Enhancing the Student Experience

I was one of the people lucky enough to be invited to the launch of the CUBO Student Living Survey last week. The eagerly awaited research is the result of the largest ever student survey and covers all aspects of the student experience, monitoring what they expect, what they like and where they are disappointed by their current lot. The aim, obviously being to identify areas in need of attention.

The research was conducted by i-graduate and sampled more than 66,000 students. Questions covered issues from catering to accommodation and leisure facilities and, as international students are key to He strategy, the results are neatly split to identify the difference in perceptions between domestic students and students from overseas – for those willing to look closely, the results are even split by nationality, making this an invaluable Bible for your strategic planning.

To give you a sneak at the results, caterers came off with one of the most difficult tasks as students revealed they were dissatisfied with the service they received at universities. As Louise from i-graduate explained in her presentation, students expect all of the aspirational trappings to be found on the high street – Fairtrade, organic and locally sourced options – at a fraction of the price.

An area identified as important to overseas students was safety and security. Fortunately, this was also shown to be one of the areas with which students are satisfied with.

The research shows decisively that the student experience is about more than education. As Dennis Hopper said in his introduction to the report, the student experience is about living and learning.

For more information visit www.cubo.org.uk