This year’s results indicate that the student experience has evolved away from the ‘traditional’ model of many students living close to campus, spending a lot of time on campus and only undertaking paid employment during the holidays.
Cost-of-living challenges permeate the current experience. Accordingly, paid work is now often expected and must be fitted around students’ other responsibilities. Time spent in paid work, or simply the distance students live from campus, has a limiting influence on the time available to spend on campus. Alongside this, higher education providers across the UK are facing some of the most significant financial headwinds in recent times.
Against this backdrop, we might expect it to be difficult for institutions to maintain the quality of the student experience they have provided in recent years. Indeed, this year’s findings point us to where the quality of the experience is under pressure. However, there are also several touchpoints providing real evidence of resilience among students and the wider sector.
Perceptions of value for money have declined compared to 2024, but in context, are still relatively high historically. While there is clear scope for improvement, it remains the case that markedly more students believe they receive good value (37%) than feel they receive poor value (29%). There is additional evidence that the quality and speed of returning assessments are generally very high while some teaching metrics have held up relatively well. This year’s report also provides evidence of the generally positive experience of international students, and a better understanding of some of the key drivers of their choices.
Setting and meeting the expectations of students beginning university is proving as challenging as ever, but a healthy number of respondents have had their experiences exceeded, which is an endorsement of the quality of facilities and support provided.
Central to those expectations is evidence that students often expect to work for pay while studying, and one of the most noteworthy results this year is that there are now more than one in three who do so (68%), a remarkable statistic when we consider than this figure was below 50% just three years ago. While students are often prepared for working to be a key part of their life at university, there is evidence this has been at the expense of time spent in independent study. Time allocated to this has seen a strong decline while employment hours have increased, although the total number of hours worked or studied is now slightly lower on average, which may be more manageable.
There is striking evidence this year that higher education may not be the best option for all who select it. Although the majority would make the same choice of course or institution again with the benefit of hindsight, there has been a marked increase in those who would have made a different choice either within or outside higher education, from 6% last year to 11% this year. This implies that while the student experience is evolving, the needs of students and what they want from it may be changing too.