The Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) is run by the Office for Students and assesses student outcomes and the student academic experience every four years. Each university is assessed on their National Student Survey (NSS) results, a written submission and for the first time this year universities can submit a student submission that is independently developed by its students

We are developing the student submission for UCL and would like you to feedback on whether our draft description of the student academic experience matches your own experience as a UCL student this year.

To get a clear picture of the current student experience we have:

  • Conducted an all-student survey to see what students think of their academic experience at UCL.
  • Hosted five student focus groups to discuss specific themes within their academic experience, including a dedicated focus group with disabled students to explore their academic experience and to discuss improvements in their experience since the 2020 Disabled Students’ Network report.
  • Talked to Lead Department and Faculty Reps during their in-person training and asked them to evaluate their academic experience thus far.

These conversations have helped us build the below summary of what the current UCL student academic experience is like.

We have divided the draft into the following sections:

Teaching and Learning

The majority of students feel that they have a high quality academic experience and that their course is intellectually challenging, coherent, up-to-date and effectively delivered.

Module content

When surveying the satisfaction of students, module content was one of the highest scoring areas.  

88% of academic representatives feel that their academic experience is intellectually challenging and coherent – broad agreement, students generally feel that they are taught in a coherent way and that the content of their course is intellectually challenging.  

78% of academic representatives feel that their course content is up-to-date and effectively delivered, this view has similar prevalence within other student groups.  

Teaching delivery

Current students appreciate online teaching when it is used to supplement their in-person teaching (rather than replace it).

Workload

In relation to workload, students emphasised the imbalance between terms 1 and 2 (with more assignments due to term 2) and issues for part-time students in balancing their part-time study with external employment (this also impacts full-time students with part-time employment).

Assessment and Feedback

Students universally agree that assessment & feedback are their biggest areas for concern in their academic experience.

Assessment

Biggest issues for students within assessment are marking criteria (availability and quality) and assessment timetabling (bunching of deadlines within terms 1 & 2 and issues with the scheduling of assessments in term 3)

Feedback

Biggest issues for students in regards to feedback is the promptness and quality of feedback 

Student Voice

Students often understand who their academic reps are, but not the role of their representative in improving their academic experience (a lack of knowledge of the structures that the reps interact with).

Closing the feedback loop (telling students how their feedback on their course is used) should be a priority as it would increase transparency in departmental/wider UCL processes which would encourage more students to get involved in improving their academic experience. 

Learning Resources

Physical and digital learning resources had the highest satisfaction scores when surveying current students.  

Physical learning resources

59% of academic reps did not think that physical learning resources helped or supported their education.  

Not enough study space, current difficulties in finding some where to study on campus.  

Campus needs to be better adapted to hybrid learning, with more plug sockets in teaching rooms and spaces for students to attend online meetings/seminars. 

Online learning resource

78% of academic reps felt that the online learning resources were helpful and supported their education  

Students noted that improvements have been made over the last few years, but a few key platforms (I.e. Moodle) remain difficult to navigate for some students. 

Academic Support

Module choice and selection 

62% of academic reps did not feel that they had access to good academic advice when making study choices, although there is recognition that improvements have been made with the information available  

Inconsistent between faculties  

Students on interdisciplinary courses are particularly impacted by this  

Personal tutors

Described as ‘hit or miss’  

Students from departments that embedded Personal Tutors in wider departmental processes felt that their meetings were more useful and had a more meaningful relationship  

Communication

Students feel informed about changes to their academic experience  

Departmental support  

When asking students about their favourite part of their academic experience, staff who support their education was the most common answer  

Students know how to access departmental support  

More support/understanding is needed for students who work part-time (emerging issue as more full-time students are working due to the cost-of-living crisis)  

Wider UCL support

Frustration with AskUCL, sometimes will take too long to answer question or sends query in circles  

Disabled students’ support

SoRA application within departments is inconsistent , however the processes within Student Support & Wellbeing have improved.

Sense of Belonging

Students who joined this year have a more developed sense of a departmental community than those who began studying during covid-effected years.

The development of a sense of belonging to an academic community was often based on the availability of department-specific social spaces (i.e. common rooms) and department-based social events.

Societies are a great way to build communities and more students would join a society if there were more regular ‘set’ events.