The NSS is an annual national survey of final-year undergraduate students that runs across the UK higher education sector.

The Law School is pleased to have achieved above sector average ratings for teaching quality, learning opportunities, learning resources, and organisation and management. The overwhelming majority of Bristol law students expressed satisfaction with their degree course overall. Though the School’s overall satisfaction rating was slightly down on the previous year’s, this reflected a cross-sector trend and the School continues to be well-positioned in its peer group.

Head of School, Professor Ken Oliphant said:

"The views of our students are incredibly important to us. Results from the NSS helps us gauge how well we’re doing in delivering a quality education and drive the introduction of new initiatives to provide an even better student experience. It’s heartening that a number of the areas we’ve been focusing on are reflected in higher than average results in this year’s survey.”

Over the past year the Law School has:

• Lowered staff-student ratios: Recruitment of over 40 new members of the academic team has brought new areas of expertise, allowing us to offer an even greater range of exciting optional units and reduce staff-student ratios. We continue to provide a personal educational experience through the extensive use of small tutorial group teaching.
• Improved its facilities: Expansion of facilities with the award-winning Berkeley Square renovation, which has meant new study areas, the state-of-the-art Lady Hale Moot Court and a new home for the School’s Law Clinic.
• Provided more choice: As well as lots of optional units at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, we have introduced new innovative postgraduate courses, including LLMs in International Law and International Relations, Health, Law and Society, and (from 2018) Banking and Finance Law.
• Invested in employability: An expanded Law Clinic programme, new mentoring schemes, additional dedicated staff, increased involvement of alumni in the future of our students and new opportunities to explore alternative careers in law.

"Providing our students with great learning opportunities in a supportive academic community is a key strategic priority for us and over the past year we’ve taken a number of steps to enhance what we already offer.

We would have liked our NSS scores to have been even better than they are, but it’s been a challenging year in the university sector generally and we remain committed to working with students to improve our educational offering and providing a first-class learning environment,” concluded Professor Oliphant.

Professor Oliphant formally takes up the position of Head of School on 1 August 2018.  Amongst his priorities for his first year are:

-          Further focus on small group teaching - with tutorial groups of 8 students (maximum) already planned for 2018/19 academic year.

-          Conclusion of a curriculum review that will enhance student skills development and ensure our students are able to put their learning into practice.

-          Promoting student-staff engagement both within and alongside the curriculum to strengthen our learning community and optimise the student experience.