Survey results show high student satisfaction across taught postgraduate programmes at the College.

The University of Edinburgh’s College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine (CMVM) has once again performed extremely well in the annual survey of the experiences of postgraduate students on taught programmes at UK universities.

The Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) gives students the opportunity to give their honest and anonymous feedback on their University experience. The survey is carried out by AdvanceHE, and is designed in conjunction with higher education experts from across the sector. A total of 2,350 postgraduate taught students responded to the survey between 24 April and 16 June 2023.

This year, the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine earned an 85% overall satisfaction rate, higher than the 80% average accross Russell Group universities. The College comprises the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, as well as the Edinburgh Medical School and its three deaneries – Biomedical Sciences, Clinical Sciences, and Molecular, Genetic and Population Health Sciences.

Three of the College’s online MSc programmes – Global Health and Infectious Diseases, Clinical Education, and Equine Science – had 100% overall satisfaction among respondents. Several other programmes also had overall satisfaction above 95%.

In other highlights from the survey, 92% of students said their programmes enhanced their academic ability, and 91% found their programmes intellectually stimulating.

The results reflect the commitment and hard work of our postgraduate teaching staff. Congratulations to everyone who played a part in achieving this fantastic result!

Extraordinary teaching experience

Many of the comments from students who completed the survey celebrated the teaching of programme staff. The comments below show a sample of what our students had to say.

I really enjoy the subject matter and have had a blast learning new things. The equitation science and the animal welfare science courses have particularly been interesting and I have been excited to learn the subject matter.

Meeting people from diverse backgrounds and various opinions have benefited my learning and my ability to work in groups.

The content is the most interesting thing followed by the discussion board. It is always informative to expand the scope of my career with more knowledge on human health which is not limited to zoonosis but also food security, public health systems, epidemiology, travel medicine and others.

The tutors are always accessible which is motivating. You never feel uncertain about the next step. Being able to interact with students from around the world on the discussion boards are quite informative as you learn different management approaches and resources worldwide.

One thing that I have improved for myself during this course is my self-confidence. I am a quiet type of person but one thing that I am happy with is the support from my educators and my personal tutor. They all encouraged me and supported me throughout the course.

Satisfaction across a range of areas

The survey asked students whether they agreed with a range of statements covering different aspects of postgraduate education, from teaching to skills development.

More information

You can read and download AdvanceHE’s PTES report in full on their website.

Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey on the AdvanceHE website