11 1456.9
Doncaster College 14 1446
The University of Leeds 72 1432.9
The University of Keele 34 1427
Bangor University 44 1423.8
Solihull College 13 1423.4
University of Ulster 57 1421

 

 

 

 

 

Top 10 universities for National Student Survey (2015) Minimum 20 courses

University Number of courses Mean WSSS
Coventry University 51 1502.4
The University of Surrey 36 1489.7
The University of Leeds 72 1432.9
The University of Keele 34 1427
Bangor University 44 1423.8
University of Ulster 57 1421
Loughborough University 34 1419.1
Edge Hill University 29 1415
Nottingham Trent University 47 1410.8
Bath Spa University 22 1410.4
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The National Student Survey and the development of the 'Canning list'

The National Student Survey (NSS) is now in its tenth year. Vice-Chancellors set targets by it, newspapers and magazines use it to create league tables and university strategies are framed around it. Expressing an off-message opinion on the NSS cost former HEA research director Lee Harvey his job.  

It surprises me how little has actually been written by an NSS in peer-reviewed journals. By ‘how little’ I don’t mean little as in nothing, but relatively little  considering the big part it plays in the life of the British university.

I’ve long been a critic of the NSS. What it comes to enhancing the quality of teaching and learning, the NSS is a bit like using a screwdriver to put a nail into the wall. It is possible to get a nail in into the wall using a screwdriver, but you’re better off using a hammer. If you don’t have a hammer then you might go ahead and use the screwdriver at the risk of a bent nail, broken screwdriver or injured hand.

However, perhaps I’ve been a bit mean to the NSS over these past few years. For all the emphasis on ‘overall satisfaction’, and assessment and feedback you might think that there were only three or four questions on the NSS. The NSS asks questions about course organisation, library resources and skills development as well, but we don’t hear much about these. What if we actually paid attention to some of these questions?

I took up this challenge in developing a new system of measurement for the NSS. I reasoned that if we considered all the questions and understood their relative importance we could bring about a system where each UK course at each university could have a ‘score’—in my paper I call this the Weighted Student Satisfaction Score (WSSS). However a raw score of say 1400 doesn’t tell you what they means in relation to other scores, so the scores are then normalised to a normal distribution so that an average course scores 100 (the Weighted Student Satisfaction Quotient—WSSQ). Over time it will be possible to trace changes in both absolute and relative scores. The system is fully outlined in the article and takes into account subject differences as well as providing a bonus for good response rates.  

The full ‘Canning list’ (a term used by David Law in his editorial is available from my website.

Here are the top 10 best courses in the whole UK according to the 'Canning list'.

Overall rank

Institution

Subject

Type

WSSS

WSSQ

1

Hugh Baird College

Fine Art

Other undergraduate

1884.7

141.0

2

Somerset College

Drama

Other undergraduate

1877.6

140.5

3

Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education

Imaginative writing

First degree

1869.7

140.0

4

Plymouth College of Art

Cinematics and photography

Other undergraduate

1861.6

139.4

5

Petroc

Design studies

Other undergraduate

1843.1

138.2

6

University of Cumbria

Fine art

First degree

1836.8

137.7

7

Northumbria University Newcastle

Architecture

Other undergraduate

1836.0

137.7

8

Imperial College London

Geology

First degree

1833.9

137.5

9

University of Glasgow

Social policy

Other undergraduate

1828.5

137.2

10

NCG

Marketing

Other undergraduate

1817.4

136.4

 

A couple of subject ranking examples

Physics and Astronomy top 10.

Rank

Institution

Type

WSSS

WSSQ

1

Lancaster University

First degree

1685.1

127.4

2

Nottingham Trent University

First degree

1663.6

126.0

3

University of Birmingham

First degree

1571.6

119.7

4

University of St Andrews

First degree

1517.9

116.0

5

Keele University

First degree

1511.7

115.6

6

University of Hull

First degree

1510.9

115.6

7

University of Bath

First degree

1494.0

114.4

8

University of Sheffield

First degree

1471.3

112.9

9

University of Sussex

First degree

1456.7

111.9

10

University of Hertfordshire

First degree

1452.7

111.6

 

 

French

Rank

Institution

Type

WSSS

WSSQ

1

Coventry University

First degree

1686.9

127.5

2

Queen's University Belfast

First degree

1667.9

126.2

3

Northumbria University Newcastle

First degree

1595.6

121.3

4

University of Southampton

First degree

1595.1

121.3

5

University of Exeter

First degree

1547.5

118.1

6

University of St Andrews

First degree

1507.7

115.4

7

Newcastle University

First degree

1501.1

114.9

8

University of Leicester

First degree

1496.1

114.6

9

Edinburgh Napier University

First degree

1486.6

113.9

10

King's College London

First degree

1482.6

113.6

 

Links

Article in Perspectives

Full dataset

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