Term 2 Survey

“It has been very overwhelming.”

“I have enjoyed It and done well on my assignments and found them interesting!”

“I have struggled with anxiety since the beginning of my degree.”

“Lots of SU events and I loved the Pebbles hunt”

“I don’t necessarily feel a part of the community"

“There has been a lot of stress floating around this term and it felt challenging to manage.”

The Term 2 Survey

Over 700 students completed the End of Term 2 survey in March.

Discover how students found term 2 and read about how the data compares to other recent surveys.

To get started, select one of the main survey sections below.

UNIVERSITY

SATISFACTION FALLS SLIGHTLY

In total 88% of respondents positively rated their experience at The University of Essex, -4% from the last time we asked this question at the end of Term 1.

Among students that were unsatisfied, the most mentioned comments related to time and workload (16%), lack of support services (15%) and teaching quality (11%).

belonging DECREASES FROM TERM 1

In total, 77% of students feel that they belong at the University of Essex, -4% when compared to the End of Term 1 survey.

The overall belonging score decline is also represented across all campuses as shown in the chart.

It’s the first time we have measured this score throughout the year so it could be that term 2 is a natural dip for belonging, something which we’ll continue to measure.

nps score for essex university dips

Our Net Promoter Score (NPS), which shows how likely students are to recommend The University of Essex to a friend or potential student has fallen for the first time in recent years, from +29 in term 1 to +17 this term.

opportunity to increase engagement

The percentage of students who agree that they are able to engage with the opportunities that The University of Essex has to offer is 71%, -4% from term 1.

Since this has worsened from term 1, improving student engagement represents a significant opportunity.

anxiety is STILL a BIG issue

Significantly, ‘Anxiety’ is the number one reason that students are not engaging with the opportunities on offer at Essex, for a second consecutive term, cited by 26% of respondents.

In fact, the top 5 reasons remain the same as those stated last term, although ‘Travelling is too expensive’ (>24%) is now a slightly larger issue than ‘I need to prioritise paid work’ (24%).

This further reflects how widespread the issue of Anxiety is and the extent to which it is directly impacting upon students’ experiences at Essex.

COURSE

nps score for essex courses LOWERS THIS TERM

As a companion piece to the organisational Net Promoter Score (NPS) this question measures how likely Essex students are to recommend their course to a friend or potential student.

In a similar vein the NPS score for Essex courses has fallen this term from +32 to +19.

confidence in academic skills REMAINS THE SAME

75% of Essex students say that they feel confident about their academic skills, which is consistent with the result of the term 1 survey.

By campus, Southend students have the most confidence in their academic skills with 88% saying they feel confident in comparison to 82% of Loughton students, and 73% of Colchester students.

sense of community on course iS STATIC

In total 65% of students feel a sense of community with others on their course, which is consistent with the term 1 survey.

Loughton students answered a lot more positively to this question with a huge 82% stating they felt a sense of community with others on their course, although this is down -12% vs term 1.

Explore our Tableau dashboard

Now that we've shared some of the headline findings from this survey we want to give you the chance to dig deeper and look at how these results compare across different demographics and between departments.

Thanks to our partnership with the amazing team in PDI (thank you Naomi, Stephen and Megan) you can explore a custom tableau dashboard for this survey here

If you don’t have access to Tableau, please email poquery@essex.ac.uk

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The SU’s second end of term survey has thrown up some interesting results, with a number of scores falling slightly this term vs term 1; providing some unique insights into the student experience at Essex at this time of the academic year:

88% of students were either ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with their experience at the University of Essex in Term 2
The University’s Net Promoter Score (NPS) has fallen for the first time in recent years, from +29 in term 1 to +17 this term.
77% of students feel that they belong at the University of Essex, -4% when compared to the End of Term 1 survey.
Anxiety is still a significant issue for our students and their ability to make the most of their University of Essex experience, this being cited as their main reason for not engaging with the opportunities on offer for two consecutive terms.