College student satisfaction on the rise

Student Satisfaction and Engagement Survey 2021-22

Statistics Publication Schedule

College student satisfaction is on the rise as Scotland’s colleges come out of COVID. That’s according to new statistics published today by the Scottish Funding Council.

This year, the Student Satisfaction and Engagement Survey (SSES) for 2021-22 was carried out over an eight-week period between 7 March and 29 April 2022.

In total nine out of 10 full-time students were satisfied with their college experience.

31,970 college students took part in the survey with 92.7% full-time further education students and 93.9% of part-time further education students saying they were satisfied with their college experience.

Overall satisfaction levels have increased in 2021-22 compared to 2020-21 with an increase of 4.1% for
full-time further education students, 5.4% increase for full-time higher education students, 1.7% increase for part-time further education students and a 5.0% increase for part-time higher education students. These increases take satisfaction back to near pre-pandemic levels.

The academic year was again non-typical as COVID impacted learning and teaching particularly at the start of the year with more online learning than face to face. However, teaching was not as severely disrupted as it was during 2020-21. SFC continued to work with colleges to support students to complete their courses successfully and to ensure students did not lose out because of the difficult circumstances surrounding their studies.

James Dunphy, Director of Access, Learning and Outcomes at the Scottish Funding Council, said:

“As the sector continues to come out of COVID it is encouraging to see Scotland’s college student satisfaction on the rise again even as the most recent academic year was still impacted by the pandemic with more online learning.

“While these statistics are positive, there is still more work to do to improve student satisfaction and ensure that the college experience is enhanced for students. This work is being led by college leadership teams and their staff and we look forward to working closely with the sector over the next year to further drive enhancement of the student experience.”

The SSES provides a means to evaluate and enhance college provision in Scotland through monitoring student satisfaction and engagement at a national level. Over time, this will provide a consistent basis for college regions to show improvements within their outcome agreements with SFC.