Prospects and pitfalls of extending the UK National Student Survey to postgraduate students: an international review

Most large-scale student surveys including the UK's NSS only survey undergraduate students. The 2011 Higher Education White Paper Higher Education: Students at the Heart of the System[1] invited The Higher Education Public Information Steering Group (HEPISG) to consider the possibility of extending the National Student Survey (or a version of it) to taught postgraduate students (Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (2011 pp.29-30). Whilst a HEFCE-funded feasibility study recommended "that a PGT pilot survey should not be commissioned at the current time" (NatCen 2013, p. 39), the need for the sector to better understand the needs, opinions, expectations and decision-making processes of postgraduate and potential postgraduate students remains. With reference to practice in the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia and other countries, this report offers an overview of the literature of surveying students in general, with particular emphasis on the implications of surveying postgraduate students. [1] To avoid confusion with previous higher education White Papers the 2011 White Paper is referred to as Students at the Heart of the System throughout this review.