The Department of Politics and International Studies (PAIS) is thrilled to announce that, for the third consecutive year, we are placed 1st or 2nd in ALL categories, among Russell Group Politics Departments, in the National Student Survey (NSS).

In the NSS 2023, PAIS came top in the following categories, among Russell Group Politics Departments:

• 1st for Assessment and Feedback
• 1st for Organisation and Management
• 1st for Learning Resources
• 1st for Student Voice

In addition, amongst Russell Group peers, we were:

• 1st on communicating information about mental wellbeing support services
• 2nd for Teaching
• 2nd for Learning Opportunities
• 2nd for Academic Support

For seven years in a row, PAIS has ranked 1st for student voice. This is every year since questions on the student voice were first introduced to the NSS in 2017. These outcomes reflect an impressive 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.

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 will continue to learn from student feedback to further enhance the student experience in 2023/24.

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 academic support. We will 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 22 Russell Group institutions which met the publications threshold for Politics.