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

Scope. UK NSS open-text comments for Zoology (CAH03-01-06) students across academic years 2018–2025.
Volume. ~1,240 comments; 98.5% successfully categorised to a single primary topic.
Overall mood. 53.0% Positive, 44.4% Negative, 2.6% Neutral (positive:negative ≈ 1.19:1).

What students are saying

Zoology students talk most about learning through experience. Comments on placements, fieldwork and trips account for 11.4% of all feedback and carry a distinctly positive tone (sentiment index +47.7), well above the sector baseline for the same topic (+35.9 pts). Students emphasise the value of real‑world exposure and well‑structured activities that connect theory to practice.

Assessment and feedback is the main friction. “Feedback” appears in 8.1% of comments and trends negative (−34.6), with students typically asking for clearer expectations, annotated exemplars and more predictable turnaround. “Marking criteria” (3.8% share, −47.1) is a persistent pain point where standards are hard to interpret. Dissertation-related comments (3.1%, −25.9) echo the need for guidance and timely, developmental feedback; “Assessment methods” is closer to neutral but still on the negative side (−4.5).

Set against this, the people and delivery fundamentals are strong. Students speak highly of Teaching Staff (+48.2) and the Delivery of teaching (+33.9). They are also positive about the Type and breadth of course content (+38.2) and Module choice/variety (+30.0). Around the wider student experience, tone is upbeat for Student life (+46.3) and Career guidance/support (+38.3). “Student support” is present by volume (6.3%) but closer to neutral (+5.1), while “Availability of teaching staff” is a clear positive (+34.0) and “Personal Tutor” sits slightly negative (−9.1), usually where contact or consistency is uncertain.

Operational topics are less prominent but often negative when they do surface: Scheduling/timetabling (2.6%, −42.7) and Communication about course and teaching (1.8%, −34.0) pull tone down, with Organisation/management of course (1.5%, −22.0) and Remote learning (2.4%, −0.3) adding mixed sentiment. External disruptors—Strike action (3.3%, −65.3), COVID‑19 (3.9%, −30.5) and Costs/Value for money (2.0%, −56.6)—also feature and are predictably negative.

Overall, the story is a strong experiential core, solid teaching, and clear opportunities to tighten assessment clarity and day‑to‑day course operations.

Top categories by share (zoology vs sector):

Most negative categories (share ≥ 2%)

Most positive categories (share ≥ 2%)

What this means in practice

• Protect and scale what works in experiential learning. Treat placements/fieldwork/trips as a designed service: clear pre‑briefs, visible learning outcomes, well‑planned logistics and a short, structured on‑site feedback moment. This keeps the already strong tone high and sustains perceived value.

• Close the assessment clarity gap. Publish annotated exemplars, use checklist‑style rubrics, and set a realistic feedback SLA. Re‑state marking criteria in plain language at the point of task release, and use quick calibration sessions to align markers—especially for dissertations.

• Reduce operational drag. Name owners for scheduling and course communications, give students a single source of truth, and provide early‑look timetables with change logs. This tends to lift both the scheduling and communications categories at once.

• Acknowledge external pressures. Where strike action, COVID‑19 or costs are mentioned, be explicit about mitigations, what will be made whole, and where students can get support.

Data at a glance (2018–2025)

• Top topics by share: Placements/fieldwork/trips (≈11.4%), Feedback (≈8.1%), Teaching Staff (≈6.3%), Student support (≈6.3%), Delivery of teaching (≈6.0%).
• Delivery & ops cluster (placements, scheduling, organisation, comms, remote): ≈19.7% of all comments; tone mixed, with scheduling and comms notably negative.
• People & growth cluster (personal tutor, student support, teaching staff, availability of staff, delivery of teaching, personal development, student life): ≈26.3% of comments; tone strongly positive overall.
• Assessment & feedback topics (feedback, marking criteria, dissertation, assessment methods): ≈17.2% of comments; generally negative, driven by criteria clarity and turnaround.
• How to read the numbers. Each comment has 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 thousands of open‑text survey comments into clear priorities you can act on. It tracks topics, sentiment and movement by year for Zoology and every other discipline, so course and faculty teams can focus on the categories that matter most—such as Feedback, Marking criteria, Placements, and Scheduling.

It supports whole‑institution views as well as fine‑grained department and school analysis. You get concise, anonymised theme summaries and representative comments for briefing programme teams and external partners without trawling the raw data. Crucially, 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), so you can show whether changes moved you relative to the right peers. Flexible segmentation (by site/provider, cohort, year) and export‑ready outputs (web, deck, dashboard) make it straightforward to share priorities and progress across the institution.