Student Voice Analytics for Electrical and Electronic Engineering — UK student feedback 2018–2025

Scope. UK NSS open-text comments for Electrical and Electronic Engineering (CAH10-01-08) students across academic years 2018–2025.
Volume. ~1,935 comments; 96.9% successfully categorised to a single primary topic.
Overall mood. Roughly 51.2% Positive, 44.6% Negative, 4.2% Neutral (positive:negative ≈ 1.15:1).

What students are saying

Electrical and Electronic Engineering students talk most about assessment. Feedback is the single largest topic (10.5% share) and carries a negative tone (sentiment index −21.7). Two closely related themes—Marking criteria (5.6%, −48.8) and Assessment methods (3.9%, −33.5)—reinforce that clarity and consistency in assessment design, expectations and marking standards are the main friction points. This concentration is above sector by share and below sector on tone.

Teaching and curriculum are prominent and mixed. Students are positive about Teaching Staff (7.5%, +21.1) and the Type and breadth of course content (8.1%, +16.0), but the Delivery of teaching trends negative overall (6.4%, −8.1) and Remote learning is notably negative (2.5%, −24.9), both below sector on tone. Module choice/variety is discussed less and is close to neutral (3.7%, +1.2).

Operational delivery issues appear, though at lower volumes than assessment. Organisation and management of the course is negative (4.2%, −25.6), as are Scheduling/timetabling (1.9%, −19.9) and Communication about course and teaching (1.8%, −32.2). Student voice is present (2.8%) but leans negative (−10.4), suggesting students want clearer routes to input and to see actions taken.

Support and resources show contrasts. Student support is relatively under-represented (3.4% vs 6.2% sector) and near neutral to negative (−3.0). Personal Tutor is rarely mentioned (1.1%) and sits near neutral (+1.5), well below sector on tone and share. By contrast, General facilities (3.6%, +47.3), Career guidance/support (3.4%, +43.6) and Student life (2.8%, +44.7) are strong positives and often above sector on tone. Placements/fieldwork/trips are far less prominent than in the sector (1.0% vs 3.4%) but, when mentioned, are strikingly positive (+51.0).

Top categories by share (Electrical and Electronic Engineering vs sector)

Category	Section	Share %	Sector %	Δ pp	Sentiment idx	Δ vs sector
Feedback	Assessment and feedback	10.5	7.3	+3.1	−21.7	−6.6
Type & breadth of course content	Learning opportunities	8.1	6.9	+1.2	+16.0	−6.6
Teaching Staff	The teaching on my course	7.5	6.7	+0.8	+21.1	−14.4
Delivery of teaching	The teaching on my course	6.4	5.4	+1.0	−8.1	−16.8
Marking criteria	Assessment and feedback	5.6	3.5	+2.1	−48.8	−3.1
Organisation & management	Organisation and management	4.2	3.3	+0.9	−25.6	−11.7
Assessment methods	Assessment and feedback	3.9	3.0	+0.9	−33.5	−9.7
Module choice/variety	Learning opportunities	3.7	4.2	−0.5	+1.2	−16.2
General facilities	Learning resources	3.6	1.8	+1.8	+47.3	+23.9
Career guidance/support	Learning community	3.4	2.4	+1.0	+43.6	+13.6

Most negative categories (share ≥ 2%)

Category	Section	Share %	Sector %	Δ pp	Sentiment idx	Δ vs sector
Workload	Organisation and management	2.7	1.8	+0.9	−50.1	−10.1
Marking criteria	Assessment and feedback	5.6	3.5	+2.1	−48.8	−3.1
COVID-19	Others	2.9	3.3	−0.4	−42.4	−9.5
Assessment methods	Assessment and feedback	3.9	3.0	+0.9	−33.5	−9.7
Organisation & management of course	Organisation and management	4.2	3.3	+0.9	−25.6	−11.7
Remote learning	The teaching on my course	2.5	3.5	−1.0	−24.9	−15.9
Feedback	Assessment and feedback	10.5	7.3	+3.1	−21.7	−6.6

Most positive categories (share ≥ 2%)

Category	Section	Share %	Sector %	Δ pp	Sentiment idx	Δ vs sector
General facilities	Learning resources	3.6	1.8	+1.8	+47.3	+23.9
Student life	Learning community	2.8	3.2	−0.3	+44.7	+12.6
Career guidance/support	Learning community	3.4	2.4	+1.0	+43.6	+13.6
Teaching Staff	Teaching on my course	7.5	6.7	+0.8	+21.1	−14.4
Type & breadth of course content	Learning opportunities	8.1	6.9	+1.2	+16.0	−6.6
Learning resources	Learning resources	3.1	3.8	−0.7	+13.3	−8.1
Opportunities to work with others	Learning community	3.1	2.0	+1.1	+11.4	+10.4

What this means in practice

Make assessment clarity the first priority. Publish annotated exemplars, checklist-style rubrics and indicative grade profiles; state how criteria map to outcomes; and agree a realistic feedback SLA with visible ownership. Run light-touch marker calibration to reduce variance between modules.
Stabilise delivery operations. Use a single source of truth for timetables and changes, share a brief weekly “what changed and why,” and minimise late adjustments. Where remote elements remain, set expectations for format, interaction and materials so the experience is predictable.
Strengthen support visibility. Ensure the Personal Tutor model and wider support routes are easy to find and consistent across cohorts. Keep doing what works—students rate facilities, careers support and the broader student experience highly—so signpost these at key points in the academic cycle.

Data at a glance (2018–2025)

Top topics by share: Feedback (≈10.5%), Type & breadth of course content (≈8.1%), Teaching Staff (≈7.5%), Delivery of teaching (≈6.4%), Marking criteria (≈5.6%).
Assessment & feedback topics collectively account for ≈20.3% of all comments and are the main source of negative tone.
Delivery & ops cluster (placements/fieldwork, scheduling, organisation & management, course comms, remote learning): ≈11.4% of comments, generally below sector on tone.
People & growth cluster (personal tutor, student support, teaching staff, availability of staff, delivery of teaching, personal development, student life): ≈24.6% with a largely positive tone.
How to read the numbers. Each comment is assigned one primary topic; share is that topic’s proportion of all comments. Sentiment is calculated per sentence and summarised as an index from −100 (more negative than positive) to +100 (more positive than negative), then averaged at category level.

How Student Voice Analytics helps you

Student Voice Analytics turns open-text survey comments into clear priorities you can act on. It tracks topics and sentiment by year for every discipline, including Electrical and Electronic Engineering, so teams can focus on high‑impact areas such as Feedback, Marking criteria, Assessment methods, Delivery of teaching, Organisation and course communications.

It supports whole‑institution views as well as fine‑grained department and school analysis. The platform produces concise, anonymised theme summaries and representative comments for programme teams and external stakeholders, so you can brief colleagues without trawling thousands of responses. Most importantly, it enables like‑for‑like sector comparisons across CAH codes and by demographics (e.g., year of study, domicile, mode of study, campus/site, commuter status), and segmentation by site/provider, cohort and year—letting you evidence whether change is real relative to the right peer group. Export‑ready outputs (web, deck, dashboard) make it straightforward to share priorities and progress across the institution.