The Framework › Personal

Confidence & Self-Efficacy

7.6 / 10 ▼ falling

Ranked #7 of 11 in Personal · domain mean 7.6

Distribution of responses

11%

29%

60%

Struggling (0-4) Neutral (>4-<8) Thriving (8-10)

How institutions vary

Measured across 111 institutions with enough responses on this topic.

See the institutional spread

How far apart the weakest and strongest institutions sit on Confidence & Self-Efficacy, and how much of a student's experience is decided by where they study.

What we ask

Topic-level question

“I’m confident that I’ll succeed in my studies.”

See all 5 questions and their adaptive follow-ups in the Question Library →

What students say, and why

Where it scores lowest

Self-criticism and feeling under-prepared on specific skills.

"I’m just extremely self-critical."

Where it scores highest

Clear expectations and staff who guide without taking over, so students feel ready and own the work.

"The teachers are always ready to guide when a problem comes up, and they make it clear that I own my own learning."

One comment from each end. Representative, de-identified, translated where needed.

Read all 4 comments

The full set of de-identified student comments from the lowest- and highest-scoring responses on this topic.

Related insights

Behind the average

What makes students speak up isn't class size. It's whether it's safe to be wrong.

Teacher interaction is the highest-rated experience students report: 9.1 out of 10, with 89% in the top band.

Pattern

Exam confidence isn't a fixed trait. It cracks at exam time.

Exam confidence averages 6.7 out of 10, but it swings by roughly two points across the year and bottoms out at 5.4 during the spring exam window.

Four factors

Self-efficacy is built, not innate, and it moves wellbeing most

EVA's research finds self-efficacy the factor most tied to student wellbeing, cutting the risk of poor wellbeing by 17 points. It reflects whether students believe they can handle the academic demands in front of them, and it is shaped by clear expectations and visible progression.

How we measure it

This is the topic-level average across its subtopics, on a 0-10 scale (higher is better), so an individual subtopic can score higher or lower than the topic shown here. Figures are scored responses from the last 12 months, mapped to the 2026 framework via the canonical question mapping. Movement compares the most recent six months with the prior six. Distribution bands: 0-4, >4-<8, 8-10. Cross-institution aggregate; no single institution identified; minimum group size applied.

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