NUCA tops sector in national survey of arts university students

Students at Norwich University College of the Arts (NUCA) have given a resounding vote of satisfaction to the institution in the latest National Student Survey. The University College has achieved a soaring 83% satisfaction rating, placing it as the joint top specialist art and design university in the country.

Students highlighted their learning resources with a 91% satisfaction rating for their specialist workshops, library and IT resources, which credits NUCA with having the best specialist art and design resources anywhere in the university sector.

The survey, which is conducted every year by Ipsos-Mori on behalf of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), found NUCA achieved higher satisfaction ratings in its teaching, academic support, organisation and management, learning resources and personal development, rating the University College above many similar institutions.

NUCA Principal Professor John Last says: "We are absolutely delighted by the results of this year's National Student Survey. Nothing is more important to us than the satisfaction of our students at NUCA and these results bear out this commitment.

"We are particularly pleased that the survey highlights the strength of our learning resources, which we continue to invest in heavily. In just the last 12 months the University College has opened a new state-of-the-art Media Lab to support its courses in games design, animation and film and we open our new Photography building next month. Over in our Design faculty building, we have a project underway to provide an exciting new space for our Graphic Design course in the new year."

The announcement follows another strong showing for NUCA in this year's University Guide published by The Guardian, in which the University College was placed as the top specialist arts institution in England. The University Guide's Specialist Institutions League Table included NSS results as a part of its data to rank all higher education institutions in the country, as well as graduate career prospects, value added to academic achievement, student/staff ratio, spend per student and application grade requirements.

This year NUCA has experienced a surge in demand for places which has seen its admissions team dealing with a 15% increase on last year's total of applications to its arts, design and media degree courses - compared with a sector-wide increase of 5%. As a result of the huge popularity of its courses, the University College will not be able to offer places through clearing this year.