Postgraduate student satisfaction in the UK

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify the relative importance of factors that influence the overall satisfaction of postgraduate built environment students and also examine the extent to which demographic backgrounds affect this.

Design/methodology/approach

The data used in this paper have been collected through Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey in the UK. Descriptive and statistical analysis methods were used to analyse student satisfaction variables and identify the extent to which demographic factors influenced overall student satisfaction.

Findings

Factors related to teaching and learning have the most statistically significant importance for postgraduate built environment student satisfaction in the UK. Other factors imposing statistically significant influence on student satisfaction are related to assessment and feedback, organisation and management, skills development and information related to the course as all factors of these categories have a significance value of 0. On the other hand, students showed a lower level of satisfaction to factors related to Dissertations or major projects although it is not statistically significant. Gender is the only demographic factor, which has a statistically significant influence on student satisfaction for built environment students.

Research limitations/implications

The sample includes data only from a single university. Therefore, it may impose restrictions of generalisability of this research.

Practical implications

This research identifies the factors that affect the satisfaction of postgraduate built environment students. The built environment course directors can use the findings of this research to make recommendations on the redesign and redevelopment of their courses in order to enhance the quality of the programmes in order to make them more attractive and appealing to students.

Originality/value

This is pioneering research that provides a comprehensive overview of the factors affecting postgraduate built environment student satisfaction in the UK.

Citation

Poon, J. (2019), "Postgraduate student satisfaction in the UK", Property Management, Vol. 37 No. 1, pp. 115-135. https://doi.org/10.1108/PM-07-2017-0041