Surveys
This is a key student voice activity that provides an essential source of information for programme teams as well as senior University colleagues. It is an opportunity to gather thoughts and experiences of our students during their undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes.
There are three main surveys coordinated by the team:
- Mid-semester surveys: students usually complete the survey in week five of teaching, each semester. This is a quick pulse survey to give programme teams the opportunity to make changes in-programme.
- Unit Surveys: students complete the survey in weeks 9-12 of each semester, at the end of each unit. This is the culmination of their experience on each course unit. Course units to be included in the survey are identified by each School.
- PGT Dissertation survey: students are sent the survey once they have submitted their dissertation, usually end of September/early October. Students can reflect on the dissertation element as well as their programme as a whole.
In 2024/25, when are surveys released?
Semester 1
- PGT dissertation survey: 30 September to 13 October 2024
- Mid-semester surveys: 14-20 October 2024
- Unit surveys: 18 November to 13 December 2024
Semester 2
- Mid-semester surveys: 17-23 February 2025
- Unit surveys: 24 March to 9 May 2025
Who decides which course units are surveyed and which staff can see the survey results?
The team have a list of School Professional Services contacts, usually Curriculum and Progression (C&P) or Information, Advice and Governance (IAG) colleagues, who are contacted in advance of each survey to confirm which units should be included. They will also confirm which academic staff teach on the unit which is checked by the academic unit lead through a process known as DIG (see Survey Tools for further information).
If you have any questions, please contact the team’s central inbox below.
What questions are students asked?
Each survey contains a mixture of scale questions and free-text comments. Scale questions are mandatory, but comment questions are optional.
For unit surveys, there are five core University questions that all students are asked. These are agreed through the Student Survey Working Group, as follows:
- Overall, I would rate this unit as being excellent (scale question)
- The unit was well organised (scale question)
- The feedback that I received on my learning was helpful (scale question)
- What was good about this unit? (free-text comment)
- What could be improved about this unit? (free-text comment)
Schools are also able to ask an additional five school-specific questions. These are signed off by the School Academic Teaching and Learning lead (Head of Education, Director of Education, Director of Teaching, Learning and Students), and School Head of Teaching, Learning and Student Experience (HoTLSEs).
How is the survey distributed?
Students can receive the survey in several ways although all will receive an e-mail as standard.
Primarily, students will receive a link to the survey directly to their University e-mail from teachingandlearningsurveys@manchester.ac.uk. If they have a few surveys to complete e.g. they have taken more than one unit, they will see a list of surveys to complete. Once they have submitted one survey, they can return to their list to complete another one.
Additionally, staff who have regular contact with students can share generic links to the surveys which is vital to increasing response rates. When students click on a generic link they will be asked to sign-in using their University username and password so they can see any surveys connected to them.
There are two options for sharing generic links:
- A generic link for each survey project– the team will share a link here aseach survey launches.
- A link generated by academic staff for their course unit survey – once each survey launches the team will e-mail colleagues connected to each unit (i.e. course unit leads or equivalent) with details of how to access bespoke links for their units as well as how to monitor response rates whilst the survey is open. This is through the ‘subject management’ screen in Explorance Blue.
Will students be reminded to complete the survey?
During each survey, the system will automatically remind students who have not yet completed their survey to do so. We can send up to five reminders during any scheduled survey.
For Unit surveys, Semester 1 2024/25, students will be e-mailed on the following dates:
- 18/11/2024 – survey sent to all student University e-mails from teachingandlearningsurveys@manchester.ac.uk
- 25/11/2024 – First e-mail reminder
- 02/12/2024 – Second e-mail reminder
- 05/12/2024 – Third e-mail reminder
- 09/12/2024 – Fourth e-mail reminder
- 11/12/2024 – Fifth and final e-mail reminder
- 13/12/2024 – Survey closes at 11:59pm
How do students complete the survey?
Students click on the link and are taken to a browser window containing a list of all surveys they have been assigned. They select a survey, complete the scale questions (which are mandatory) and add any comments if they wish to (these are optional). Once they have finished, they click ‘submit’ for their response to be logged. The system will then return students to the list of all surveys they have been assigned to so they can continue to work through the list.
How can staff see the survey results?
Instructor reports
Academic staff who have been identified as teaching on a unit will be able to see a report on their unit(s) in the week after the survey closes. These are known as “individual instructor reports”. Initially the instructor report is just for the staff member the feedback is about. This will be sent to their University e-mail address. Each member of staff will then have the opportunity to request the redaction of any comments that contravene the Dignity at Work and Study Policy. Following any agreed redactions, final reports will be e-mailed to all staff connected to each unit.
Aggregate reports
Aggregate reports combine units into subject/discipline areas, Schools and Faculties. Once instructor reports are finalised, aggregate reports are generated and shared with key Faculty and School colleagues for quality assurance and monitoring purposes. This will include Vice Deans for Teaching, Learning and Students, Heads of Education, Directors of Education, Directors of Teaching, Learning and Students, and Faculty/School Heads of Teaching, Learning and Student Experience (HoTLSEs).
For Unit surveys, Semester 1 2024/25, staff will receive reports/redactions as follows:
- 17/12/2024 – initial instructor reports shared with staff teaching on a unit
- 03/01/2025 – redaction deadline
- 06/01/2025 – redaction meeting to confirm any changes with Vice Deans
- 10/01/2025 – final instructor and aggregate reports shared with any approved redactions
For general queries, please e-mail teachingandlearningsurveys@manchester.ac.uk