This year’s National Student Survey (NSS) results have been released by the Office for Students.

For those who don’t know, NSS is your chance to reflect on your experience at Roehampton, from course teaching to resources and equipment, as well as student voice and representation. It was great to see almost 75% of you engaged with and filled it out this year.  

Students’ Union Results:

For the SU, students were asked: ‘How well does the Students’ Union (association or guild) represent students’ academic interests?’.

Last year (2025) you gave us an overall score of 75.9%.

This year (2026) we have seen this score increase to 80.1%.

This consistent rise in our score over the last few years is evidence of our continued commitment to make student life better at Roehampton, and we will continue to ensure that student voice is central to our services.  

But how have we represented students throughout the last academic year? 

Campaigns:

Campaigns are a big part of how we push students’ voices to the forefront of the work we do. From student feedback, we’re able to gauge what issues and topics students truly care about and what it is that we need to advocate for. 

To support our student nurses, we joined the University of Essex Students’ Union’s Pay the Placement Campaign. This campaign called on the UK Government to provide payment for student nurses and students on other healthcare-related courses undertaking the 2,300 hours of unpaid placement work required as part of their degrees. The campaign sought to highlight both the significant contribution these students make to the healthcare system and the financial burden and hidden costs associated with completing their courses. 

In support of commuting students, we also launched our Bus Campaign in January. Following the university’s decision to remove the free bus service, we gathered student feedback on local bus services, public transport, and wider transport infrastructure. We have since used this insight to lobby the University and key external stakeholders, including Transport for London, the Deputy Mayor for Transport, and the MP for Putney. Two student representatives have attended separate Transport for London roundtable discussions, ensuring that Roehampton students’ experiences and concerns are represented in conversations about improving reliability, accessibility, and safety across the local transport network. 

Community and Representation:

Alongside our campaigning work, we organised a wide range of events to celebrate both LGBTQ+ History Month and Women’s History Month.

These included:

• Crafternoon sessions ‘Paint a Plate’ and ‘zine-making’
• A guest lecture exploring LGBTQ+ history
• A Women’s Herstory Alumni and Networking Day
• An LGBTQ+ History Month film screening.

These events ensured that marginalised communities felt represented and included within university life and fostered a stronger sense of community and belonging at Roehampton. 

Academic Representation:

Over the past academic year, we have continued to strengthen Academic Representation at Roehampton, growing our network to 350+ Student Representatives across the University.

With improved training, communication and support, our representatives have been empowered to raise student concerns, share feedback and work collaboratively with schools and academic teams to ensure the student voice is represented in key conversations about education and the student experience.

Through our Academic Representation work, students shared more than 300 pieces of feedback through our formal feedback channel, with 95% successfully resolved through collaboration with relevant university teams.

We have also introduced new initiatives including the Volunteer of the Month scheme, Representative of the Year Award, termly representative recognition opportunities, Academic Networking Events and weekly feedback collection drives, creating more opportunities for students to engage with their student reps and ensuring that student feedback leads to meaningful action.

Alongside this, our School Representatives have played a key role in delivering and supporting important student-led initiatives and events throughout the year, including Assessment Centres, Corporate Roadies and other opportunities designed to enhance student development, employability and engagement with the wider university community.

While we are proud of all this work so far, we don’t aim to stop there. We will continue to go above and beyond to represent students so that they get the fulfilling experience at Roehampton that they deserve!