Professor Gil Aitken, Dean of Education, College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine
Taught postgraduate students (PGT) are asked about their experiences each year in the national Postgraduate Teaching Experience Survey (PTES). The 2025 results build on an already positive picture. Dean of Education Professor Gill Aitken shares the headline results.
Postgraduate students on taught programmes at the University of Edinburgh rated their overall satisfaction as 83.3%, a 4.2-point increase since last year (79.1%) and the highest score in the past five years. In MVM we recorded an overall satisfaction rating of 89.9% (up over 6%). This is an outstanding achievement and testament to all colleagues involved in the design and delivery of our programmes.
Colleagues have put a lot of effort into work on assessment and feedback so I was pleased to see a reported improvement in students’ experience in this area, with a 6% increase in satisfaction in this aspect to 80%.
When students were asked about learning resources those offered online came out top with a score of 95% satisfaction, this is consistent with scores for the past five years. On-campus learning resources were rated at 83.9%, a noteable 20% increase on last year’s score.
The students who responded to the survey and who studied on the MSc Critical Care, MSc Internal Medicine, MSc Global Health and Infectious Diseases, MSc Surgical Sciences and MSc Family Medicine programmes gave them a 100% satisfaction rating.
The free-text comments students contributed to the survey suggest they had the most positive experiences in the following areas:
- Assessment Feedback: Timely and insightful feedback in several programmes has been instrumental in guiding students’ learning effectively.
- Community Engagement: Innovative engagement strategies have successfully fostered a supportive and inclusive academic community.
- Resource Accessibility: Extensive access to digital and on-campus resources has notably enhanced learning experiences and research opportunities.
- Teaching Quality: Interactive and practical teaching methods have received high praise for boosting engagement and comprehension. Students especially value the relevance of their studies to their career development
- Support Services: The availability of a wide range of support services has significantly aided student success and well-being.
Even with such strong results we do still have work to do. Students reported less positively on the following:
- Feedback Consistency: In some areas a lack of consistent feedback across courses left some students unclear on how to improve their work.
- Outdated Teaching Materials: It was noted that some programmes overly relied on outdated teaching materials and teaching methods.
- Accessibility of Support Services: Some variability was reported in accessibility of support services.
Communication and Organisation were also noted to be inconsistent in some cases, with a variation in staff engagement.
As we move to the new six-school structure the consolidation of PGT programmes into two schools will allows us to further enhance our PGT portfolio. Alex Laidlaw, Head of Strategic Education Operations, and I are working with colleagues in both Edinburgh Medical School and the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies to review all of our PGT programmes.
Together we will establish a new process to consistently review the College curriculum. This work will be overseen by a new College Portfolio Management Board, convened by Professor Matt Bailey, Dean of Quality, that will oversee the entirety of our educational portfolio.
The College is home to just over 12,000 PGT students each year. A total of 2,818 PGT students responded to the 2025 survey creating an overall response rate of 23.3%. This is an increase of 1.2 percentage points since 2024 (22.1%). Last year the average response rate for all participating universities was 24.7% so we are close to the national average.
Many of you will have seen the recent National Student Survey results too. We are currently analysing these and will provide an update next month. As ever, we are proud of the efforts of all those involved in teaching and supporting our students.
As we work together to reframe our PGT portfolio, this latest set of PTES results shows that we are building on firm foundations and I’d like to extend my congratulations and thanks to everyone involved in delivering our diverse PGT portfolio.
