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
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.