The document provides guidance for students on completing the Gloucestershire Student Survey (GSS). It explains that the GSS is an internal student satisfaction survey for undergraduates in their penultimate year used to gather feedback similar to the National Student Survey. It encourages students to complete the simple online survey to help the university improve by developing action plans to address issues. The survey covers topics like teaching, assessment, academic support, course organization, learning resources, and personal development. It provides details on how to respond to different question types and reminds students that all responses will be anonymous.

1. A Guide to
Completing the GSS
(Gloucestershire
Student Survey)

2. What is the GSS?
 An internal student satisfaction survey for
undergraduates in their penultimate year of
study.
 This survey uses the same questions as the
National Student Survey (NSS).
 An online survey accessed by an personalised
link
 It is simple to complete and should only take a
few minutes of your time.

3. Why should I bother?
 Together with NSS feedback, the GSS survey
results will be used to help us improve the
quality of the experience which we offer to our
students…
 … by developing action plans to address
identified issues through the University
management system.
 Importantly, the GSS will allow us to respond to
issues before you leave the University.

4. What does the survey ask?
The survey mainly covers academic themes:
 Teaching quality
 Assessment and feedback
 Academic support
 Organisation and management of the course
 Learning resources
 Personal development

5. Completing the survey
 A personal invitation to participate will be sent to
the university connect email account of all
eligible students.
 Eligible students: all undergraduates in their
penultimate year of study at the University.
 The survey asks you to agree or disagree with a
series of statements using simple tick boxes.
 There are also open questions for positive and
negative feedback on your course.

6. Make use of the full scale in
your responses
 Don’t be afraid of the ‘Definitely’ categories at
the ends of the scale.
 Using ‘Definitely Agree’ need not mean
everything is 100% perfect. Equally, if something
is very poor use ‘Definitely Disagree’.
 If a question is not relevant mark it N/A rather
than ‘Neither agree nor disagree’.

7. Questions on Teaching:
 Do not focus on specific lecturers or modules;
reflect on teaching on the course as a whole.
 Think about your overall experience in all forms
of teaching across your three years at the
University of Gloucestershire.
For example, in lectures, tutorials, practical sessions

8. Questions on
Assessment/Feedback:
 Think about different forms of feedback:
 Written
 Verbal (crits, panels etc)
 Feedback tutorials, seminars, workshops
 Email feedback
 Informal chats with tutors

9. Questions on Academic
Support:
This includes advice and support from staff in:
Lectures, seminars, tutorials, informal
conversations, by email and any other method as
well as how easy it has been to make contact with
staff

10. Questions on Organisation and
Management:
 How well was the course structured and
managed. Was the structure of the course and
its timetabling clear and coherent?
 Did the course run smoothly?
 This question is not about the university as a
whole, but about your course

11. Questions on Learning
Resources:
This relates …
not only to access to library facilities: books,
journals, web resources and databases etc
but also: studio facilities, technical equipment,
software and computing facilities in your specialist
areas as well as the Library.

12. Questions on Personal
Development:
 How have you developed as an individual
during the course? How has your selfconfidence grown over the past three years?
How have your communication and
interpersonal skills developed and so on.
 This might relate particularly to work placement,
and other external opportunities and to activities
promoting professional skills.

13. Open Comments/Students
Union
 There is an opportunity at the end of the survey
to comment on aspects of your course and your
time at the university and to give feedback on
the work of your Students Union.
 This is the place to comment on more general
aspects of your experience, outside your
course.

14. Will my response be anonymous?
 All data collected will be held securely and all
survey results will be presented in an
aggregated and anonymised form. So the
response you give is entirely confidential.
 The personalised survey links allows us to track
which students have, or have not, completed
the survey so that we can issue reminders to
the right people. Results analysis will NOT
identify individuals.