1. Newcastle University School of Chemistry National Student Survey 2013 W hat is the National Student Survey? An annual, anonymous survey of final year undergraduates, administered by Ipsos MORI Asks you to provide feedback on learning, teaching and the student experience at NU and in your school or subject area Results are published nationally, and universities and subject areas are compared to one another Provides crucial feedback to your school and subject area and affects future changes

2. Student Opinion @ Newcastle University The NSS is just one way of collecting student opinion. We ask you to provide feedback in a number of ways, including: Module evaluations Staff-Student Committees Student representatives on School, Faculty and University committees Focus groups and projects The NSS is unique. Unlike other sources of student feedback, which ask you for immediate feedback on a module/course/project/etc, the NSS asks you to summarise your experiences over your entire three- or four-year course.

3. How the NSS Works: The NSS asks 23 core questions (plus University specific questions) about: Teaching, Assessment and feedback, Academic support, Organisation and management, Learning resources, Personal development, Students’ Union, Overall satisfaction, You should also provide free-text comments about your experiences and make any suggestions that you have for improvements. These comments are particularly valuable, since, unlike quantitative positive or negative results, they can tell staff exactly what aspects of the programme are going well or poorly. Please take these free-text comments seriously and provide as much information as you can about your experiences over your three- or four-year programme. Please don’t include the names of individual students or members of staff, however; these will be deleted from your response if you do so.

4. What Your Response Means: For each question/statement in the survey, you select a response between 1 (definitely disagree) and 5 (definitely agree). Only scores of 4 and 5 are considered “positive” responses by the test-makers – and it is the percentage of students who score 4 or 5 that is presented for national comparisons. You can also select “Not Applicable” if you feel that the question/statement does not apply to you. Consider your responses carefully before selecting them – your opinion matters, and we want to know whether you feel negatively or positively about each aspect of your University experience.

5. Your Opinion Counts: In the University: 24-hour opening of Robinson Library Increased availability of computer clusters Improved access to internet in University accommodation New University policies on feedback turnaround time and feedback on exams NSS responses and free context comments have contributed to changes in the University and in your School.

6. Your Opinion Counts In the School of Chemistry: NSS responses and free context comments have contributed to changes in the University and in your School.

7. Your opinion counts – nationally (and even internationally)! The responses to several NSS statements (including overall satisfaction) are published in Key Information Sets (KIS) on the Unistats website. This information is publicly available for anyone researching undergraduate programmes. To provide the most accurate reflection of students’ opinions, data should be published for each programme – otherwise, programmes are combined and the results are not as representative. For this to work, programmes need high participation! Each programme needs 23 respondents AND a 50% response rate to be published at the most specific level; small programmes with less than 23 students still need high participation to provide accurate representation at subject level. YOUR RESPONSE MATTERS.

8. When and how can you fill in the survey? The NSS survey at Newcastle University opens on 4 February 2013. You will receive an email from Ipsos MORI with a link to the survey. You can complete the survey online or on your smartphone. You can also go to www.thestudentsurvey.com

9. Extra Incentives for Participation (in addition to the importance of providing feedback!) For Schools - Compete against other Schools! The five subject areas with the highest response rates will win a cash prize to spend however their SSC sees fit – maybe to throw a pizza party, take a trip, or buy something that the student body needs. Prizes will be as follows: 1 st - £500; 2 nd - £400; 3 rd - £300; 4 th - £200; 5 th - £100 For Individuals – Fifteen students who complete the survey will be chosen at random to receive £50 each.