Student Voice Analytics for Music — UK student feedback 2018–2025
Scope. UK NSS open-text comments for Music (CAH25-02-02) students across academic years 2018–2025.
Volume. ≈2,211 comments; 97.3% successfully categorised to a single primary topic.
Overall mood. Roughly 55.6% Positive, 41.6% Negative, 2.9% Neutral (positive:negative ≈ 1.34:1).
What students are saying
Music students talk most about the day-to-day environment and their direct interactions with staff. Comments on General facilities are unusually prominent (≈9.1% share vs 1.8% sector) and distinctly positive (sentiment index ≈+35.1). Teaching Staff also feature heavily (≈8.9%) with a strong positive tone (≈+44.0), above sector on both visibility and sentiment.
Beyond facilities and people, students focus on the Type and breadth of course content (≈7.0%). The tone here is moderately positive but sits below the sector norm, suggesting some desire for clearer fit or balance in what is offered. Student support is visible and well-regarded (≈+19.4, above sector), while Personal development and Student life are clear strengths, both attracting positive, future-facing comments.
Assessment & feedback continues to pull sentiment down. Feedback (≈5.4% share) is net negative (≈−13.5), typically when examples, criteria and turnaround feel unclear or inconsistent. Marking criteria is both smaller by share (≈2.5%) and substantially negative (≈−47.4). Assessment methods (≈2.0%) is slightly negative overall but compares better than the sector.
Operational topics are less dominant here than in many subjects. The delivery and operations cluster—Scheduling, Organisation & management, Course communications, Remote learning and Placements—accounts for about 10.4% of comments, but the tone is generally negative, particularly for Remote learning (≈−28.7) and Organisation & management (≈−23.9). Placements/fieldwork are relatively rare in this discipline (≈1.2% vs 3.4% sector) and near‑neutral in tone.
Top categories by share (Music vs sector)
| Category | Section | Share % | Sector % | Δ pp | Sentiment idx | Δ vs sector |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General facilities | Learning resources | 9.1 | 1.8 | 7.3 | 35.1 | 11.6 |
| Teaching Staff | The teaching on my course | 8.9 | 6.7 | 2.1 | 44.0 | 8.5 |
| Type and breadth of course content | Learning opportunities | 7.0 | 6.9 | 0.1 | 11.4 | −11.2 |
| Student support | Academic support | 6.1 | 6.2 | −0.1 | 19.4 | 6.2 |
| Feedback | Assessment and feedback | 5.4 | 7.3 | −1.9 | −13.5 | 1.6 |
| COVID-19 | Others | 5.0 | 3.3 | 1.7 | −29.8 | 3.1 |
| Personal development | Learning community | 4.9 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 55.3 | −4.5 |
| Module choice / variety | Learning opportunities | 4.5 | 4.2 | 0.3 | 24.3 | 6.9 |
| Delivery of teaching | The teaching on my course | 4.0 | 5.4 | −1.4 | 4.9 | −3.9 |
| Student life | Learning community | 3.6 | 3.2 | 0.5 | 47.4 | 15.3 |
Most negative categories (share ≥ 2%)
| Category | Section | Share % | Sector % | Δ pp | Sentiment idx | Δ vs sector |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marking criteria | Assessment and feedback | 2.5 | 3.5 | −1.0 | −47.4 | −1.7 |
| Costs / Value for money | Others | 2.2 | 1.6 | 0.6 | −46.5 | 6.3 |
| COVID-19 | Others | 5.0 | 3.3 | 1.7 | −29.8 | 3.1 |
| Remote learning | The teaching on my course | 2.9 | 3.5 | −0.6 | −28.7 | −19.7 |
| Organisation, management of course | Organisation and management | 2.7 | 3.3 | −0.7 | −23.9 | −10.0 |
| Scheduling/ timetabling | Organisation and management | 2.1 | 2.9 | −0.7 | −14.7 | 1.8 |
| Feedback | Assessment and feedback | 5.4 | 7.3 | −1.9 | −13.5 | 1.6 |
Shares are the proportion of all Music comments whose primary topic is the category. Sentiment index ranges from −100 (more negative than positive) to +100 (more positive than negative).
Most positive categories (share ≥ 2%)
| Category | Section | Share % | Sector % | Δ pp | Sentiment idx | Δ vs sector |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal development | Learning community | 4.9 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 55.3 | −4.5 |
| Student life | Learning community | 3.6 | 3.2 | 0.5 | 47.4 | 15.3 |
| Teaching Staff | The teaching on my course | 8.9 | 6.7 | 2.1 | 44.0 | 8.5 |
| General facilities | Learning resources | 9.1 | 1.8 | 7.3 | 35.1 | 11.6 |
| Career guidance, support | Learning community | 3.5 | 2.4 | 1.1 | 28.5 | −1.5 |
| Learning resources | Learning resources | 2.1 | 3.8 | −1.6 | 25.7 | 4.2 |
| Opportunities to work with other students | Learning community | 2.4 | 2.0 | 0.4 | 25.4 | 24.4 |
What this means in practice
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Keep investing in what works. Facilities and staff interactions are clear strengths. Make it easy for students to access well-maintained spaces, and keep visibility of staff availability high—these are high-impact positives in the experience.
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Tighten assessment clarity. Publish annotated exemplars, checklist-style rubrics and realistic, trackable turnaround times. This directly addresses the most negative elements (marking criteria and feedback) and tends to lift overall sentiment quickly.
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Reduce operational friction. Even though operational topics are a smaller share here, the tone is negative. A single source of truth for course communications, clear ownership of timetables and changes, and predictable processes for online/remote components will pay off.
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Support connection and growth. Students value personal development and the wider student experience. Preserve time and structure for peer collaboration and co-curricular activities; these are consistently positive and differentiate the experience.
Data at a glance (2018–2025)
- Top topics by share: General facilities (≈9.1%), Teaching Staff (≈8.9%), Type and breadth of course content (≈7.0%), Student support (≈6.1%), Feedback (≈5.4%), COVID‑19 (≈5.0%).
- Cluster view:
- Delivery & ops cluster (Placements/fieldwork, Scheduling, Organisation & management, Course communications, Remote learning): ≈10.4% of all comments, generally negative in tone.
- People & growth cluster (Personal Tutor, Student support, Teaching Staff, Availability of teaching staff, Delivery of teaching, Personal development, Student life): ≈30.3%, strongly positive overall.
- How to read the numbers. Each comment is assigned one primary topic; share is that topic’s proportion of all comments. Sentiment is calculated per sentence and summarised as an index from −100 to +100, then averaged at category level.
How Student Voice Analytics helps you
Student Voice Analytics turns open-text survey comments into clear, prioritised actions. It tracks topics and sentiment over time for all disciplines, including Music (CAH25-02-02), so programme and school teams can focus on the categories that move the dial—assessment clarity, operational reliability and strengths worth protecting.
It also enables like-for-like sector comparisons across CAH codes and by demographics (e.g., year of study, domicile, mode of study, campus/site, commuter status), so you can evidence change relative to the right peer group—not just the whole sector. Use it across the whole institution and drill down to departments and schools; produce concise, anonymised theme summaries for partners and programme teams; segment by site/provider, cohort and year; and export shareable outputs for reports, decks and dashboards.
