Buckinghamshire New University | Financial Statements 2020-21 | 17
Our performance 2020-21 has seen the University make further progress towards the objectives of 2020-21, even as the HE sector has been challenged by the efforts to safely deliver courses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the consequences of the pandemic showing some effect upon the outcomes of students throughout the sector, the University’s key performance indicators demonstrate that a rising reputation has contributed to growth being achieved which leads to a very strong financial performance.
Student numbers Assisted by earlier work to introduce new courses and boosted by an agile response to the government’s support for fast-track first-year sessions for students dissuaded from entering HE in autumn 2020, the University has seen rapid growth in the 2020-21 academic year. Overall growth of 9% between December 2019 and December 2020 puts the University in the top 20 fastest growing providers for the most recent rates of growth available. This was achieved through 21% growth in apprenticeships and 20% growth in taught postgraduate provision, on top of healthy 5% growth in first degree provision, which still constitutes over two-thirds of BNU’s full-time equivalent provision.
League table ranking The University has continued its ascent in domestic league tables, climbing from an aggregate position of 109th across the three rankings that were published in 2020 to an aggregate position of 99th in the same rankings in 2021. Climbs of 22 places in the Complete University Guide and 15 places in the Guardian University Guide have accelerated the University away from its position in 2017, when it ranked 120 or lower in every publication. The rate of increase in the Complete University Guide was the third-highest of all institutions while the twoyear climb in the Guardian was the 6th highest. Progress in the Sunday
Sunday Times Good University Guide has been slower, and the 2021 publication showed a small decline. Having achieved the Impact 2022 objective of a top 80 position in the 2021 Guardian publication, the University expects to achieve an aggregated position of 80th in the 2022 rankings, when averaged across all three publications.
Overall student satisfaction Set with reference to the sector average satisfaction rate in 2018, BNU had got very close to its Impact 2022 target of 85% in 2020, reaching a high of 83.5% and exceeding its benchmark rate of 82.4%. In 2021 the entire sector saw a large drop in satisfaction levels of -8% as students reflected on their experience during the pandemic. In reflection of this, the University’s benchmark for full time first degree overall satisfaction fell to 75.7% and the University’s overall satisfaction rate fell further, to 70%. Unlike some universities, BNU places a high premium on practical, face-to-face teaching, and the pandemic therefore had a more significant impact on the University, compromising its ability to provide the high-quality experience we normally provide for our students. As the University emerges from the pandemic, and teaching is less disrupted, we anticipate student satisfaction returning to our pre-pandemic levels. Although responses to the headline ‘overall I was satisfied with my course’ question were disappointing for the 2021 graduating cohort, there were other sections of the survey in which students expressed greater satisfaction. Bucks Students' Union continues to rank in the top 5 nationally while relative gains for organisation management puts the University in the top half of all institutions. Satisfaction with the timeliness of feedback to BNU students was maintained, significantly above benchmark, even as students across the sector voiced their dissatisfaction with how this had declined at other providers.
The response to the pandemic was better in some subjects than in others. 100% of Dance students were satisfied with their course while several subjects increased their relative position amongst other providers.
Retention BNU exceeds its benchmark for retention of students, with 81.2% of the full time first degree population included in the official 2018-19 HESA metric continuing at the University after their year of entry, compared to a benchmark of 79.8%. The proportion of BNU students leaving HE after their year of entry was lower than benchmarked – 15.5% against 16.3%. Although superior to benchmark, these figures do not reflect the strong retention performance of the courses delivered by BNU. In particular, the School of Nursing maintained a continuation rate of over 94% for the third year running while the School of Health Care & Social Work improved its rate to over 91%.
Highly-skilled employment Now measured by the Graduate Outcomes survey, which assesses the proportion of students undertaking graduate-level occupations 15 months after completion of their degree, the 2018-19 cohort showed a decline in employment prospects for students starting their careers during the pandemic. The unemployment rate of BNU graduates, previously the 4th-lowest in the UK at 2%, increased to 5.2% for the 2018-19 cohort. There are still no official metrics for the highly-skilled metric but the definition used by the Sunday Times University Guide saw 64.6% of graduates enter a graduate level occupation or enter further study – a proportion that ranks 100th in the sector after a decline of 5.3% from 69.9%. This decline is similar to those observed throughout the sector and may decline further before recovering – the employment prospects of those graduating in 201920 were even more affected by the pandemic than those of the students who have been surveyed so far.
