National Student Survey 2019: Results for Law

The results from the 2019 National Student Survey were released to the general public on 3 July 2019. The survey is formed of 27 questions where students are asked to rate their institution on a number of themes including teaching, learning opportunities, assessment and feedback, academic support and learning resources. The latest survey was completed by over 300,000 full-time first degree graduates.

As a number of our members teach Law, the Chartered ABS has, for the first time, created a spreadsheet showing the NSS results for the field of Law. The spreadsheet can be filtered by institution and question, and features drop-down menus for each question enabling users to easily view the average scores by provider mission group and region. There is also a table which compares the results for Law with the average score across all subject areas.

If you have any feedback on this briefing or would be interested in further analysis on the subject of Law please email Ramin Bokaian, Research Manager at the Chartered ABS (ramin.bokaian@charteredabs.org).

Key findings

A total of 117 institutions provided NSS returns for Law in 2019 and the key findings for full-time first degree leavers are below.

The vast majority of Law students are happy with the quality of their course

• The proportion of Law students agreeing that they were satisfied with the quality of their course was 84%, which is marginally higher than the average level of satisfaction across all subject areas (83%).

Law students are more likely than students on other courses to agree that their course is intellectually stimulating, but less likely to agree that staff have made the subject interesting

• The percentage of Law students agreeing that they were satisfied with the teaching on their course was 85%, exactly in line with the average satisfaction level across all subjects.
• The proportion of Law students agreeing that their course was intellectually stimulating was 88%, which is above the average for all subjects of 85%. However, the proportion of students agreeing that staff had made the subject interesting was 2% lower than the average for all subjects.
• There was a high level of agreement with the statement that staff were good at explaining things, with 90% of respondents believing this to be the case, which compares favourably with the average of 89% observed for all fields.

Law students report lower levels of satisfaction for learning opportunities, particularly in relation to the scope to incorporate information from other subjects

• The average score of 80% for the questions related to learning opportunities was 3% lower than the average for all subjects, driven by lower levels of agreement with several statements.
• The proportion of Law students agreeing with the statement that their course has provided them with opportunities to bring information and ideas together from different topics was 79%, significantly lower than the 85% recorded across all subjects.
• Compared to the average for all fields Law students also expressed slightly lower levels of agreement with the statements that their course had provided opportunities to explore ideas or concepts in depth and opportunities to apply what they have learnt.

Law students are less satisfied than their counterparts in other subjects in relation to assessment and feedback and academic support

• The percentage of Law students agreeing that the marking and assessment on their course had been fair was 69%, compared to the average of 73% for courses across all subjects.
• The levels of agreement are markedly lower in relation to receiving helpful comments on their work, with 69% agreeing this was the case, which falls short of the 75% average for students from all fields.
• Three-quarters of respondents from Law courses agreed that they had received sufficient advice and guidance in relation to their course, compared to an average of 79% for respondents across all fields. Similarly, the proportion of respondents agreeing that good advice was available when they needed to make study choices on their course was 6% lower than for all fields.

Levels of satisfaction for course management and learning resources compare favourably with the average for all subjects, but Law students are less likely to be satisfied in the area of learning community

• The average score of 75% for the questions related to organisation and management was identical to the average for all subjects, and the proportion agreeing that their course is well-organised is 4% higher.
• For the learning resources questions the average score was 85%, with Law students reporting marginally higher levels of agreement with the statements that library resources had supported their learning well and that they had been able to access course-specific resources when needed.
• The overall score for the learning community questions was 70%, which is 7% lower than the average for all subjects. The proportion of Law students reporting that they felt part of a community of staff and students was 5% lower, and the proportion believing they had the right opportunities to work with other students was 10% lower.