What is the Expectation Survey?
To help improve understanding of student needs and experiences Student Success teams asks students to complete this survey at our Welcome Week induction event as a way to learn about students' expectations of University life and what they hope to achieve during their time at University. The results of the survey help teams to improve our understanding of students needs and to put in place changes to our offering that meet those needs.
The results of the Expectations Survey help our Student Success team improve our understanding of students' needs, especially as we have an ever-changing cohort of students and we need to be responsive to their needs. Results from the survey allows us to put in place interventions which we hope will help with transition and belonging as students start their life at University, while also improving achievement and attainment. By also looking at differences between groups of students who responded to the survey, we can focus on reducing the attainment gap, most importantly the gap between white and BAME students. An important example from our Expectations survey is that a higher proportion of BAME students tell us that they are aiming for a First-Class degree, and yet our results show that a lower proportion of BAME students achieve a First.
What are we doing?
We hope that students who attend our programs such as Study Skills workshops will see their results improve. We can measure this by looking at the data of students who completed the survey and those who subsequently attended interventions, looking at their attendance and attainment as a reflection how much our interventions might have been successful. We can also use qualitative feedback to measure how much the students themselves feel the interventions have been beneficial to their studies.
How can you get involved?
Time required to analyse the data collected and provide feedback to the Education and Careers teams in the school. Consider how the survey will be disseminated. Due to the fact that not all new students attended the induction, it is also important to follow up by email to catch a greater number of students, while also reminding students to complete the survey at every opportunity during Welcome Week. Every student receives a personalised survey link sent to them directly.
How does this make a difference?
The survey enables us to be reactive in time to our new cohorts needs and expectations, through changing and prioritising different workshops, careers advice, and shape our messaging about what is on offer (modules and extracurricular) SECL and SMSAS have used the expectation surveys to alter their skills workshops to provide each year with what they require.
