National Student Survey (NSS) 2026 results in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Why don't these results appear on the OfS website?

For NSS reporting, the OU is published as one provider. This means our results are not published separately for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

However, because of the OU’s unique funding arrangements, our students in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are still asked the overall satisfaction question. While these results are not published in the public NSS results dashboards, the OU receives these results in our own detailed provider results.

Understanding comparisons and rankings

Universities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland may share their ranking in overall satisfaction based on the data published by Office for Students for providers in their nation.

Because the OU’s nation-specific overall satisfaction results are not currently included, some published comparisons may not include the OU’s results.

Where the OU makes comparisons using overall satisfaction data (question 28) in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, these are based on our validated NSS results. We compare with institutions on the Office for Students register who either have the right to use ‘university’ in their title and/or hold degree awarding powers. Based on this analysis, the OU ranks as follows:

• Northern Ireland – First for overall student satisfaction compared to all comparable institutions in this nation.
• Scotland – Second for overall student satisfaction compared to all comparable institutions in this nation.
• Wales – First for overall student satisfaction compared to all comparable institutions in this nation.

In addition, various media publications may produce their own rankings based on NSS data. These rankings will use different methodologies so results will vary.

Further information

If you would like further information about The Open University's NSS results, please contact our National Student Survey Coordinator.