The National Student Survey (NSS) 2024 results have confirmed once again the outstanding level of satisfaction with teaching and overall experience among students in the Department of Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Geography students on fieldwork in Spain
The department achieved the highest results among geography departments nationally in a notable number of measures for satisfaction in both Human and Physical geography when compared to the sector, with top scores for areas like staff are good at explaining things and always make subjects engaging, teaching staff are easy to contact, well organised courses, effective learning resources and opportunities to build important skills.
Recording 100% satisfaction scores in up to ten different categories, this year’s results position us 2nd and 4th nationally* for Human and Physical Geography respectively.
Notably, the Department of Geography pairs outstanding student satisfaction with research excellence, having also been ranked fifth in the UK’s most recent national research excellence framework and first for world-leading and internationally excellent research impact. **
Head of Geography, Professor Danielle Schreve commented:
"I would like to thank our students for sharing their feedback on their experiences at Royal Holloway and appreciate the many contributions made by staff that have helped to maintain our high overall scores. These results confirm the quality of teaching experience on our courses and reinforce our place among the top institutions in our subject area.
Geography students here at Royal Holloway benefit from a special combination of great teaching and learning with world-leading research, within a friendly and supportive intellectual community. Our NSS results are testament to that special combination.”
The Geography department has achieved high scores in every National Student Survey since 2011, reflecting our friendly, supportive learning environment.
Incoming Head of Department Professor Simon Blockley was very pleased by the results and added,
"As a department we remain firmly committed to delivering a top quality academic experience to our students."
The NSS is an annual, independent survey of final year students carried out by the Office for Students on behalf of the UK higher education funding and regulatory bodies.
Questions are asked about the quality of teaching and support, learning resources and outcomes, assessment and feedback, university services and facilities, plus the impact of the student voice. The data is collected anonymously, allowing students to give honest answers, and results are provided as a positivity score, which is based on an average of all 27 questions asked of students.
At institution level Royal Holloway saw an increased positive response, with 81% average satisfaction, which is a larger improvement than seen across the sector.
* Positions ranked by the average score of the 27 Questions, against the sector comparator group comprising the universities included in the 2024 Guardian League Table.
** Times Higher Education (THE), REF institutions ranked by Subject, 2022
