New Students Survey

Are you a new undergraduate or postgraduate students studying with us for the first time? We want you to tell us about how you're used to learning, what your expectations and motivations for studying are and how experienced you are are with the use of technology in your learning. This will help us see how we can best support you during your time with us.

Quotes from this years very happy prize winners who completed the survey:

When does the survey take place?

This year’s course survey will launch on 5 October and closes on 30 October 2026

How you can fill out the survey

You will receive a weekly reminder to take part in the survey from Student Surveys. Teaching staff on your course may also ask you to complete the survey by scanning a QR code or sharing a link during a teaching session.

Prize draw for completing the survey

As a thank you for participating each week the survey is open, we will be running a prize draw offering a £50 supermarket voucher to those who completed the survey that week.

How it helps?

We value your feedback and use your numerical and open-text responses to better understand students' experience and identify opportunities for improving our courses and the wider university experience. Your voice really does make a difference.

What happens to your data?

To set the survey up the University uses student enrolment records to identify students eligible to participate and distribute survey invitations. Upon the survey closing we link responses to your student record to administer prize draws. Winners are randomly selected and their contact details used to pass on the prizes. After the prize draw has been completed, contact details and identifying information such as names and email addresses are removed before analysis takes place. We then look at trends in aggregated numerical data and analysis of open text comments to identify where we need to improve the student experience. 

After the survey has ended your anonymised data will be held securely for up to 10 years and may be used in summary form by Advance HE and the University of Portsmouth in scientific, research or statistical reports to better understand the experience of students as they begin studying with us. No individual will ever be identified in any reports or publications. To make all of this possible we have to share your data with third parties.

Who do we share your data with and why?

The survey is designed and administered by Advance HE for participating institutions, including the University of Portsmouth. Jisc provides the Online Surveys platform used to administer the survey and Student Voice AI perform sentiment and common themes from open text comments. No automated decisions are made about individual students based on this analysis. For Advance HE and JISC your name, email address and course details are shared to allow us to send invitation and reminders to allow you to complete the survey. For Student Voice AI we share open text comments, and course details but no Student ID, names or contact details are shared.

Your comments may be shared with staff members who are responsible for improving services, teaching and the student experience. We aim to keep your feedback confidential and will remove names and other identifiable information from comments wherever possible before they are shared. However, there may be occasions where the content of a comment could indirectly identify an individual. In exceptional circumstances, where comments indicate a serious welfare, safeguarding or safety concern, the University may need to take steps to identify and contact the individual concerned.

To help protect your privacy and the privacy of others, please avoid including names or other personal information in your comments unless it is necessary to do so.

Why do we process your data?

The University of Portsmouth is the Data Controller for information collected through this survey. Personal data is processed in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), and the Data Protection Act 2018. The University's lawful basis for processing this information is Public Task, which permits the processing of personal data where it is necessary for the University to perform tasks carried out in the public interest.

Your rights?

You have rights relating to your personal data, including the right to access information held about you, request correction of inaccurate information, object to processing in certain circumstances and raise concerns about how your personal data is processed.

If you ever have any queries about how your data will be used or processed, please contact the University’s Data Protection team at [email protected]. You also have the right to lodge a complaint about how your data has been used with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Further information is available in the University Data Protection Policy, Student Voice Policy and Student Privacy Notice.