The Department of Politics and International Studies (PAIS) is thrilled to announce that, for the third year in a row, we are placed 1^st for “overall student satisfaction” among Russell Group Politics Departments in the 2022 National Student Survey (NSS). This is a position that we are proud to have held for 5 out of the past 7 years.

In the NSS 2022, PAIS came top in every category among Russell Group Politics Departments for the second year in a row.

• 1^st for Teaching
• 1^st for Learning Opportunities
• 1^st for Assessment and Feedback
• 1^st for Organisation and Management
• 1^st for Learning Resources
• 1^st for Learning Community
• 1^st for Student Voice
• 1^st for Academic Support

The 2022 results show that we are 1^st in the Russell Group on 20 of the 27 NSS questions and in 2^nd place on a further 5 questions.

For seven years in a row, PAIS has ranked either 1^st or 2^nd on overall student satisfaction amongst the Russell Group. The 2022 outcomes reflect our best ever performance across all categories in our peer group; they demonstrate our close and effective partnership with the student body and our sustained commitment to the student experience.

Across all programmes with which we are involved - both single and joint honours - we achieved 87% overall satisfaction (an increase of 3% on last year). The Russell Group average for Politics was 73%.

These impressive outcomes are due to an outstanding team effort among our fantastic students, academics, and professional services colleagues, and demonstrate a partnership which we are extremely proud of. Thank you to everyone for all your hard work and support for our teaching and student experience during a very challenging few years for all concerned. We are pleased that our approach to blended delivery during restrictions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, along with our move back to in person teaching, was appreciated by our students and we will continue to learn from student feedback to further enhance the student experience in 2022/23.

We look forward to continuing to work in partnership with our amazing students and dedicated staff to sustain and build on these strong results, which reflect our deep commitment to research-led teaching excellence. At the start of the new academic year, we will feed back in greater detail to all students and we will discuss and take forward ideas for further enhancement of the PAIS student experience via our Student Staff Liaison Committees (SSLCs).

In particular, we will intensify our work on liberating and decolonising the curriculum, employability and skills, and building a sense of community and belonging. We will work with partner Departments to ensure continued excellence across all programmes, in particular joint degrees.

*See the Office for Students websiteLink opens in a new window for more details and the full data. The results are based on the official Common Aggregation Hierarchy (CAH) subject breakdowns and the 21 Russell Group institutions which met the publications threshold for Politics.