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StudentPulse

The academic year in review · 2025/26

State of the Student Experience 2026

A look back at the 2025/26 academic year through more than three million student check-in datapoints: what went well, what got harder, and exactly when in the year it happened.

What's inside

  1. Intro
    IntroductionThe shape of the year (it bends at exams) and the 2.5-point gap between institutions.
  2. Background
    Background & methodOne student experience, three domains, 38 topics, and how we read them honestly.
  3. Chapter 1
    Personal: the load students carryStress, money, time and confidence; and the belonging buffer that protects wellbeing.
  4. Chapter 2
    Social: the fabric that holdsBelonging and classroom climate: the highest domain, and the single lowest topic.
  5. Chapter 3
    Academic: what the institution providesTeaching and content rate high, but this is where the best institutions pull ahead.
  6. Close
    What it meansFour moves for quality, wellbeing and leadership teams.

Free. Built for quality, wellbeing and leadership teams. Figures are cross-institution aggregates; see the methodology.

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A few things students told us this year

The findings are free. Here's a taste of what's inside.

What separates the best institutions

We ranked all 38 topics by how sharply they separate the strongest institutions from the weakest. In third place: how well students manage stress.

The two biggest gaps are both things an institution directly controls, and most leaders guess wrong about them. See #1 and #2 in the report.

The scorecard

Students rate most of the 38 topics above 7 out of 10. But one topic scores lowest of all, and it isn't stress, money or workload.

It's a topic most institutions assume they're doing fine on. The full scorecard is in the report.

The exam-window dip

Students start each semester confident, above 8 out of 10 on feeling ready for exams. By the April exam window that has collapsed to a single, much lower number.

It tells you exactly which two months to staff support before, not after. The number is in the report.

Best-in-class vs the rest

The strongest institutions average 8.9 out of 10. The weakest, on the same scale with the same students, average just 6.4.

A full grade apart, and the gap isn't where most people think. What the top 10% do differently is the heart of the report.

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