NSS results 2026 – another year of improvement, in a fast-moving sector
09 Jul 2026
A message from our President and Vice-Chancellor, Duncan Ivison and Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students, Jenn Hallam
Our latest NSS results, which reflect the views of our final year undergraduates, were released yesterday (Wednesday, 8 July). We are pleased to see a continued increase in overall positivity*, which is a credit to the great work of our colleagues across the institution and their commitment to improving the experiences of our students. Notwithstanding this, the increased competition across the sector has meant that, despite improving in almost every measure, our overall sector position has dropped (to 141st, down 5 places), as has our Russell Group ranking (to 23rd, down 3 places).
Overall positivity also improved across all three of our faculties, and our Students’ Union also continued to rank above the sector benchmark for the fourth year running, which we are incredibly proud of. The helpfulness of our colleagues in supporting students also came across strongly and warmly in students’ free-text comments.
Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students, Jenn Hallam said:
“This continued improvement, year on year, has only been possible because of everyone working together as one University - one community effort. My sincere thanks to every one of you.
These results, in previous years, would have seen us leading the sector, which shows just how fierce the competition is today. Other institutions are stepping up their game even more than they once were and the bar is now continually rising. Our community spirit and dedication to our students is already strong – we’ll need to harness that to make even bigger leaps.”
Reflecting on the results, President and Vice-Chancellor, Duncan Ivison said:
“I am grateful to colleagues for their hard work over the last year in maintaining positive momentum in improving the quality of our student experience. We’re seeing areas of significant improvement because of our NSS action plan, reflecting the commitment and determination across the University to get better.
Overall, our students are happier than they were last year about their experience with us, as well as the year before that, but there are still areas that we need to improve. We’re also operating in a highly competitive environment, and we can see our peers making significant strides. The overall improvement in NSS scores for the Russell Group is good for the sector, at a time when there is so much discussion about the value of higher education. And It’s a helpful reminder that to be in the top quartile of performers in the sector (which is our goal) we must have a relentless focus on delivering the best possible experience for our students.”
Student experience is at the heart of our strategy, and we are investing in areas that will improve the experience we offer our students. Partner-enabled learning, Manchester Online, our work on teaching excellence, and improvements to academic advising and the curriculum are all part of that – as are the improvements we are planning to our campus. These are ambitious changes that will take time to realise, but student experience is a top priority, and we will continue to be guided by insights from our students and colleagues every step of the way.
Please take a moment to look at the results for your area.
[*We determine the ‘Overall positivity’ measure based on the themed questions only (1-24) and not all questions. This is in-line with our agreed Manchester 2035 reporting metrics.]