Art & Design receives ratings on a number of scales of the UK's National Student Survey (NSS) that are less strong than those for some other subject areas. Art & Design, along with performing arts, is characterised by a relatively high level of part-time (PT) staffing. PT staffing data are set against NSS ratings for post-92 universities…

This article reports on the ways that a group of third-year undergraduate art and design students conceptualise the pedagogy they experience on their course. This study is part of broader research funded by the Group for Learning in Art and Design (GLAD) and the Higher Education Academy (HEA) that employs qualitative interviewing approaches to…

Students' sense of "belongingness" and their engagement in academic study have been identified as key contributors to student success. A short instrument that can identify changes over time in students' sense of belonging to their institution, their academic engagement and their self-confidence has been developed and used in conjunction…

This article reports on a survey of the expectations and experiences of first-year students who were enrolled in 2010 on programmes in Art & Design in the United Kingdom. The survey covered 20 institutions and received 778 usable responses. The results indicate considerable variation in both expectations and experiences, and provide a basis…

The outcomes of surveys of "the student experience" that are sector-wide, such as the National Student Survey in the UK and the Course Experience Questionnaire in Australia, are of considerable significance for intending students and institutions. Whilst they may satisfy psychometric criteria, some aspects of their design have been…

Government policy around the world is heavily influenced by a human capital perspective. Education systems are pressed towards developing young people for their roles in the labour market: in the UK this is signalled in the term employability. Curricula differ in the ways in which they respond. Data are provided from three recent UK surveys that…

Surveys of students who had prematurely left six institutions of higher education in England during 1994-1996 generated 2,151 responses. Six main factors, led by dissatisfaction with the quality of the student experience, contributed to their non-completion. Other factors included wrong choice of field of study, age, gender, and academic subject…