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National Student Survey 2017: overall satisfaction results

The full results for UK universities ranked by student satisfaction in the 2017 National Student Survey (NSS)

    August 9 2017
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    Which UK universities have the most satisfied students? When it comes to finding out how happy students are with the quality of their course, the results of the National Student Survey (NSS) 2017 are not a bad place to start.

    The survey canvassed the opinions of about 300,000 students across the country, so it is a pretty comprehensive exercise. However, you will notice that some institutions do not feature (including Oxford and Cambridge), and that's because in order to be eligible, at least 50 per cent of final-year undergraduates must complete the questionnaire. This year, a number of students boycotted the survey in protest against the teaching excellence framework (you can read a bit more about that here).

    Nonetheless, the NSS is still the biggest survey of student opinion in the UK - and one of the most important statements that it asks students to respond to is whether, overall, they are satisfied with the quality of their course. 

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    The St Mary's University College, Belfast in joint fifth (92 per cent). 

    Below, we publish a table that shows how all the eligible UK higher education institutions performed on this measure (the table does not include further education colleges). It shows the percentage of students who "definitely" or "mostly" agreed that they were satisfied with course quality.

    National Student Survey (NSS) 2017: overall student satisfaction results 

    NSS rank 2017 Institution Overall course satisfaction (%)
    =1 University of Buckingham 94
    =1 Royal Veterinary College 94
    =1 University of St Andrews 94
    4 Harper Adams University 93
    =5 London Institute of Banking and Finance 92
    =5 Loughborough University 92
    =5 St Mary's University College,  Belfast 92
    =8 Aberystwyth University 91
    =8 Lancaster University 91
    =8 Leeds College of Art 91
    =11 University of East Anglia 90
    =11 Guildhall School of Music and Drama 90
    =11 Trinity University 90
    =11 Liverpool Hope University 90
    =11 Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts 90
    =11 University of Dundee 90
    =11 Bangor University 90
    =11 Stranmillis University College 90
    =19 University of Birmingham 89
    =19 Durham University 89
    =19 University of Leeds 89
    =19 Trent University 89
    =19 Royal Northern College of Music 89
    =19 University of Glasgow 89
    =25 Aston University 88
    =25 University of Bath 88
    =25 University of Essex 88
    =25 University of Exeter 88
    =25 Keele University 88
    =25 Newcastle University 88
    =25 University of Portsmouth 88
    =25 Royal Holloway, University of London 88
    =25 University of Sussex 88
    =25 University of the West of England 88
    =25 University of York 88
    =25 Swansea University 88
    =37 University of Chichester 87
    =37 Conservatoire for Dance and Drama 87
    =37 Coventry University 87
    =37 University of Huddersfield 87
    =37 University of Kent 87
    =37 Royal Agricultural University 87
    =37 University of Surrey 87
    =37 University of Aberdeen 87
    =37 University of Strathclyde 87
    =37 Queen's University Belfast 87
    =47 University of Chester 86
    =47 University of Leicester 86
    =47 University of Lincoln 86
    =47 Liverpool John Moores University 86
    =47 University of Nottingham 86
    =47 The Open University 86
    =47 Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance 86
    =47 Royal College of Music 86
    =47 University of Warwick 86
    =47 Medway School of Pharmacy 86
    =47 Robert Gordon University 86
    =47 University of Stirling 86
    =47 Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama 86
    =60 Bishop Grosseteste University 85
    =60 University of Bolton 85
    =60 De Montfort University 85
    =60 University of Derby 85
    =60 Heythrop College, University of London 85
    =60 University of Law 85
    =60 Northumbria University 85
    =60 Plymouth University 85
    =60 Sheffield Hallam University 85
    =60 St Mary's University, Twickenham 85
    =60 Staffordshire University 85
    =60 The University of West London 85
    =60 University of Winchester 85
    =60 University of Wales Trinity Saint David 85
    =74 Birkbeck, University of London 84
    =74 Brunel University London 84
    =74 University of East London 84
    =74 Edge Hill University 84
    =74 University of Gloucestershire 84
    =74 The University of Hull 84
    =74 Imperial College London 84
    =74 The University of Reading 84
    =74 The University of Salford 84
    =74 University of St Mark and St John 84
    =74 University of Sunderland 84
    =74 University of Worcester 84
    =74 Hull and York Medical School 84
    =74 Abertay University 84
    =74 Cardiff Metropolitan University 84
    =74 Cardiff University 84
    =90 Anglia Ruskin University 83
    =90 Falmouth University 83
    =90 Hertford Regional College 83
    =90 University of Hertfordshire 83
    =90 Manchester Metropolitan University 83
    =90 University of Northampton 83
    =90 Oxford Brookes University 83
    =90 Plymouth College of Art 83
    =90 Queen Mary University of London 83
    =90 Regent's University London 83
    =90 University of Roehampton  83
    =90 University of Southampton 83
    =90 Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance 83
    =90 University of Edinburgh 83
    =90 Heriot-Watt University 83
    =90 University of the West of Scotland 83
    =90 Ulster University 83
    =107 University of Bedfordshire 82
    =107 Birmingham City University 82
    =107 Canterbury Christ Church University 82
    =107 University of Central Lancashire 82
    =107 City, University of London 82
    =107 Leeds Beckett University 82
    =107 Norwich University of the Arts 82
    =107 St George's, University of London 82
    =107 Teesside University 82
    =107 University of Wolverhampton 82
    =107 York St John University 82
    =107  Wrexham Glyndwr University 82
    =119 Arts University Bournemouth 81
    =119 University College Birmingham 81
    =119 Bournemouth University 81
    =119 University of Bradford 81
    =119 London South Bank University 81
    =119 Newman University 81
    =119 Southampton Solent University 81
    =119 Glasgow Caledonian University 81
    =127 Bath Spa University 80
    =127 University of Brighton 80
    =127 Goldsmiths, University of London 80
    =127 Kingston University 80
    =127 Leicester College 80
    =127 Middlesex University 80
    =127 The University of Westminster 80
    =127 Edinburgh Napier University 80
    =135 Buckinghamshire New University 79
    =135 University for the Creative Arts 79
    =135 University of Greenwich 79
    =135 University of the Highlands and Islands 79
    =139 BPP University Limited 78
    =139 London Metropolitan University 78
    =139 University of South Wales 78
    =142 University of Suffolk 77
    =142 Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh 77
    144 The University of Cumbria 75
    =145 The London School of Economics and Political Science 74
    =145 Ravensbourne 74
    147 University of the Arts, London 73
    =148 Writtle University College 71
    =148 Glasgow School of Art 71

    Read more: the best universities in the UK

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