The NSS is a valuable source of information for higher education providers and prospective students. So it's important to ensure the integrity of the NSS data.
Users of the data need to know that students who complete the survey have not been influenced by their higher education provider, or any other parties, to respond in a way that doesn't reflect their true opinion.
Good practice guide
Ipsos gives all providers taking part in the NSS a good practice guide to help them avoid inappropriate influence when promoting the NSS.
In addition to the good practice guide, Ipsos has put together a list of dos and don'ts to support providers. These are summarised below, or you can download them as a PDF.
How to report inappropriate influence
The OfS is responsible for managing the process of investigating concerns that students have been inappropriately influenced.
To raise a concern, email [email protected].
If the concern relates to a provider outside England, the OfS will liaise with the relevant funding body.
Please read our privacy notice for NSS allegations for details of how we will use your personal information if you make an allegation of inappropriate influence.
Consequences of inappropriate influence
If an investigation were to find that promotional activities or marketing materials had resulted in inappropriate influence, whether intentional or unintentional, the integrity of the NSS data could be called into question.
The OfS (in partnership with the relevant funding partners) could take action to suppress the affected NSS data for the provider.
This means that no NSS results would be published for the affected courses at the provider that year.
Broader data integrity concerns
Concerns about other aspects of NSS data integrity may be raised and resolved through other routes, depending on the nature of the issue.
| Concern |
Who to contact |
| Concerns about the use of data by providers |
The Advertising Standards Authority or the Competition and Markets Authority.
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| Concerns about financial irregularity and impropriety, waste and fraud at funded providers |
For England, concerns should be routed through the OfS’s complaints and notifications process.
For Wales, concerns should be routed through [email protected].
For Scotland, concerns should be routed through [email protected].
For Ireland, concerns should be routed through [email protected].
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| Institutional data amendments or errors |
A number of different data sources are used for the NSS and Discover Uni and sometimes providers request that this data be amended.
The OfS’s data amendments panel assesses all proposed amendments and judges whether the identified errors are widespread and significant enough to require action.
For the NSS, the OfS assesses these amendments on behalf of the UK funding and regulatory bodies.
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