The 2025 survey is open from Monday 3 February until 23:59 Wednesday 30 April 2025.
Not all students in your course or department might be eligible. You can see who is eligible by viewing the target population on the NSS SharePoint site.
Promote the National Student Survey (NSS) to students
Find out more about the NSS, how to promote it to your students and how to access and use the results.
The National Student Survey (NSS) is an independent anonymous survey run by the Office for Students and is sent to final-year undergraduates across the UK.
The survey asks students about their course experience. The results not only enhance the student experience, but help future students decide where they want to study at university.
When students can complete the NSS
The NSS is open to final-year undergraduates in Semester 2 every academic year.
Questions asked
The NSS asks students a variety of questions about their undergraduate experience.
You can see the questions asked in the NSS. They include:
- teaching on my course
- learning opportunities
- assessment and feedback
- academic support
- organisation and management
- learning resources
- student voice
- mental wellbeing service communication
- freedom of expression
- up to six additional banks of questions
- three free-text comment questions
Constructive feedback
Students appreciate it when you provide detailed, useful and constructive feedback on their assessments to help them improve their marks next time. Similarly, receiving this type of feedback from students will help you better understand what changes could be made to improve your course. Characteristics of constructive student feedback include:
- honest
- specific
- respectful
- solution-focused
- includes the good and the bad
- how to do better next time
Students' comments must be in line with the University's Dignity & Respect Policy and Procedure. We encourage you to report offensive or discriminatory comments to your Head of Department and the Student Engagement Team by emailing studentengagement@bath.ac.uk
How students can take part in the NSS
The NSS can be completed online or on a mobile device. It takes 10 minutes and is completely anonymous.
Please direct your students to thestudentsurvey.com or show them the survey QR code, which can be found on the NSS SharePoint.
Students will also receive emails from:
- nss@bath.ac.uk which contains a link to the NSS homepage
- Ipsos, the company delivering the survey, which contains a unique link directly to the NSS
The NSS 2025 is open from Monday 3 February until 23:59 Wednesday 30 April 2025.
Promoting the NSS to boost response rates
There are a variety of ways you can encourage your students to complete the NSS.
The University's target response rate for NSS is 75%. Having a higher response rate means the results are more representative of your cohort and you can more confidently make decisions about if, and how, you make changes to enhance the student experience.
The University has best practice guidance and promotional resources to help you promote the NSS to your students.
Highlight to students that they could win one of three luxury prizes if they enter the prize draw by the survey closing date.
How responses are used and where to access the results
NSS results are discussed and used in several ways across the University.
You can view NSS results for the University and the rest of the sector by:
- visiting the Office for Students' NSS results dashboards
- visiting the NSS Power BI dashboard (VPN required)
- downloading data from the NSS SharePoint
The anonymised responses will be discussed and used in Staff / Student Liaison Committees (SSLCs), Departmental Education Action Plans and committee meetings.
Think about how to close the feedback loop with your students next academic year. This could involve:
- telling incoming students about changes that were made as a result of the NSS 2024 feedback
- familiarising Academic Reps with the data in the first SSLC of the academic year
- checking in with students about how their experience is going and if any quick fixes could be made
National Student Survey (NSS) 2025
The NSS asks final year undergraduates studying in the UK about their experience at university.
Encourage your students to take part in the NSS.
Contact us
For enquires and questions, please contact the Student Engagement Team.