For the second year in a row, Bishop Grosseteste University, in Lincoln, enjoyed the highest rating in the UK, according to The Times and Times Higher Education (THE). The former Church of England teacher training college, registered the best results in the country for teaching, learning opportunities and assessment and feedback, with over 90 percent responding positively to the survey as a whole. The university, which is changing its name to Lincoln Bishop University next month, has fewer than 2,500 students, mainly taking degrees in teacher training, childhood studies, history, archaeology or psychology. A spokesperson for the university says: “We're a small campus and everybody is so friendly, you walk around and everybody will say hello to you.”

Professor Andrew Gower, the Vice-Chancellor, says: “As a person-centred and forward-looking university committed to delivering an exceptional experience for our students on campus, in the workplace and online, we are delighted to receive these results.”

The University of Wales Trinity Saint David, in Carmarthen, was second in both analyses, while THE placed Scotland’s University of the Highlands and Islands third. Both are among the UK’s smaller universities, with campuses in rural locations. St Andrews took third position in The Times, which placed it top of its overall university ranking last year, partly because of its high satisfaction ratings.

Other universities in the top 10 included Liverpool Hope, Sunderland, the Arts University Plymouth and Birmingham Newman, all of which are based in cities but are not among the UK’s larger universities and generally appear in the bottom half of domestic rankings.

Sheffield was the only institution in the top 10 from the Russell Group of leading research universities. Cambridge and Oxford, where the NSS response rate has tended to be lower than the national average, came 94th and 96th respectively in The Times analysis and lower still in THE, while Edinburgh finished in the bottom five in The Times and only two places outside it in THE.

Nick Hillman, Director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, linked the results to a “crisis of loneliness and a lack of belonging” among young people. “It suggests they are itching to be part of a proper community and it’s easier for smaller institutions to build a sense of belonging,” he told The Times. “It really is profoundly important. This is the COVID generation and they were badly affected by the pandemic. It means much bigger institutions have a challenge and there are policy pressures on universities to merge but students are telling us they don’t want to be somewhere impersonal.”

The NSS showed improvement in most areas covered by the survey, although the OfS flagged up weaknesses in organisation and management, with some universities scoring well below expectations. This theme and the one relating to the student voice were the only ones of the seven where positive responses averaged less than 80 percent. Students with disabilities were particularly concerned about organisation and management, and were less satisfied than others generally.

The survey also highlights differences between subjects in average levels of satisfaction, some of which may surprise commentators. Food and beverage studies, for example, had the highest proportion of respondents, at 94.8 percent, answering positively when asked “how often does your course challenge you to achieve your best work.”

John Blake, Director for Fair Access and Participation at the OfS notes in a statement that the survey gave students the important opportunity to give their views on their higher education experiences and helped future students to choose the right course for them. “I’m especially pleased to see students providing powerful feedback on their experience of teaching, a crucial part of their higher education experience. The NSS is also useful for identifying areas where there is room for improvement. In particular, this year’s results show that institutions across the sector could be doing more to ensure disabled students are getting the high quality higher education experience they are entitled to.”

The UK is not the only country to conduct a National Student Survey. In the Netherlands, nearly three-quarters of college and university students declared themselves satisfied with their course of study in the 2025 National Student Survey, which was completed by nearly 260,000 students. Over the past four years, the proportion of satisfied students has risen from 71.5 percent to 74.2 percent, while the proportion dissatisfied has fallen from 8.4 percent to 6.3 percent.