Students rank college above national benchmark

For the second year running, The Manchester College has been identified as one of the best providers of education in the country by the people that matter – its students.

Students who completed their course at the college this year rated its teaching and learning considerably higher than the national benchmark in a recent survey.
The results of the survey were externally benchmarked against almost 500,000 students from 140 further education colleges across the country.

The Learner On Programme/Exit Survey, provided by QDP – the largest supplier of questionnaire and data processing services to the UK education and skills sector – is designed to help colleges to identify areas for development in the delivery of courses and facilities within an institution. The exit survey was a follow up to an induction survey which students completed a few months after they started their course, earlier in the year.

8,640 students completed the confidential, student survey in which they were asked to give the college a rating in nine different categories. In seven out of the nine categories, including teaching and learning, enrichment, and student support, responses from The Manchester College were ranked higher than the national benchmark.

Additionally, four subject sector areas (SSA), including health, public services and care, horticulture, ICT, and retail and commercial enterprise, scored ratings that were above the SSA national benchmarks in all nine categories.

The college’s Director of Student Support Services, Betsy Sara said: ‘The positive feedback from the survey shows how highly learners rate The Manchester College. The college has a number of key strengths, particularly the standard of teaching and learning, the equality of opportunities for learners and the amount of support learners at the college receive. We will look to build on these strengths and spread the good practice found within these areas throughout the college.’