What are students actually saying about Student life (NSS 2018–2025)?

Student Life comments are broadly upbeat: roughly three-quarters of sentences are positive and one-quarter negative, with the strongest tone among full‑time, younger and international students. Lower sentiment concentrates among part‑time, mature and disabled students.

Scope: UK NSS open‑text comments tagged to the Student life category across academic years 2018–2025.
Volume: 11,954 comments; 100.0% sentiment‑coded.
Overall mood: 74.7% Positive, 23.3% Negative, 2.0% Neutral (≈3.2:1 positive:negative); sentiment index +45.6.

What are students saying in this category?

Participation is dominated by full‑time (76.8% of comments) and younger students (72.3%). Both groups are notably positive (indices +49.0 and +47.9).
Sentiment is weaker for part‑time learners (+33.2) and mature students (+39.5), suggesting barriers to participating in or benefiting from student life.
Disabled students are less positive (+39.6) than those not disabled (+47.2), indicating an accessibility and inclusion gap.
International students (not UK domiciled) express the most positive tone (+56.5). By sex, males are slightly more positive (+47.6) than females (+44.5).
Subject mix matters: high indices in medicine/dentistry (+60.2), allied to medicine (+55.3), design/creative (+56.0) and engineering (+53.6); lower in psychology (+32.5), historical/philosophical/religious studies (+32.6), maths (+34.1) and broader social sciences (+36.0).

Segment and subject snapshot

Segment snapshot (selected)

Group	Share %	Pos %	Neg %	Sentiment idx	n
Age — Young	72.3	76.2	21.7	47.9	8639
Age — Mature	25.3	70.2	28.0	39.5	3019
Mode — Full‑time	76.8	77.0	20.9	49.0	9183
Mode — Part‑time	20.3	65.5	32.4	33.2	2421
Disability — Not disabled	78.4	75.6	22.2	47.2	9375
Disability — Disabled	19.1	70.6	27.8	39.6	2289
Domicile — Not UK domiciled	7.2	81.6	16.7	56.5	855
Domicile — White (UK ethnicity)	66.5	73.6	24.2	44.5	7955

Subject areas (CAH1) — variation (n ≥ 200)

Subject group (CAH1)	Share %	Sentiment idx	n
Medicine and dentistry	4.1	60.2	485
Design, and creative and performing arts	3.9	56.0	470
Subjects allied to medicine	7.9	55.3	946
Engineering and technology	3.7	53.6	438
Geography, earth and environmental studies	2.2	51.6	259
Psychology	6.5	32.5	776
Historical, philosophical and religious studies	4.4	32.6	531
Mathematical sciences	2.0	34.1	241
Social sciences	11.0	36.0	1317
Combined and general studies	3.7	38.4	447

What this means in practice

Make student life work for part‑time and mature cohorts
- Schedule events across times/days; offer hybrid/recorded options.
- Create commuter‑friendly “micro‑communities” anchored to timetabled touchpoints.
Close the accessibility gap
- Publish accessibility info for events/venues in advance.
- Provide quiet‑room options and peer‑buddies; ensure society processes support reasonable adjustments.
Target low‑scoring subject clusters
- Co‑design subject‑specific communities (e.g., study circles, mentoring) in psychology, HPR studies, maths and social sciences.
- Use course‑embedded community roles (student connectors/mentors) to sustain activity.
Reuse what works from high‑scoring areas
- Capture and share practices from medicine/design/engineering (e.g., cohort cohesion, clear calendars, practice‑linked communities).
Track equity
- Monitor sentiment index and positive/negative splits by mode, age, disability and subject each term; publish a simple “you said, we did” log.

How Student Voice Analytics helps you

See topic and sentiment for Student life across providers, schools and courses, with drill‑downs by mode, age, disability, domicile, campus/site and cohort.
Compare like‑for‑like across CAH subject groups and demographics; surface segments with widening or closing gaps.
Generate concise, anonymised briefings for programme teams and student partners, and export tables/figures for boards and action plans.