Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES)

The 2012 survey window opened on 15 February and will close on 14 June

PTES is a unique service provided by the Higher Education Academy to all UK Higher Education Institutions. The survey collects feedback from current taught postgraduate students in a systematic and user-friendly way. Results are anonymous, allowing comparison against the sector nationally and within benchmarking clubs, while ensuring that they are used for internal enhancement.

A record number of UK Higher Education Institutions have agreed to take part in PTES 2012 and the list of participating institutions is now available.

The 2012 survey window opened on 15 February but institutions can choose when to launch PTES locally and have until 19 April to do so. They also decide when to close their version of the survey, the latest date being 14 June. 

For further information or any late applications please contact: surveys@heacademy.ac.uk

Using PTES for Enhancement

The data collected by PTES is designed to inform enhancements to the student learning experience. In addition to delivering the PTES (and PRES) surveys to the sector, the Higher Education Academy also runs events on using student surveys (both undergraduate and postgraduate) for enhancement. Our flagship event is the annual Surveys for Enhancement Conference, taking place on 17 May 2012 in Nottingham. The call for contributions is open until 12 March and further details can be found at:

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2012/17-may-surveys-for-enhancement

 Key benefits of PTES

  • As a national survey (85 participating institutions in 2012), PTES is a unique opportunity to benchmark your PGT provision against aggregated results for the sector as a whole and benchmarking groups
  • With a maximum cost of £450 for academy subscribers, PTES offers great value for money as a way of evaluating the experiences of your entire PGT cohort
  • Each institution’s results are confidential and the focus of the survey is on enhancement rather than league tables
  • Institutions can add their own questions to the survey allowing it to be tailored to local needs
  • The survey window is flexible – institutions can schedule their survey to maximise convenience, response rates and meaningful responses
  • The UK Government’s Higher Education White Paper (for HE in England) has asked sector bodies to develop and consider proposals for a public survey of Postgraduate Taught students, similar to the National Student Survey; running PTES now will enable you to start to benchmark your performance with the sector and with groups of similar HEIs
  • The HEA provides extensive support for the administration of the survey and advice on analysing and using the results to make positive changes

For more information on what is involved in running PTES, please see our 'What is PTES?' document.

PTES 2011

38,756 taught postgraduate students from 80 institutions participated in PTES 2011 and the national results are available in the PTES report for 2011

Resources for PTES Officers

Resources for PTES Officers responsible for running PTES 2012 in their institution are available for download here - PTES 2012 resources

Contact

surveys@heacademy.ac.uk