What do accounting students say about teaching staff?
Published May 12, 2024 · Updated Feb 25, 2026
teaching staffaccountingTeaching staff are a clear strength for accounting courses, but students’ comments show where confidence erodes: assessment clarity and timetable stability. This article summarises what they value most, where frustration builds, and the practical changes that can improve sentiment quickly.
In the National Student Survey (NSS), the Teaching Staff theme attracts 78.3% positive comments with a sentiment index of +52.8. Within the Common Aggregation Hierarchy grouping for accounting, the tone around Teaching Staff is also strong at +43.9.
Even with this positive baseline, feedback dominates accounting students’ comments (10.8% share), and scheduling/timetabling sentiment trends negative at −22.0. Teaching Staff captures students’ experience of interactions with lecturers and tutors, while the Common Aggregation Hierarchy enables like-for-like benchmarking of subjects across UK providers.
How did we gather these insights?
We analysed surveys, interviews, and feedback forms from accounting students, using multiple touchpoints across the year to track changes. Mixed methods capture a broad, diverse cohort and show how teaching practice and staff interactions shape learning. Using established student channels increased participation and helped ensure the findings reflect what students experience day to day.
What do students value about teaching staff?
Students highlight subject expertise, enthusiasm, and availability. They value approachable staff and detailed, individual feedback that helps them master complex concepts. When staff adapt materials, offer extra sessions, and keep communication consistent, students stay engaged and trust modules that demand cumulative understanding.
Where do teaching styles fall short?
Students describe an over-reliance on theory without enough practice. Large lectures that repeat content can reduce engagement. Accounting cohorts respond better to worked exemplars, case studies, live problem-solving, and interactive elements, especially when staff clearly link topics to assessment and professional standards, which aligns with accounting students’ perspectives on teaching delivery.
Which support systems enable better teaching?
Targeted academic development, up-to-date learning resources, and streamlined admin support free up staff time for teaching and feedback. Visible availability, predictable drop-ins, and timely responses improve students’ ability to act on advice. Extending support for part-time and commuting students through out-of-hours options and asynchronous Q&A summaries helps make provision equitable across the cohort.
How should feedback and assessment work in accounting?
Feedback makes up the largest share of accounting comments (10.8%), so clarity is pivotal for assessment methods and marking criteria. Students want annotated exemplars aligned to the marking criteria, checklist-style rubrics that show what good looks like, and published turnaround standards. When criteria feel opaque or timing is unpredictable, motivation dips and students struggle to calibrate their work for the next assessment.
How does organisation affect learning?
Timetabling changes and fragmented communications undermine learning rhythms, consistent with negative student tone on scheduling. A single source of truth for timetable updates, brief weekly “what changed and why” notes, and visible ownership of decisions reduce friction and help students plan, while protecting the positive experience students report with teaching staff.
What changes move sentiment fastest?
- Protect what works: keep staff presence visible around assessments, maintain approachable office hours, and keep module communications predictable.
- Make assessment transparent: publish exemplars, align rubrics to criteria, and set realistic, trackable expectations for feedback turnaround.
- Prioritise applied learning: embed worked examples, real cases, and simulations to connect theory to professional practice.
- Stabilise operations: centralise timetable messaging and summarise changes promptly so students can plan.
- Measure and close the loop: track sentiment by programme and cohort, review outliers regularly, and tell students what you changed and why.
How Student Voice Analytics helps you
Student Voice Analytics gives you continuous visibility of Teaching Staff comments and sentiment over time, with drill-downs from provider to subject family and programme. Compare like-for-like with other accounting provision, segment by mode and cohort, and export concise summaries for programme and departmental briefings. The platform flags where feedback, assessment methods, and timetabling are dragging sentiment, and shows whether your changes shift the dial ahead of the next NSS cycle.
Explore Student Voice Analytics to monitor Teaching Staff sentiment and prioritise improvements to feedback and organisation.
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