Student Voice Analytics for Physiotherapy — UK student feedback 2018–2025

Scope. UK NSS open-text comments for Physiotherapy (CAH02-06-05) students across academic years 2018–2025.
Volume. ~1,121 comments; 98.5% successfully categorised to a single primary topic.
Overall mood. Roughly 53.3% Positive, 42.9% Negative, 3.8% Neutral (positive:negative ≈ 1.24:1).

What students are saying

Physiotherapy students talk first about practice-based learning. Placements/fieldwork attract the largest share of comments (≈21.9%) and are, on balance, positive (sentiment index ≈ +16.0), a little above the sector benchmark for the same topic. Students’ remarks indicate that well-run placements—clear aims, supportive staff and meaningful tasks—anchor the overall experience.

The next set of themes concerns delivery mechanics. Scheduling/timetabling carries a sizeable share (≈5.4%) and is strongly negative (≈ −34.2); related threads such as Remote learning (≈5.2%, ≈ −14.0), Organisation/management of the course (≈1.9%, ≈ −22.4) and Course communications (≈1.5%, ≈ −21.1) point to a desire for predictability and a single, reliable source of truth. Taken together with placements, this delivery & ops cluster accounts for around 35.9% of all comments.

Set against those frictions, people-centred support is a clear strength. Teaching Staff (≈5.2%, ≈ +49.1), Student support (≈5.4%, ≈ +41.0), Delivery of teaching (≈5.7%, ≈ +23.1), Personal Tutor (≈2.6%, ≈ +46.9) and the Availability of teaching staff (≈2.5%, ≈ +64.1) are consistently positive and often above sector on tone. Smaller themes such as Personal development (≈1.4%, ≈ +60.1) and Student life (≈1.1%, ≈ +54.9) reinforce this pattern.

In Assessment & Feedback, clarity is the main pressure point. Marking criteria (≈5.3%) are highly negative (≈ −44.1), and Assessment methods (≈3.0%, ≈ −26.4) also trend down when expectations are opaque. Notably, Feedback appears less often than in the sector (≈2.8% vs 7.3%) and is close to neutral-to-positive on tone (≈ +2.7), suggesting that where students receive timely, useful feedback, sentiment lifts quickly.

Finally, some topics are simply less present than in the sector—Module choice/variety (≈1.2% vs 4.2%) and Learning resources (≈0.6% vs 3.8%)—indicating that students’ day‑to‑day experience is shaped more by placements and operational delivery than by optionality or general facilities.

Top categories by share (Physiotherapy vs sector):

Category	Section	Share %	Sector %	Δ pp	Sentiment idx	Δ vs sector
Placements/ fieldwork/ trips	Learning opportunities	21.9	3.4	+18.5	+16.0	+4.1
COVID-19	Others	6.3	3.3	+3.0	−13.2	+19.8
Delivery of teaching	The teaching on my course	5.7	5.4	+0.3	+23.1	+14.4
Scheduling/ timetabling	Organisation and management	5.4	2.9	+2.6	−34.2	−17.7
Student support	Academic support	5.4	6.2	−0.8	+41.0	+27.8
Marking criteria	Assessment and feedback	5.3	3.5	+1.7	−44.1	+1.6
Remote learning	The teaching on my course	5.2	3.5	+1.7	−14.0	−5.0
Teaching Staff	The teaching on my course	5.2	6.7	−1.6	+49.1	+13.6
Type and breadth of course content	Learning opportunities	4.0	6.9	−2.9	+14.0	−8.6
Assessment methods	Assessment and feedback	3.0	3.0	+0.0	−26.4	−2.7

Most negative categories (share ≥ 2%)

Category	Section	Share %	Sector %	Δ pp	Sentiment idx	Δ vs sector
Marking criteria	Assessment and feedback	5.3	3.5	+1.7	−44.1	+1.6
Scheduling/ timetabling	Organisation and management	5.4	2.9	+2.6	−34.2	−17.7
Assessment methods	Assessment and feedback	3.0	3.0	+0.0	−26.4	−2.7
Remote learning	The teaching on my course	5.2	3.5	+1.7	−14.0	−5.0
Opportunities to work with other students	Learning community	2.1	2.0	+0.1	−13.8	−14.9
COVID-19	Others	6.3	3.3	+3.0	−13.2	+19.8

Most positive categories (share ≥ 2%)

Category	Section	Share %	Sector %	Δ pp	Sentiment idx	Δ vs sector
Availability of teaching staff	Academic support	2.5	2.1	+0.4	+64.1	+24.8
Teaching Staff	The teaching on my course	5.2	6.7	−1.6	+49.1	+13.6
Personal Tutor	Academic support	2.6	3.2	−0.5	+46.9	+28.3
Student support	Academic support	5.4	6.2	−0.8	+41.0	+27.8
Delivery of teaching	The teaching on my course	5.7	5.4	+0.3	+23.1	+14.4
Placements/ fieldwork/ trips	Learning opportunities	21.9	3.4	+18.5	+16.0	+4.1
Type and breadth of course content	Learning opportunities	4.0	6.9	−2.9	+14.0	−8.6

What this means in practice

Protect the strength of placements. Treat them as a designed service: clear pre‑briefs and outcomes, timely site allocations, and simple mechanisms for on‑site reflection and feedback. Share a short “what changed and why” update whenever placements are adjusted.
Fix the operational rhythm. Name an owner for timetabling and course communications; publish a weekly single source of truth; and set a no‑surprises change window. These moves reduce uncertainty that drives negative sentiment in scheduling, remote delivery and course comms.
Make assessment expectations transparent. Use one‑page briefs, checklist‑style rubrics and annotated exemplars; agree realistic turnaround SLAs and stick to them. This directly addresses concerns around marking criteria and assessment methods and sustains the relatively better tone seen for feedback.
Amplify people strengths. Capture and share exemplars of helpful teaching practice and accessible support. Recognise availability and responsiveness—these are already differentiators in the student voice.

Data at a glance (2018–2025)

Top topics by share: Placements/fieldwork (≈21.9%), COVID‑19 (≈6.3%), Delivery of teaching (≈5.7%), Scheduling/timetabling (≈5.4%), Student support (≈5.4%), Marking criteria (≈5.3%), Remote learning (≈5.2%), Teaching Staff (≈5.2%).
Delivery & ops cluster (placements, scheduling, organisation, comms, remote): ≈35.9% of all comments; tone mixed—placements positive, operations lean negative.
People & growth cluster (personal tutor, student support, teaching staff, availability, delivery of teaching, personal development, student life): ≈23.9% of comments; tone strongly positive.
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), averaged at category level.

How Student Voice Analytics helps you

Student Voice Analytics turns open‑text feedback into clear, prioritised actions. It tracks topics and sentiment over time (year‑by‑year 2018–2025) for Physiotherapy and every other discipline, so leaders can see what is improving, what is drifting, and where to focus next—across the whole institution and down to schools, departments and programmes.

It also 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), so you can evidence progress against the right peer group. Flexible segmentation (site/provider, cohort, year) and concise, anonymised theme summaries make it easy to brief partners and programme teams without trawling thousands of comments. Export‑ready outputs (web, deck, dashboard) support sharing priorities and progress across your organisation.