Don't fill out the NSS!

[Stop the Cuts]

A website has been set up where final year Sussex students can now pledge not to fill in the National Student Survey. A tally will be kept of the number of students who sign up and this information presented to university management. The survey is open until April meaning that there is plenty of time for management to change their position on these ill-considered cuts such that this sort of student action need not be necessary. There are no repercussions for students not filling out the survey.

Pledge not to fill out the NSS here.

The NSS is a very poor substitute for genuine student engagement in how our university is run. University managers fixate on the survey results – sometimes resorting to dubious tactics to improve their scores – and this increasingly overtakes common sense about what makes a good university experience. For example, at Leeds University, NSS results have been used to justify proposals to cut 700 staff: one analysis claimed that “there is no clear link between student-staff ratios and student satisfaction as measured by the National Student Survey.”

At the AGM this year, students voted to boycott the NSS if necessary as part of our response to the proposed cuts. If 50% of students don’t fill out the survey then it does not get ratified and the results are not used.

For more information on why students are being asked not to fill out the NSS see here.
Facebook group here.