Student Experience Survey (SES)
The 2025 Student Experience Survey is open from 9 September - 12 October
Stay tuned for more information and events.
Why should I complete the survey?
Unlike the myExperience Survey which asks you to provide thoughts on your individual courses within your program, the Student Experience Survey (SES) is administered by the Social Research Centre on behalf of the government.Â
As a first, middle or final year student, it's an opportunity for you to provide thoughts on your whole university experience.
Your response directly influences some major changes at UNSW, and helps future students decide on where they choose to study as results are published on websites such as , and . These key outcomes also contribute to the .
All responses are entirely confidential.
* apply.
Within the SES, the term 'course' refers to your degree or program of study rather than your classes. Please keep this in mind as you complete the survey, focusing on your overall degree experience. Â
Hear from our lecturers about why the SES is important
Student services at hand
- Short-term
- Medium-term
- Long-term
More student spaces
- Transformation of student spaces in the Morven Brown building and Library for greater collaborative learning
- Revitalising on-campus spaces like the Village Green
- Increased and improved break out spaces for students at UNSW Canberra.
More student support and services
- Growth in Academic support services to meet student demand
- More wellbeing services
- Arc’s ongoing improvements to Exam Support, and the expansion of Stress Less Week
- More food packages to improve accessibility for students utilising Food Hub
- Growth in Arc clubs (now 357 on offer!).
More opportunities to socially interact with other studentsÂ
- Over 8000 students and staff attended events such as 2023 UNSW Diversity Festival
- More Faculty led extra-curricular activities within learning communities.
More inclusivity and a sense of communityÂ
- UNSW continues to host Australia’s biggest Orientation program (O-Week),welcoming 22,000+ students on campus
- More uplifting experiences and global citizenship development opportunities for international studentsÂ
More innovation
- Launched ClassChat, a collaborative ChatGPT-like interface for classes and teams. The platform is part of UNSW Business AI Lab initiative ‘Playground X' and offers innovative AI-driven learning experiences.Â
More employability & career opportunities
- Expansion of the Career Mentoring program through UNSW Employability Roadmap
- Embedding and aligning WIL opportunities across undergraduate programs.
Pathways
- Development of UNSW Pathways. The Start@UNSW program supports students completing the Gateway Admission Pathway, and has expanded to include support for all equity cohorts, including low-SES, rural and remote students, refugees, Confit Pathway, UNSW Prep programs, UNSW College diploma students and TAFE PathwaysÂ
- More student engagement through Learning Abroad programs.
Academic innovation
- Delivery of the Nexus program to elevate student experience, including Assessment and Feedback, Belonging and WellbeingÂ
- Creation of the Student Experience (SX) working group – engaging with students to develop programs to improve the UNSW student experience and educational excellenceÂ
- Expansion of integrated technology-enhanced learning, including a new personalised teaching space, updated media studios and toolkits for teaching fellows
- Better onboarding and orientation processes for postgraduate students at UNSW Canberra.Â
- Planning and development in space expansion of UNSW Health precinct, Canberra city campus, student accommodation, and Western Sydney hubs
- Refining all first-year activities Â
- More nurturing programsÂ
- Refining assessment and feedback
- Increasing the consistency of Moodle sites across courses and moving textbooks to an online format for 91³ÉÈ˰涶Òôstudents.
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The SES is an annual online survey for current higher education students in Australia. Students are invited to participate via an email or SMS. The survey takes around 10–15 minutes to complete and aims to collect insights into students’ experiences around:
- Quality of teaching
- Learning resources and environment
- Student support services
- Engagement with study
- Skills development
- Overall satisfaction
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The SES is an important tool for quality assurance in Australian higher education. Higher education institutions and the government use SES data to monitor performance, inform policies and improve teaching and learning outcomes.
At UNSW, your feedback is used to help us better understand the strengths and areas for improvement in our education and service offerings, resulting in real and lasting change.
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The SES is part of the Australian Government's Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) initiative. It is administered by the Social Research Centre on behalf of the Australian Department of Education.
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Participation in the SES is by invitation only. In-scope students will receive an email or SMS with a survey link.
The survey is aimed at domestic and international undergraduate, postgraduate coursework and research students currently enrolled in Australian higher education institutions who are either:
- commencing (students in their first year of study who have attended at least one full teaching period of the course),
- middle year, or
- final year (students in their final year of study).
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No, participation in the SES is voluntary. Students are highly encouraged to take part as their feedback directly influences the improvement of their educational institution.
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Yes. All responses are confidential, and your response is not linked to your personal information. The results are reported in aggregate form, meaning individual responses are completely anonymous.
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After the survey period ends, the data is analysed and collated into a series of reports, which are provided to individual institutions and published on the QILT website.
Results are published on websites such as QILT, CompareED and The Good Universities Guide to help future students decide on where to study. These key outcomes also contribute to the AFR Best Universities Ranking.
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Yes! QILT runs a weekly draw prize of $1000 e-gift card and 2nd prize of $250 e-gift card, as a gesture of appreciation for completing the survey. The earlier you complete the survey, the better the chances of winning the draw prize. .
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More information about the SES and the QILT initiative can be found on the .
Have a question?
Contact us for advice on all things UNSW, including faculty-specific questions, essential services, and even support and development. We’re here to help.