Record student survey response leads to Highland Hospice donation from UHI Inverness

UHI Inverness has donated £1,000 to Highland Hospice following a successful student survey campaign that attracted a record number of responses.

Students voted online and at the Refreshers Fayre for their preferred charity partner and the majority chose the hospice to benefit from a donation linked to the number of completed Student Satisfaction and Engagement Surveys (SSES).

The survey ran in March and the final response rate was 57%, which unlocked a £1,000 donation for the hospice. The overall student satisfaction rating was 92 per cent, demonstrating a very high level of student satisfaction. The Business and Creative Industries curriculum area within UHI Inverness achieved the highest satisfaction rate of 95.8%.

The annual end-of-year survey is aimed at full-time and part-time students from school programmes to degree courses. Their feedback helps to inform changes and further improvements to the student experience.

Their responses indicated a high level of satisfaction with learning and teaching on courses, the positive support provided by both curriculum and support staff and the resources available to support student learning.

Lindsay Snodgrass, a Vice Principal at UHI Inverness, said: “This survey campaign was a great success. Amazing teamwork has resulted in our highest ever SSES response rate and the 92% overall satisfaction rating is testament to the hard work of all teams across our organisation.

“The survey provides us with valuable information that we analyse and act on to ensure the learning experience and the student support that we provide is relevant, effective and of a very high standard. I want to thank all the students who engaged in the survey and I’m grateful to our friends at the hospice for being such active charity partners; their engagement was crucial to the success of this campaign. I am pleased that we’ve established a lasting connection between UHI Inverness and Highland Hospice that has already led to plans for training sessions and more fundraising.”

A special event was held on campus on Friday, 10 May to present the donation to Katie Gibb of Highland Hospice.

Katie Gibb, Highland Hospice’s Youth Fundraiser, said: “We are so grateful to everyone at UHI Inverness for choosing us as the benefiting charity of their student survey initiative. Huge thanks to all the staff who organised this, and the students who filled in their surveys to benefit the hospice. It has been lovely to work with UHI Inverness, and we would be delighted to build on this relationship in the future.”

The hospice provides care and support to people in the Highlands who face life-shortening illness, death and bereavement. It also offers advice for the emotional, social and spiritual issues that may arise and works with patients, families and carers at a time of transition to help them enjoy, value and commemorate life.

The survey campaign was led by the Quality Team at UHI Inverness. Its manager Liz Cook said: “It was absolutely fantastic to receive so many responses for this year’s SSES – the 57% response rate is up 4% from last year. We have already analysed and distributed the survey results to staff and the students’ association, and we’ve started to take steps to make further improvements based on the feedback. Students told us they like the positive support provided by our staff, the resources to support their learning, and the learning and teaching on their courses. The charity partnership with Highland Hospice has proved again that raising money for charitable concerns is a positive motivator for our students.” 

Elizabeth Keegan, UHI Inverness President of the Highlands and Islands Students’ Association, said: “We’re grateful to every student who completed this survey. By sharing their views they’ve helped to enhance the learning experience at UHI Inverness, and they have contributed to a charity that touches the lives of so many. We are looking forward to working with UHI Inverness to make further improvements to the student experience based on this feedback.”

The award-winning incentive charity approach to encourage student engagement with surveys was first introduced by UHI Inverness in 2022 and has raised donations for Mikeysline, James Support Group and Maggie’s Highland over the last three survey campaigns.