National Student Survey data: quality report

NSS quality update

To assure the quality and reliability of the NSS publication we review the data, survey approach and analysis process each year.

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

For 2026, we have produced a short update on the quality characteristics of the data to complement the more comprehensive quality report published in 2024.

Previous quality reports are available in the NSS results archive. 

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 ten 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.