At Birmingham we pay great attention to what our students think of us and are committed to continually improving the experience of all of our students. At the heart of what we offer is an elite academic experience that pushes the boundaries of knowledge and prepares our students for success. We feel confident that all our students will gain the best from their time spent studying at Birmingham.
Student satisfaction soars at Birmingham
In the 2012 National Student Survey Birmingham significantly improved its performance in all 22 questions and in 19 out of 22 questions our scores are the highest that the university has ever achieved. We were also ranked 9th out of the 24 Russell Group universities, a rise of eight places from 17th in 2011.
Against the 'Overall Satisfaction' question, we achieved a score of 88%, which is 3% higher than the sector average, and 3% higher than our score last year. Our overall score on "teaching" places us joint fourth within the Russell Group, surpassed only by Exeter, Cambridge, and Oxford. The accompanying free text comments from our students commend the enthusiasm, commitment, and inspiring nature of their teaching.
Birmingham's student satisfaction score was 88% in the 2012 National Student Survey, placing it significantly above the national average.
The National Student Survey (NSS) is a survey of all final year undergraduate students at the University. The survey assesses students' opinions of the quality of their degree programmes. Further information about the survey and how it is compiled can be found at the NSS website. We have clear plans and an unwavering ambition to be an exceptional university in which to study, and with enhancements planned for 2013 we are committed to improving the quality of our student experience even further.
Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey
The Times Higher Education (THE) Student Experience Survey was conducted in 2011 a survey of 14,000 full-time undergraduate students from 113 universities. The survey assessed students' opinions of their university based on twenty-one attributes which a panel of 1,000 students decided upon as contributing to a positive and negative student experience. Further information about the survey and how it was compiled can be found at the THE website.
We are ranked 13th in the UK in the Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey
In 2011 the University was ranked as 13th this demonstrates the continual improvement of our student experience, having risen two places from 15th in 2010 and nine places from our 2009 ranking of 24th in the UK.
International Student Barometer
The International Student Barometer (ISB) is a benchmark of the University's provision for new and continuing international students. Benchmarking is conducted against our Russell Group peers and other Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the United Kingdom and oversees. For further information about how the ISB is compiled and can be used as a measure of international student opinion of the University, please visit the ISB pages on i-graduate international insight's website.
A total of 123 HEIs were included in the ranking tables of the 2009 Autumn ISB, with 12 belonging to the Russell Group of universities.
Overall we ranked 29th out of the 123 HEIs in the ISB for our 'mean satisfaction' score. This also placed us in 20th place out of the 57 UK HEIs and 9th out of the 12 Russell Group universities surveyed.