Key Findings and Action Points from the 2022 Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES)
As postgraduate taught (PGT) provision continues to expand throughout the sector, providers will seek the latest evidence and ideas on driving enhancement in student experience. Implementing strategies and initiatives that seek to bolster postgraduate satisfaction will enable providers to maintain quality and remain attractive to prospects in an increasingly competitive market.
Unfortunately for those focused on postgraduate student satisfaction, National Student Survey (NSS) data doesn’t cover the postgraduate student. However, since 2009, providers have been participating in Advance HE’s Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES).
The survey aims to bring together data that can effectively inform enhancement to postgraduate taught provision and give providers the opportunity to benchmark their performance against others. The survey questions focus on 5 key areas of student experience:
Teaching and learning
Engagement
Assessment and feedback
Organisation and management
Skills development
It also offers institutions the opportunity to add their own custom questions, to better understand the specificities of their provision.
The most recent iteration of the survey in 2022 saw participation from over 80,000 postgraduate students across 91 institutions. The findings suggest general trends across the sector and provide food for thought for institutions looking to enhance the postgraduate experience.
To help you navigate the data and understand what it might mean for your institution, this article highlights 5 key action areas you can focus on to improve the postgraduate experience, informed by the findings of the report. We bring together examples from across the sector of providers delivering innovative interventions to enhance the student experience.
Defining Delivery – Online, In-Person or Hybrid?
Support for Distance and Part-Time Learners
Enhancing Assessment Experiences for Younger Students
An Intersectional Approach to Delivery
Resourcing Appropriately for Teaching Provision
Defining Delivery – Online, In-Person or Hybrid?
What the Findings Say
If we had to pick out just one major trend from the 2022 PTES, it would be that PGT satisfaction is bouncing back to pre-pandemic levels, with an overall satisfaction rate of 82%. This aligns well with the fact that teaching delivery mostly shifted to a blended or in-person model after being largely online during the pandemic, with students returning to campus and universities retaining elements of online teaching that worked well. However, some students still saw teaching delivered mostly or completely online.
The findings of the report indicate that blended learning has been adapted and adopted following lessons from the pandemic, allowing institutions, academics and students alike greater flexibility. However, the survey did reveal that satisfaction rates were significantly lower for students on courses intended to be delivered in-person but, in reality, received most or all of their teaching online.
A great deal of this has to do with the expectations students have of the postgraduate experience. After all, postgraduates are the ‘repeat’ customers of HE (having likely already completed an undergraduate degree), and often have a stronger sense of what they wish to get out of their course than undergraduates.
Action Points
Being realistic with students about what they can and should expect can help to mitigate disappointment when delivery doesn’t meet those expectations. If there is chance that in-person delivery could be moved online in response to issues such as industrial disputes, students should be well aware of this possibility.
You might also consider how you can provide alternative forms of support to students who are not receiving in-person delivery as expected. For example, where teaching is moved online, you could organise and book space for a group study session that students can attend, so they can make sure that they get that interaction with peers even if their contact hours are not in-person.
Support for Distance and Part-Time Learners
What the Findings Say
A significant finding of the 2022 PTES was that distance and part-time learners were generally less satisfied with their PGT experience and reported loneliness and isolation. This applied to both teaching and learning and pastoral support, as these students felt that they were not receiving sufficient support for their health and wellbeing. For example, the level of disagreement with the question on support and wellbeing grew from 9.4% in 2021 to 11.2% in 2022 among distance learners.
Action Points
There are many solutions you can explore in this area. One might be to consider the perspectives of these learners and the kinds of academic and vocational skills they’re aiming to develop on their course, and then design delivery around that. Oxford Brookes, for example, offer a distance learning course in International Education that is specifically designed around the needs, workloads and time commitments of teachers.
You might also point these students to other tools that will help them to orient their studies around other commitments, such as the VARK Questionnaire or the Index of Learning Styles. By getting learners to identify their preferred learning styles, they can apply this to their individual study, and you can also strive to personalise learning experiences for them.
Making sure distance and part-time PGT students know what to expect from their experience is also key. Consider running targeted events, like the University of Central Lancashire’s virtual open evening, in order to provide helpful and support Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG).
To explore further innovations, see our blog article on how to support mature learners and our guidance on embedding wellbeing into a blended learning environment.
Enhancing Assessment Experiences for Younger Students
What the Findings Say
In its 2022 iteration, the PTES indicated that mature learners generally had more favourable opinions on assessment in their PGT experience than their younger peers. The report suggests that this is because older learners, many of whom are returning to education after professional experience, have advanced skills and confidence, understand that assessment is a vital part of the learning experience and, consequently, are more likely to obtain successful outcomes.
If this is the case, then the question for institutions is: how can we support younger students to develop the same skills, confidence and understanding as our mature students on PGT courses?
Action Points
A potential solution to this challenge could be the integration of authentic assessment on courses. Authentic assessment is a way of evaluating students’ progress by asking them to apply newly acquired knowledge and skills to realistic scenarios.
The University of Liverpool understand this well, and their Centre for Innovation in Education hosts a range of case studies exploring how the institution has implemented authentic assessment. While many of these focus on undergraduate study, they can provide some inspiration as to how PGT study can incorporate authentic assessment. For example, the case study of the consultancy-led assessment in Geography and Environmental sciences explores how non-vocational disciplines can assess students in a way that mimics the real life scenarios they might encounter as graduates.
By implementing authentic assessment, you can support younger PGT students to, like mature learners, understand assessment as a key part of the learning journey that will equip them with the necessary skills and abilities to be successful graduates.
Other solutions to improving assessment satisfaction for PGTs might include creating resources or a ‘survival guide’ for students, completing an annual review alongside students of assessment and feedback practices, and providing tailored study skills session that will prepare them for the kinds of assessment they will be expected to undergo.
An Intersectional Approach to Delivery
What the Findings Say
Another key takeaway from the 2022 PTES was how the interaction between different forms of inequality could have a negative impact on experience. The report highlighted in particular how students from minoritised ethnic backgrounds and those who declared disability experienced lower satisfaction than their peers.
The report also revealed how, among students who selected the ‘prefer not to say’ option under demographic questions, satisfaction was considerably lower.
Action Points
So, how to respond to these challenges? One potential solution is Universal Design for Learning (UDL). This approach understands that all learners arrive at university with distinct abilities and experiences and aims to provide a variety of ways that students can engage with the course to suit this diversity. This could include:
Representing information in a variety of ways, such as diagrams, illustrations and glossaries
Offering a range of assessment and feedback options
Inviting students to collaborate on course design, so you can understand the specific challenges they face and design learning opportunities to accommodate their needs
For some great examples of how UDL can be implemented in a university setting, see Newcastle University’s range of case studies. Or, if you’re looking for something that specifically explores how UDL has been implemented in a postgraduate setting, see the following research paper from the US, which explores how a member of teaching staff used UDL to structure a research methods module with positive outcomes for students and staff.
Ultimately, the main purpose of UDL is to create a learning experience that is accessible for all students. By implementing it in a PGT setting, you can ensure that students who experience an intersection of different inequalities – such as disability and ethnicity – can access materials and learn in a way that accommodates the challenges they face.
Similarly, by designing a course that suits all abilities and backgrounds, you can strive to support even those students who prefer not to disclose certain identity characteristics.
And this theory doesn’t only apply to teaching and learning scenarios; it can also be implemented in support services. For further guidance on this, see Dr Sitara Akram’s HE Professional article on the philosophy of integrated service design.
Resourcing Appropriately for Teaching Provision
What the Findings Say
As noted in the 2022 PTES report, there has been a considerable expansion of PGT study across the UK HE sector, with a growing number of students. It also notes how it expects this expansion to continue with a renewed focus on overseas recruitment as a source of revenue for universities while home undergraduate fees fall in real terms.
However, this rapid growth and focus on international recruitment aligns with a general downward trend in satisfaction rates for UK, Africa and EU domiciled students. While the report does not conclude that expansion is negatively impacting PGT student experience, it does suggest that it is a concern for courses that don’t have the resources to meet the challenges of that growth.
Action Points
In order to uphold a high quality and satisfying experience for PGT students, it’s important to ensure these programmes have sufficient resourcing. While this may be more challenging for some institutions than others – for example, smaller, specialist providers may have less resources than larger universities – one strategy can be to support those delivering teaching and learning with this growth in student numbers.
Newcastle University’s Effective Practice series provides a range of resources for teaching staff. One module focuses on guidance for large group teaching, covering different modes of delivery such as in-person, online and flipped teaching. It also brings together helpful resources that academic staff can share with students to help them develop their own skills, such as note-taking in lectures.
Not only that, but their case studies are also useful. One explains how a particular module was successfully moved from in-person to online delivery for a large cohort, with positive testimonials from students – a potential solution if you are struggling with resourcing due to PGT delivery expansion.
Developing resources like these can be a helpful way to support academic staff in the delivery of PGT teaching, especially as student numbers and courses grow.
A Positive Experience for All Students
As PGT study continues to grow throughout the UK HE sector, delivering a positive student experience will be crucial for providers looking to stay competitive in the market. The potential solutions in this article respond to the findings of the latest PTES, with the hope that, as delivery expands, student experience can be prioritised.
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