The Framework › Academic
Overall Course Satisfaction
Distribution of responses
How institutions vary
Middle 80% of the 19 institutions with enough responses. Academic domain mean: 7.9.
Institution is a major factor here: weaker and stronger institutions are 2.3 points apart on this topic. Where a student studies shapes their experience more than the topic itself does.
What we ask
“Overall, I’m satisfied with this course.”
What students say, and why
Mismatch with expectations; the exam differs from what was taught.
"The exam is always different to what I learn in class; I’m not sure until I see it."
"I thought I’d be happier with the trade."
Expectations set early, with demands matched to where students are.
"The demands are well adjusted to where you are in your education."
"It was said early on what was expected."
Representative, de-identified comments from the lowest- and highest-scoring responses, translated where needed.
Related insights
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; the cross-2020 figure on the Index uses the full response base. 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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