SAES 2021 FINAL.pdf - Student Academic Experience Survey...

Student Academic
Experience Survey
2021
Jonathan Neves (Advance HE)
and Rachel Hewitt (HEPI)

Student Academic Experience Survey 2021
Jonathan Neves and Rachel Hewitt
3
Contents
Foreword by Alison Johns 5
Foreword by Nick Hillman 6
Executive Summary 7
1. Methodology 8
Approach 8
Sample size 8
Weighting 9
Base sizes 9
Ethnicity 10
Sexual orientation 10
Trans identity / history 10
Sample profile 11
Value-for-money 12
Trends over time 12
Value by domicile 13
Factors influencing perceptions of poor value 14
Meeting expectations 17
Experience versus expectations 17
Why expectations are not met 18
Why expectations are exceeded 20
The choice to go to university 22
5.1 Whether would make same choice again 22
Whether considered leaving 23
How to improve the academic experience 26

Student Academic Experience Survey 2021
Jonathan Neves and Rachel Hewitt
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Student priorities 32
Sense of belonging 32
Commitment to race equality 33
Most appropriate use of tuition fees 35
Representing the student voice 37
8. Spotlight on specific student groups 38
8.1 Ethnicity (UK domicile) 38
Trans students 39
Teaching intensity 41
9.1 Workload trends 41
9.2 Satisfaction with scheduled contact hours 42
9.3 Workload by HECoS subject 43
10. Quality of teaching and assessment 44
10.1 Perceptions of the quality of teaching staff 44
Rating of assessment 45
Volume of assignments 47
10.4 Timeliness of feedback 48
11. Wellbeing 50
11.1 Key wellbeing measures 50
12. Finances and the future 52
12.1 The cost of study 52
12.2 Attitudes to cost by domicile 53
12.3 Living costs 54
12.4 Future intentions 56
13 Use of technology in learning 57
13.1 Satisfaction with technology 57
13.2 Preferred mode of learning 59
Conclusions and policy recommendations 61

Student Academic Experience Survey 2021
Jonathan Neves and Rachel Hewitt
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Foreword by Alison Johns
Many of the headline findings reflected in this year’s Student Academic Experience Survey
(SAES) 2021 will be disappointing to the sector, though perhaps not entirely unexpected. As
a result of the pandemic, a similar pattern is evident in the student experience reported in
comparable higher education sectors around the world.
Despite the extraordinary efforts of institutions and staff over the past year in moving to an
online offer, and that of students to adapt their learning styles, nobody can seriously
entertain the idea that the student experience in 2020 – 21 was anywhere near what they
might have expected at the outset of their studies, or the one institutions intended. This
report inevitably reflects the perceptions of a student body who have lived through a year
like no other in living memory.
All that said, it would be extremely unwise to dismiss this report as a one-off. On the
contrary, it is vital that we remain objective about the findings; that we seek out the lesson
learned; that we listen ever more carefully to the students and what they have to tell us. We
need to build the post-pandemic recovery and the future shape of the student academic
experience together. We need to build it based on evidence.