Strong Degree Apprenticeship results in National Student Survey 2020

Henley Business School’s Degree Apprenticeships have been rated highly in this year’s National Student Survey (NSS) with an overall satisfaction rating of 93%.

The NSS gathers final year undergraduate students’ opinions on the quality of their courses, rating areas such as teaching, learning opportunities, the learning community, and assessment and feedback.

Our Degree Apprenticeship programme performed well, with graduates rating the teaching at 92%; learning opportunities at 91%; assessment and feedback at 90%; and the learning community at 97%.

Henley announced in 2017 that it would offer apprenticeship programmes as part of a strategic collaboration with EY, under the government’s Apprenticeship Levy initiative. This is the first time the programmes have been included in the NSS.

Our departments all scored highly in the survey in terms of overall satisfaction, with Business and Management scoring 88%; Accounting achieving 84%; Finance reaching 84%; and Real Estate and Planning being rated at 80%.

The Investment and Finance in Property course was rated very highly among recent graduates with a score of 91%, while the Management and Business (three-year non-placement) course achieved 91%.

Professor Peter Miskell, Head of Undergraduate Programmes at Henley Business School, said:

“The NSS provides an important measure of the quality of our undergraduate degrees, and we are delighted to see high levels of satisfaction across the full range of our programme areas. This is the first year that our apprenticeship students have been included in the survey, so the outstanding levels of satisfaction among that cohort is particularly pleasing. These results reflect the hard work and dedication of staff across all parts of the business school during what has been a very challenging year.”

Drew Thomas, Head of Apprenticeships at Henley Business School, said:

“We are delighted that Henley’s apprentices have rated our programmes so highly. As we enter our fourth year of apprenticeship delivery it is vitally important that our apprentices, and their employers, have an excellent Henley experience. This year’s NSS results provide us with a foundation for further development in 2021 when we will see over 1,000 apprentices undertaking programmes with us.”

The NSS is an important measure of student satisfaction. It is carried out annually by Ipsos MORI, contributes to other independent league tables, and has built a broader picture of the quality of higher education since it started in 2005.

More than 2,500 students from across the University of Reading, which Henley is part of, responded to the survey, giving the University an overall satisfaction score above the national average at 84%.