What are students actually saying about Availability of teaching staff (NSS 2018–2025)?

Students are broadly positive about how available teaching staff are, with clear differences by mode of study, age and disability. Full-time and younger students are most positive on access; part‑time, mature and disabled students are less so, though still net positive.

Scope: UK NSS open-text comments tagged to Availability of teaching staff across 2018–2025.
Volume: 7,811 category comments out of 385,317 total comments (~2.0%); 100.0% with sentiment.
Overall mood: 76.8% Positive, 21.6% Negative, 1.6% Neutral (sentiment index +43.6; positive:negative ≈ 3.6:1).

What are students saying in this category?

Strongly positive overall: three in four comments are positive and the tone is firmly favourable across most segments (index +43.6).
Mode matters: Full-time students are notably more positive (index +46.4) than part‑time peers (+34.0). Apprenticeship students are very positive (+58.2) but volumes are small (n=51).
Age gap: Younger students are more positive (+45.0) than mature students (+40.7).
Disability gap: Not disabled (+45.0) vs disabled (+39.8) shows a modest but consistent difference.
Subject variation: Large subject groups vary from mid‑30s indices (e.g., Psychology +35.1; Computing +35.4) to mid‑50s (Historical/Philosophical/Religious Studies +55.0). Several STEM/Language areas are high, but some are small‑n.
Small differences by sex among major groups (Female +43.5; Male +45.0). Mixed ethnicity shows a lower index (+35.7) than White (+44.4) and Asian (+43.6).

Note: Small segments (e.g., Apprenticeship n=51; Medicine and Dentistry n=91) are more volatile; treat as directional.

Segment snapshots

By mode of study

Mode of study	n	Positive %	Negative %	Sentiment idx
Full-time	6010	78.6	19.9	46.4
Part-time	1540	70.3	27.9	34.0
Apprenticeship	51	86.3	13.7	58.2
Unspecified	194	69.1	28.4	28.6
Unknown	16	75.0	25.0	37.7

By subject area (CAH1) — top 10 by volume

Subject area (CAH1)	n	Sentiment idx	Positive %	Negative %
Subject area unknown	1505	45.7	78.7	19.8
(CAH02) subjects allied to medicine	834	42.8	76.4	23.0
(CAH15) social sciences	774	40.2	74.3	24.0
(CAH04) psychology	550	35.1	70.4	27.6
(CAH17) business and management	510	44.0	78.6	20.2
(CAH16) law	369	40.3	73.2	23.6
(CAH11) computing	366	35.4	72.1	26.0
(CAH03) biological and sport sciences	360	38.0	72.2	26.7
(CAH20) historical, philosophical and religious studies	351	55.0	82.1	15.1
(CAH10) engineering and technology	291	45.7	78.0	19.2

What this means in practice

Guarantee access windows that work for all cohorts. Add early‑evening slots and predictable drop‑ins to lift part‑time and mature student experience.
Publish a simple coverage rota per module/programme with clear back‑ups when named staff are unavailable; set and communicate response‑time expectations.
Offer multiple channels for contact (bookable slots, short drop‑ins, monitored discussion boards) and make asynchronous options visible for students balancing work/caring.
Monitor availability sentiment by mode, age and disability each term; prioritise actions that narrow the part‑time (−12.4 index points vs full‑time) and disability (−5.2) gaps.
Ensure accessible routes (e.g., captions/transcripts for Q&A recordings; written follow‑ups to verbal guidance) to support disabled students.
Track missed/late responses and resolve them quickly via a light‑touch escalation path (programme office or departmental hub).

How Student Voice Analytics helps you

Tracks this category’s volume and sentiment over time, with drill‑downs by mode, age, disability, sex, ethnicity and subject area (CAH codes).
Surfaces concise, anonymised summaries for module and programme teams, and supports like‑for‑like comparisons across internal schools/departments and peer subject areas.
Enables quick exports for boards and committees, with clear movement since last cycle and where gaps are closing or widening.

Data at a glance (2018–2025)

Volume: 7,811 comments; 100.0% with sentiment.
Overall mood: 76.8% Positive, 21.6% Negative, 1.6% Neutral (index +43.6; positive:negative ≈ 3.6:1).
Within this category: 76.9% full‑time, 19.7% part‑time; 73.7% young, 23.8% mature; 78.6% not disabled, 18.9% disabled.