{"id":6253,"date":"2015-03-03T08:27:12","date_gmt":"2015-03-03T08:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=6253"},"modified":"2015-03-03T08:27:12","modified_gmt":"2015-03-03T08:27:12","slug":"more-on-sustainability-and-the-national-student-survey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2015\/03\/03\/more-on-sustainability-and-the-national-student-survey\/","title":{"rendered":"More on Sustainability and the National Student Survey"},"content":{"rendered":"

I've written before<\/a> about attempts to shoe-horn a focus on\u00a0sustainability into the UK's influential National Student Survey [NSS] question set, and I've usually been rather dismissive of any likelihood of this coming to pass. \u00a0Well, it seems I was right, and wrong.<\/p>\n

The UK funding bodies are currently reviewing the NSS. \u00a0They\u00a0are considering making changes to\u00a0the survey\u2019s optional question banks, and it is here that sustainability (or \"environmental sustainability\" as HEFCE now has to call it to keep its CEO sweet) has been raised as a potential area. \u00a0These optional banks are not part of the core survey and getting questions included isn\u2019t a foregone conclusion as there are bound to be lots of other areas scrabbling for inclusion \u2013 ICT springs to mind.<\/p>\n

None of it will get reported publicly, so you have to wonder what's the point. \u00a0However,\u00a0if this is<\/em> going to happen, I think questions\u00a0ought to be about how a student's time at the university has influenced them, and how they feel prepared for the next stage of their career (and life). \u00a0Because of this, I'd focus on outcomes, rather than seeking\u00a0opinions about infrastructure and community-engagement, etc, or reflections about opportunities for getting involved.<\/p>\n

So, how about these ...<\/p>\n