National Student Survey: data by provider type
Results for English providers by OfS typology
This page contains a visualisation of the positivity measure for each of the themes in the National Student Survey (NSS) for English providers grouped by OfS finance typology and student typology.
The visualisation shows the positivity measures across a three-year timeseries from NSS 2023 to NSS 2025, the results can be filtered by NSS theme.
Provider typologies
The methodology and data sources used to assign providers to the typology groups are set out in our report published in November 2022. Providers that have registered with the OfS since the 2022 report have been assigned to a group using a similar methodology.
The finance typology provider groups are based on the amount and type of income received by providers, as well as the level and subject areas predominantly studied by their students. The factors used in this typology are:
- Proportion of higher education student FTE at Level 4 or 5.
- Specialist indicators (i.e. the proportion of provision across one or two subject areas).
- Qualifying income (QI) – (i.e. public grant funding from the OfS, any fee income from taught awards (exclusive of VAT) and any fee income from research awards (exclusive of VAT)).
- Proportion of total income from QI.
| Name for provider group |
Description | Count of providers 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Larger teaching intensive |
QI over £200 million and over 70% of income | 14 |
| Larger research intensive |
QI over £200 million and less than 70% of income | 21 |
| Medium |
QI £100 million to £200 million | 43 |
| Smaller |
QI less than £100m or unknown | 56 |
| Level 4/5 |
Majority Level 4 and 5 | 132 |
| Specialist: creative |
Specialist: creative | 38 |
| Specialist: other |
Specialist: other | 41 |
The student typology provider groups are based on the student population and study characteristics at each provider. The factors used in defining this typology are:
- Proportion of higher education student FTE at Level 4 or 5.
- Proportion of higher education student FTE at undergraduate level.
- Specialist indicators.
- Average tariff points for young entrants to the provider.
|
Name for provider group |
Description |
Count of providers 2025 |
|---|---|---|
|
High tariff |
High tariff |
23 |
|
Medium tariff |
Medium tariff |
39 |
|
Low or unknown tariff |
Low or unknown tariff |
72 |
|
Small Level 4/5 |
Over 50% FTE at Level 4/5, FTE less than 300 |
53 |
|
Large Level 4/5 |
Over 50% FTE at Level 4/5, FTE more than 300 |
79 |
|
Specialist: creative |
75% or more FTE in one subject area or 90% or more FTE in two, main subjects in creative arts |
38 |
|
Specialist: other |
75% or more FTE in one subject area or 90% or more FTE in two |
40 |
Please note the below visualisation may be slow to load, particularly when new NSS results are published. Spreadsheets of the data are available as an alternative.
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