Imperial comes bottom in Times Higher Ed. Student Experience Survey for ‘fair workload’

Yesterday saw College coming in 43rd place in the Times Higher Education (THE) Student Experience Survey 2014. Ranked on 21 different attributes, from the strength of the students’ union to the fairness of the workload, the data was gathered by YouthSight over the course of last academic year.

While College came 43rd out of 111 higher education institutions, it was also ranked joint first (with the University of Bath) for ‘good industrial connections’, while simultaneously ranking joint last (with the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge) for ‘fair workload’.

With an above average number of respondents (142 students), College ranked above average on many aspects, but lagged behind on aspects areas such as ‘good social life’, ‘good community atmosphere’, ‘Good personal relationship with teaching staff’.

In a debate hosted by the THE and attended Union Deputy President (Education) Natalie Kempston, some panel members suggested the creation of a “Teaching Excellence Framework” to assess the quality of teaching in Higher Education Institutions, similar to the Research Excellence Framework which is currently in place, while others sought to enhance existing systems.