What does student feedback tell us about delivery of teaching on counselling, psychotherapy and occupational therapy courses?
Students report engaged teaching and strong staff support, but they want more predictable operations and tighter theory-practice alignment. Across the delivery of teaching category of the National Student Survey (NSS), which captures how students experience the structure, clarity and pacing of taught sessions across the sector, 60.2% of comments are positive and the sentiment index is +23.9. In counselling, psychotherapy and occupational therapy, a subjects allied to medicine family that leans on placements and applied learning, sentiment is more mixed, with 52.9% positive; placements dominate the narrative, accounting for 16.8% of comments, while scheduling carries a markedly negative tone at −34.4. These patterns explain why practical teaching often feels energising yet the operational rhythm of programmes frequently constrains learning.
What do students value about delivery of teaching?
Students often praise engaging and stimulating learning. Interactive online lectures enrich learning, and practical workshops and skills sessions enhance professional capability by giving space to apply theory in authentic scenarios. Students also commend lecturers’ expertise and the way complex concepts become usable in practice. Institutions can amplify what works by sharing micro-exemplars of effective sessions, using light-touch delivery rubrics that focus on structure, clarity, pacing and interaction, and sustaining frequent low-stakes practice.
Where do students say delivery and operations need to improve?
Students want a stronger link between taught theory and assessed practice, more focused tutor support in the final year, and timetables that allow time to absorb material. Programmes can close the part-time delivery gap by guaranteeing high-quality recordings, clear slide decks and timely release of materials. Chunk longer sessions, provide concise catch-up summaries and make assessment briefings accessible asynchronously and easy to reference. These adjustments lift clarity and help mature and part-time learners keep pace with cohorts.
Which delivery challenges disrupt learning most?
Technical failures during virtual teaching break momentum; unclear assignment instructions slow progress; reduced face-to-face time limits opportunities to build interpersonal skills; and limited time for practical skill development before placements leaves students underprepared. Given the tone of student comments about communications and scheduling, providers should tighten the operational rhythm with a single source of truth for course communications, weekly “what changed and why” updates, and visible ownership of timetables and changes.
What do students recommend we change now?
Students ask for explicit direction from staff in Year 3, more face-to-face teaching to master complex practical skills, and more reliable online delivery. They want tutorials that mirror realistic settings and clearer module expectations to prepare for assessments and professional requirements. Treat placements as a designed service: publish allocation and rota windows, confirm expectations early and make roles for supervision and feedback explicit. Make assessment expectations transparent with annotated exemplars, checklist-style rubrics aligned to marking criteria, and realistic service levels for feedback turnaround.
What are the implications for counselling and psychotherapy students?
Hands-on learning drives confidence and competence. Students value practical workshops that integrate theory and practice, and they benefit when supervised sessions expand to include realistic scenarios. Programme teams can collaborate with professional bodies, introduce simulated practice that challenges application and empathy, and embed regular pulse checks after key teaching blocks to test whether delivery changes shift the experience for different modes and age groups.
What must providers prioritise for occupational therapy students?
Students progress fastest when theory is woven through practical learning in settings that resemble real practice. Allocate substantive time for skills rehearsal before placements, and use simulation so students can make and learn from mistakes without patient risk. Integrate feedback from practical sessions back into taught content to strengthen coherence. Alongside this, tighten communications and timetabling and provide transparent assessment materials so the day-to-day mechanics support, rather than hinder, learning.
What does this mean for programme teams?
Focus improvement on the blend of engaging practical teaching and dependable operations. Design placements and assessments with the same care as modules, ensure parity for part-time and mature learners, and pace delivery so students can connect theory to assessed practice. Keep a simple feedback loop through quick pulse checks and termly reviews with programme teams, so actions demonstrably move the experience for the next cohort.
How Student Voice Analytics helps you
Student Voice Analytics tracks topics and sentiment over time for delivery of teaching and for counselling, psychotherapy and occupational therapy. You can compare like-for-like against relevant subject families and demographics, drill down from provider to school and cohort, and generate concise, anonymised summaries for programme teams and academic boards. Export-ready outputs make it straightforward to prioritise placements and operations, assessment clarity and staff support, and to evidence progress.
Book a Student Voice Analytics demo
See all-comment coverage, sector benchmarks, and governance packs designed for OfS quality and standards and NSS requirements.
More posts on delivery of teaching:
- How do teaching methods affect UK mathematics students?
- How can UK universities improve the delivery of biology education?
- What will most improve delivery of teaching in biosciences?
- Are UK ecology and environmental biology students satisfied with how teaching is delivered?
More posts on counselling, psychotherapy and occupational therapy student views:
- What assessment methods work in therapy education?
- Are placements working for counselling, psychotherapy and occupational therapy students?
- What do counselling, psychotherapy and occupational therapy students need from timetables?
- What does student feedback say about remote learning in counselling, psychotherapy and occupational therapy?