The Framework › Personal
Confidence & Self-Efficacy
Distribution of responses
How institutions vary
Middle 80% of the 111 institutions with enough responses. Personal domain mean: 7.6.
Institution is a major factor here: weaker and stronger institutions are 3.4 points apart on this topic. Where a student studies shapes their experience more than the topic itself does.
What we ask
“I’m confident that I’ll succeed in my studies.”
What students say, and why
Self-criticism and feeling under-prepared on specific skills.
"I’m just extremely self-critical."
"I’m missing skills I still need to learn."
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."
"There has been good sparring and help to get, so I feel ready to have everything in place for the next module."
Representative, de-identified comments from the lowest- and highest-scoring responses, translated where needed.
Related insights
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.
PatternExam 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 factorsSelf-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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