Eligible students invited to take part in the National Student Survey

In the next few days, students who are eligible will receive an email invitation to take part in the National Student Survey (NSS) and we strongly encourage you to participate.

If you wish to find out more about the survey please visit: www.thestudentsurvey.com. All feedback received from this survey is anonymous.

Just so you are aware every completed entry will be entered into a FREE prize draw to win one of 10 x £50 Amazon vouchers.

This last year has been probably the most challenging ever for students the world over. We recognise the huge impact that the Coronavirus pandemic has had on your studies and your university experience. We know that sadly many of you will have suffered losses of family and friends and that your own health and wellbeing may have been affected. We would like to thank you for your contribution to our collective efforts to maintain the COVID-security of our campuses and the safety of our University community. Students have played a key role as partners in managing the University's response to the pandemic both in adapting our learning and teaching and student support and in the contribution that the University has made to the regional and national effort. This year, more than ever your feedback matters and for this reason we are strongly encouraging you to participate in this year's National Student Survey.

Like all universities, we have had to make significant changes to the ways in which we teach and assess during the pandemic. All the changes that we have been made have been driven by two fundamental principles, firstly to ensure the safety and well-being of our students and secondly to continue to ensure, as far as possible, the quality of your learning experience and thus the integrity of your qualifications. As a result, we made a move to blended approaches combining online and face-to-face learning. For us our students always come first, so we spent the last summer reflecting on our preparedness in making the campus COVID-secure and developing resources to support your learning. We launched initiatives like the Laptop Loan Scheme; Let's Talk About (virtual Student wellbeing sessions), online skills sessions and the online Inclusive Careers conference. We have changed our assessment regulations so that students who are graduating this year will be classified over their best 120 rather than 180 credits, moved to a trust basis for extensions and deferrals and adapted assessments as needed to accommodate the realities of the 'new normal'. We have kept our physical libraries open as much as possible, extended our digital library collections and suspended recalls and fines during lockdown periods.

At Wolverhampton, we see our students as "co-creators" and we are very keen to capture your thoughts on your overall experience. As you enter Semester 2 of your final year, soon you will graduate and so just before you leave the University embarking on your future career, we would very much welcome your feedback reflecting on your time with us.

During your time at university you have hopefully taken up the range of opportunities to provide feedback to us and have seen the changes that have been made in response to your feedback. This will have included feedback on modules, feedback to student reps and course committees but perhaps most importantly just talking to Academic Coaches, tutors, lecturers and support staff. The NSS is an opportunity to reflect upon your experience over all your years of study.

Just as you think about the value of completing the survey, let us highlight to you that we read all of your ratings and comments carefully as it helps us to identify what went well and what needs to be improved to make the student experience at Wolverhampton second to none. The results are scrutinised at an institutional level which leads to identification of broader issues as well as academic and support service departments analysing comments specifically related to them. This approach allows us to make meaningful improvements as for us at Wolverhampton our students always come first!

Finally, with the encouraging news of the vaccine rollout, we very much hope that we will be able to celebrate your achievements at our graduation ceremonies in the autumn. In the meantime, please stay safe and best of luck for the remainder of your final year.

Geoff Layer                               Julia Clarke

Vice-Chancellor                         Deputy Vice-Chancellor