National Student Survey data: quality report

NSS quality update

To assure the quality and reliability of the 2025 NSS publication we continue to review the data, survey approach and analysis process.

The current version of the survey has now been running for three years, and there are no additional concerns this year about the quality or reliability of the data.

For 2025, we have produced a short update on the quality characteristics of the data to complement the more comprehensive quality report published last year.

Points to note

• Because it is useful to providers, students and the general public, we publish NSS results based on very small populations (as low as 10 students). There is a high degree of statistical uncertainty around some of these results, and they should always be viewed together with the uncertainty measures included in the data dashboard.
• We have delayed the release of a few parts of the student characteristics results, where the data for those characteristics was not available in time. We plan to update the dashboard to include these characteristics in the autumn. This covers the following characteristics:
• Care experienced
• Estrangement
• Service child (at Key stage 4)