Jisc Digital experience insights retirement: preserving feedback evidence

Updated Sep 07, 2026

Jisc set 31 July 2026 as the retirement date for Digital experience insights (DEI). Its current homepage confirms that the service is closed. This article preserves the context of the final survey cycle and updates the practical guidance for readers after closure. Jisc closure notice.

The final cycle and later access deadline

Jisc’s timetable lists 6 October 2025 as the opening date for the 2025/26 surveys, 1 May 2026 as the student/learner closing date, and 3 July 2026 as the closing date for teaching and professional services staff. The notice does not give its original publication date. Key dates.

The later closure FAQ set midday on 4 September 2026 as the deadline to download organisational data. It states that access and user data would be removed after that point; temporary backups would not be available for individual retrieval requests. Public reports remain available through Jisc’s repository. Closure FAQ.

The FAQ also describes planned question templates and an expression of interest in paid top-level benchmarking. Those plans do not establish that a replacement is available to a particular institution. Check the current arrangements with Jisc; do not assume either seamless continuation or the permanent disappearance of all benchmarking.

Review what your institution retained

Our recommendation is to inventory the files already held locally: questionnaire versions, response exports, coding keys, benchmark outputs and records of the reporting population. If something is missing, ask the service owner what was archived. The published deadline has passed, so this article should not be read as an instruction that the previous export route remains available.

Before comparing a replacement survey with DEI, document changes in questions, response options, recruitment, timing and eligible students. A common theme name does not make two differently collected datasets equivalent. Open comments can identify recurring concerns, but their frequency is also affected by the prompt and by who responds.

Set out which comparisons are defensible and where a new baseline is needed. Keep a break in a trend visible rather than implying continuity that the evidence cannot support.

Our closure-day follow-up covers the later access notice. The comment governance checklist can support decisions about local evidence retention and interpretation.

Update, 7 September 2026: replaced expired calls to export with a historical timetable, added the later access limit and qualified the claim that comment analysis preserves comparability when survey instruments change.