National Student Survey results 2025 – an upward trajectory
10 Jul 2025
A message from our President and Vice-Chancellor, Duncan Ivison and Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students, April McMahon
Our latest NSS results, which are the views of our final year undergraduates, were released yesterday (Wednesday, 9 July). We are pleased to see an upward trajectory across all areas – indeed, a 5% increase in overall positivity, which is the biggest rise across Russell Group institutions. This clearly reflects the hard work of colleagues and paves the way for even better outcomes in the future.
We want to make sure our students have the best possible experience at Manchester and hold ourselves to the highest possible standard in delivering that experience.
Duncan says:
“Since my arrival last summer, I’ve seen real commitment and determination from colleagues across the University to improve the student experience, including taking a ‘One University’ approach with our NSS action plan. We have outstanding teachers, departments, divisions and schools who we have been learning from and who will continue to share their expertise. I know that our Students’ Union officers - who have worked closely with us this year - will continue to hold us to account.
This year’s results are encouraging, but we have more to do and they give us further insight into where we need to get better. Improving our student experience will be at the heart of our new Manchester 2035 strategy.”
April says:
“Many colleagues have been working hard over the last number of years to make improvements across the student experience, particularly in the areas of teaching delivery, assessment and feedback, and student voice. It’s pleasing to see that aspects such as how intellectually stimulating our courses are, plus opportunities for students to give feedback on their course, are now rated higher than the sector average in this year's NSS.
For me, this is my last NSS cycle as I hand over the Vice-President for TL&S baton to Jenn Hallam, from 1 August. I am proud of the journey we have been on thus far and the headway we’ve made – with huge thanks also to Duncan, for turbo-charging our efforts since his arrival. I have no doubt that with Jenn and Duncan at the helm going forwards, we will continue to make great strides in supporting our students.”
Making things work better is a big part of the improvement plan – data, systems, and processes all need to be modernised to give you and our students the seamless and flexible experience you expect - and we’re working on that already.
Early in the new academic year, we will be asking Programme Directors to share the learnings from the NSS results in their areas with their final year students – so they can see where we are improving and where we need to be doing better, based on the views of the previous final year cohort.
Please take a moment to look at the results for your area. Where things are working well – keep it going and spread it around!
Duncan and April.