The Department of Politics and International Studies (PAIS) is thrilled to announce that we are No 1 again among Russell Group Politics Departments, in the National Student Survey (NSS). *

Our average positivity score was top of the Russell Group and 7.84% above the Russell Group average.

In terms of programmes where PAIS is the home department, our scores went up in EVERY category/theme of the NSS. This includes:

• Learning Resources, 94.39%
• Academic Support, 91.71%
• Teaching on my course, 91.44%
• Student Voice, 89.78%

In the NSS 2024, PAIS came top in the following categories, among Russell Group Politics Departments:

• 1st for Learning Opportunities
• 1st for Student Voice

In addition, amongst Russell Group peers, we were:

• 2nd for Organisation and Management
• 2nd for Learning Resources
• 2nd for communicating information about mental wellbeing support services

For eight years in a row, PAIS has ranked 1st for student voice. These outcomes demonstrate our close and effective partnership with the student body and our sustained commitment to the student experience.

These impressive results 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. We will continue to learn from student feedback to further enhance the student experience in 2024/5

We look forward to continuing to work in partnership with our amazing students and dedicated staff to sustain and build on these strong results. 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 decolonising the curriculum, employability and skills, academic support, and ensuring the marking criteria is as clear as possible. 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 23 Russell Group institutions which met the publications threshold for Politics.