StudentSurvey.ie
***Please note StudentSurvey.ie is not running in Ireland in 2024 and 2025 as it is being redesigned. Updates will be provided when available***
StudentSurvey.ie is Ireland's national survey of first and final year undergraduate and taught postgraduate students. The survey asks students about their experiences of higher education and is designed to inform developments within institutions while also providing a national set of data.
Since the survey launched in 2013 almost 245,000 students in Irish third-level institutions have taken the survey. The survey was revised in 2016 with almost 30,000 UCD student responses received since then.
The UCD Dean of Students is the academic lead for the survey at UCD and UCD Institutional Research manages the survey fieldwork and analysis and dissemination of survey results.
This section explores:
- the objectives of StudentSurvey.ie
- data analysis
- key findings and infographics
More detailed reports are available on the UCD Institutional Research Intranet or by contacting the team.
For information on PGR StudentSurvey.ie, the survey of postgraduate research students, contact UCD Graduate Studies.
Overview and Objectives
The objectives of the survey include:
| To increase transparency in relation to the student experience in higher education institutions | ||||||||
| To enable direct student input on levels of engagement and satisfaction with their higher education institution | ||||||||
| To identify good practice that enhances the student experience | ||||||||
| To assist institutions to identify issues and challenges affecting the student experience | ||||||||
| To serve as a guide for continual enhancement of institutions’ teaching and learning and student engagement | ||||||||
| To document the experiences of the student population, thus enabling year on year comparisons of key performance indicators | ||||||||
| To provide insight into student opinion on important issues of higher education policy and practice | ||||||||
| To facilitate comparison with other higher education systems internationally. |
The survey contains 45 questions organised into ten indicators, see graphic below. A number of non-indicator questions are also included and institutions have the option of choosing a Topical Module question bank.
StudentSurvey.ie Indicators
Data Analysis
UCD Institutional Research supports the survey fieldwork during weeks 5, 6 and 7 of trimester 2 each year. Following the release of the data to the institution, we engage in a comprehensive quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data, producing a variety of reports to share the survye findings with students, staff and faculty:
| UCD level report |
| College reports |
| Programme-area reports |
| Unit/theme specific reports |
| Trend reports |
| Qualitative analysis reports |
| Other ad-hoc reports as requested |
Reports are circulated to UCD management, programme and College academic and management leads and to the UCD Students' Union. We attend a variety of university and local board and executive meetings to present on the data to colleagues.
