The results of the 2024 National Student Survey are in (released on Wednesday 10 July). 12,907 students took part in the survey and gave the OU Students Association an 80.5% positivity measure!
This figure was based on the student union question focusing on students’ academic interests (“How well does the students' union (association or guild) represent students' academic interests?”) which is well ahead of the sector average across all UK student unions (72.9%). We are thrilled to have maintained this positivity rating from last year (80.2% in 2023)!
As a publicly-funded higher education institution, The Open University takes part in this survey each year. At the OU Students Association, we closely follow NSS feedback on the student union question, which helps our efforts to improve the ways in which we listen to students and communicate with them about how we represent their interests.
This positivity rating is a testament to the hard work of all our student volunteers involved in academic representation.
The OU Students Association President, Margaret Greenaway, said:
“It is fantastic to see another set of positive results for the OU in this year’s NSS. We are delighted and proud to have received a positivity score of 80.5% in how well we represent the academic interests of students, and that we are leading the sector average by 7.6%. On behalf of the Students Association, I would like to thank everyone for their contributions which are invaluable in helping us to improve the student experience.”
Allan Musinguzi, Head of Volunteering and Representation at the Association, added:
“Student representation on university committees is extremely important because decisions made in these committees impact students' academic experience at The Open University. As members of The Open University’s ‘central committees’ within the OU’s governance structure, our Student Representatives work hard to create positive change for students, and raise any issues as appropriate. We are so glad to see an increase in the number of new students putting themselves forward to take on this role, and will continue our work to raise awareness of the important work our student volunteers do in this role.”
To learn more about our academic representation work, please visit www.oustudents.com/your-voice/student-voice/student-representatives.
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NB: The positivity measure for the National Student Survey is measured by the proportion of respondents who gave a positive answer.
The response options for “How well does the students' union (association or guild) represent students' academic interests” were:
- Very well
- Well
- Not very well
- Not at all well
- This does not apply to me
In this case, the positivity measure was calculated by dividing the number of students who answered “Very well” and “Well” by the number of students who gave one of the first four response options. This was then coverted into a percentage figure.