The University of Lincoln’s National Student Survey results have seen the institution ranked in the top quarter of the UK for undergraduate student satisfaction in 2012.
The best result came from the University’s accountancy course which, for the fourth year running, was rated as the best of its kind in the UK. Several more courses were rated in the top ten for their specific area.
The Linc asked students in Lincoln what they thought about the results and how they felt about the university. Journalism student, Daniel Baker said: “They have looked after me through tough times and are supporting my needs well.”
Graduate, Simon McKnight said: “It totally deserves it. There have been things it has been criticised for in the past like the accommodation fiasco, but everywhere has issues. To end up with a top-end degree that you get from Lincoln, they are worth it.
“I wouldn’t be working in the industry now if it wasn’t for Lincoln.”
Applied biomedical science student, Janay Gibbons said: “No university is perfect. I have heard lots of bad stories about other universities, but I think Lincoln is as good as it gets.”
So while it seems a lot of students have nothing but positive words to say about the university, it seems that when it comes to student satisfaction, the University of Lincoln doesn’t have it all covered.
History student, Loryn Jade Good said: “My course scored quite well [in the NSS], but feedback is still a massive issue. The three working weeks return does not happen at all, it’s always a month, if not two for some of our assessments.
“I have to admit, if you have a small piece like a 1,000 word commentary or presentation, feedback turnaround is good but, for the larger pieces, it literally takes forever.”
International student, Alexis Davey said: “This university can be a joke sometimes. I’m paying £11,000 and I haven’t even got a timetable yet.
“With the amount of money that I am paying as an international student, you’d think they’d get that right. What’s worse is that I have a British passport and, even though I live in Malaysia, I am still counted as international. It’s baffling!”
Third year journalism student, Jess Mason: “My timetable this year was completely wrong, I wasn’t getting any correspondences from my chosen modules and the people in charge of the timetabling wouldn’t even let me know when my actual modules are.
“But everything else I must admit is amazing! It’s a great university, they just need to be a little more organised.”
So it would seem while the university scored highly, there are still areas that could do with improvements.
The University of Lincoln Students’ Unions Vice-President of Academic Affairs, Wesley Wells said: “The Union would like to congratulate the university on their efforts in student satisfaction, especially on those courses which have made improvements internally which may not be reflected on the national scale.
“There are areas for improvement and we’ll use the rep system to ensure individual courses are looked at through subject committees. We hope to know a bit more when the schools release their NSS annual action plan in response to the survey.”
Wells added: “The Union will be concentrating on its own performance and will be trawling through the comments to find any key themes from the data.”