I spotted via a tweet from Damyanti Patel this morning that HEFCE have released a report on the NSS (National Student Survey). Anyone in Higher Education will know the importance of the NSS, which feeds in to nearly all league tables and reviews of Universities in the UK.
http://www.hefce.ac.uk/media/hefce/content/pubs/indirreports/2014/reviewofthenss/2014_nssreview.pdf
The report makes a number of proposals (note, just proposals at this stage) to change questions.
One of the proposals is to change the library question
16. The library resources and services are good enough for my needs
To
The library, including its digital services, are good enough for my needs
This seems like a good thing, the word library seems so connected to ‘big building with books in’ in many people’s minds that this helps remind them of one of our core services (access to information). I’d hope it would be no bad thing for Sussex (I may be biased).
The IT question (known to some as the ‘how good is the wireless’ question) also has a proposed change, which makes it much more focused
17. I have been able to access general IT resources when I needed to
To
I have been able to access course information and virtual learning facilities when I needed to
( the report notes this is a complete change to this question, and also suggests an option which keeps elements of the old question ‘I have been able to access IT resources, including virtual learning facilities (e.g. VLE), when I needed to’)