Student satisfaction at the Lancaster Environment Centre has risen this year and is now 86%, nearly 10 percentage points above the sector average, according to the latest National Student Survey.

Lancaster University as a whole scored 83.6% in the 2022 National Student Survey (NSS), placing it top university in the North, 8^th in England and 11^th in the UK. It was the top UK university for the quality of its learning resources – its library services, learning spaces and IT.

The NSS is one of the largest surveys of its kind, and this year considered the views of around 325,000 students from across 382 universities, colleges and alternative providers in the UK. It asks students questions about nine areas related to their academic and learning experience, including the teaching on their course, academic support, learning resources and how well courses are organised.

Satisfaction amongst Lancaster Environment Centre students rose five percentage points overall this year, improving in all the nine areas.

Professor Phil Barker, director of the Lancaster Environment Centre, is particularly delighted that the 2022 cohort of graduates, whose university experience was heavily impacted by the covid pandemic, still felt they had a positive and worthwhile time studying at Lancaster.

‘Students have faced unprecedented disruptions over the last two years. These NSS results endorse our strong commitment to student learning and the exceptional professionalism of our staff in the face of the challenges we have faced.’

Professor Steve Bradley, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Lancaster University, said: “Students everywhere have had an extremely challenging few years and while our doors never closed during the pandemic, we are all enjoying a welcome return to normal this year, with students making the most of what campus life offers from our state-of-the-art sports centre and lush green spaces to our collegiate system and refurbished and extended library.

“The student experience is at the heart of every Lancaster degree, so it’s really pleasing to see this reflected in this year’s responses.”

The positive results for the quality of teaching and learning at the Lancaster Environment Centre come on top of success in the latest Research Excellence Framework, which judged that 96% of the department’s work was world-leading or internationally excellent. It was rated second in the country for the impact of its research in the Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences category, showing that students are taught by leaders in their field who make a difference in people’s lives and our understanding of the planet.