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The new Student Experience Report from UNITE/TNS Research has just been published.

The report has been produced every year since 2000 and it’s always a worthwhile read.

(We’ve used some of the data to create our ‘How well do you know students today?’ quiz.)

It was good to see a bigger sample group interviewed this year – over 1,600, which is twice as many students than were canvassed in previous years.

There are some interesting attitude shifts highlighted.

One that stuck out immediately was that, already, in these early days of tuition fees, students have quickly adopted a consumer mentality.

They unanimously feel, according to the report, that universities need to improve their customer service.

For the digital marketer, there aren’t many revelations (see the Face Group/Opinionpanel Tech Tribe report of last year for greater insight).

However the key findings are:

• Universities get the best ratings from students for ‘availability of IT’ (86%), showing how highly students value technology. This suggests universities could do well by emphasizing their IT credentials and tech savvy in their marketing materials;

 

• The top three ways students say they spend spare time are ‘sleeping’, ‘internet/email’ and in the ‘pub’. No surprises there;

 

• The websites of broadsheet newspapers were popularly used by students when researching the best uni for them. Although UCAS publications predictably blazed the trail, being the primary source for 59% of students looking for university information.

The report is now online in pdf format.