The Department of Politics and International Studies (PAIS) is delighted to announce that we have reclaimed our place as number 1 for overall student satisfaction in the Russell Group in the 2020 National Student Survey (NSS). *

Other highlights amongst our Russell Group peers include:

• 1st for Assessment and Feedback
• 1st for Organisation and Management
• 1st for Learning Resources
• 1st for Student Voice
• 2nd for academic support

The 2020 results show that we are in 1st or 2nd place in the Russell Group for 6 of the 9 NSS categories, 1st on 12 questions and in the top 3 on 18 of the 27 questions.

With 5 years in either 1st or 2nd place on overall student satisfaction amongst the Russell Group, these results demonstrate our partnership with the student body and our sustained commitment to the student experience.

In the 2020 NSS our BA Politics degree received 95% overall satisfaction. Across all programmes with which we are involved - both single and joint honours - we achieved 88%. The Russell Group average for Politics was 79.65%.

These impressive outcomes are due to an outstanding team effort among our fantastic students, academic 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 in which has been a very challenging year for all concerned.

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 feedback 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 and building a sense of community and belonging. We will support and promote student wellbeing and work with partner Departments to ensure continued excellence across all programmes, in particular joint degrees.

*See the Office for Students website for more details and the full data. The results are based on the official Common Aggregation Hierarchy (CAH) subject breakdowns and the 20 Russell Group institutions which met the publications threshold for Politics.