UCF shines in National Student Survey
Friday, 07 August 2009
(4)University College Falmouth (UCF) has significantly improved its performance across the board in the National Student Survey, according to its final-year students.
All final-year students across the UK were asked to rate their institutions for satisfaction, out of a maximum score of 5, in seven areas - teaching, assessment and feedback, academic support, management, learning resources, personal development and overall satisfaction.
In each of these areas, UCF has improved on the score it achieved in the 2008 survey gaining an overall satisfaction score of 80%, an improvement of 4 points, and a higher rating than the University of the Arts London and University of the Creative Arts - equating to 4 out of 5 students leaving UCF satisfied with their overall experience.
UCF has also outperformed the national average in four out of the seven areas - assessment and feedback, academic support, learning resources and personal development - whilst the remaining three areas have improved their score significantly from the 2008 survey.
In the individual subject areas of BA(Hons) Photography, BA(Hons) Fine Art and all of the design courses taken as a whole, UCF has excelled against its competitors and the national average.
"We are extremely pleased with our results this year, as they reflect the passion and creativity of our students and staff," said Andrew Upton, the Pro-Rector for External Relations & Knowledge Transfer. "Following our merger with Dartington College of Arts and the approval of the £20 million expansion project and the building of a brand new Performance Centre, we now offer a unique combination of Art, Design, Media and Performance courses, underpinned by innovative enterprise and research strategies giving us a solid foundation on which to build for the future as we progress towards Arts University Cornwall."
155 higher education institutions (HEIs) across the UK and 117 further education colleges (FECs) in England took part in the fifth annual National Student Survey with an increase of 3,000 students offering their feedback, totalling 223,363 students taking part.
University College Falmouth is the only independent Higher Education institution in Cornwall with the powers to award degrees in its own name. It has two campuses in Cornwall - at Woodlane in Falmouth and Tremough in Penryn (which it owns, and jointly manages with the University of Exeter) - and a third campus at Totnes in Devon, following its merger with Dartington College of Arts in 2008.
This merger created a new institution focusing on the expansion of Falmouth's expertise in Art, Design and Media and Dartington's expertise in Choreography, Music, Theatre, Art and Writing. The Devon-based courses will relocate to a new, high-specification Performance Centre at Tremough in 2010, paving the way for a new specialist Arts University in Cornwall by 2012/2013 that will be unique to the South West.
The College is a founding partner in the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC), a unique initiative to promote regional economic regeneration through Higher Education, funded mainly by the European Union (Objective One), the South West Regional Development Agency, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, with support from Cornwall Council.
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For further information about University College Falmouth, please contact Jilly Easterby MCIPR, Head of Public Affairs, Telephone: 01326 213792, or email: jilly.easterby@falmouth.ac.uk
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