The Student Voice Weekly

Dr Stuart Grey
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The Student Voice Weekly is a short podcast for UK higher education leaders who want to turn student feedback, policy and research into practical action. Each week, Dr Stuart Grey, founder of Student Voice AI and Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow, unpacks the latest evidence on student voice, assessment, feedback, regulation and institutional improvement. Expect concise briefings on HE research, OfS and QAA developments, NSS and survey practice, and practical ways to use student comments more rigorously.

  1. 2d ago

    What useful student support looks like

    What useful student support looks like Dr Stuart Grey explores what students mean when they say they feel supported. Research on international students and doctoral expectations provides a starting point for distinguishing practical help, emotional support and the experiences people hoped for. Jisc's account of support conversations leads into practical questions about how universities can examine what happened after help was offered. In this episode: - Why practical assistance and feeling understood deserve separate attention in feedback. - How doctoral expectations can open a conversation about the help a researcher needs. - What to check during and after a support contact or referral. - How to preserve mixed experiences when interpreting comments. Research and sector sources - International student support: help, care and belonging: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/international-student-support-help-care-belonging/. Based on Liu, Liao and English's study of social support, belonging and psychological distress: https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2025.2566934, published online on 2 October 2025. Its cross-sectional, non-random survey concerns international students in China; findings are associations and are not a UK university benchmark. - PhD expectations relate to later satisfaction: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/phd-expectations-later-satisfaction/. Based on Steinhauser and colleagues' study of person-environment fit and doctoral success: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-026-01656-8, published online on 2 May 2026. The German studies use self-reported outcomes and do not measure completion. The recorded phrase "increased satisfaction" refers to an association with later satisfaction; the study does not establish an increase over time or a causal effect. - Jisc learning analytics account puts student conversations at the centre: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/jisc-learning-analytics-student-conversations-leeds-trinity/. The official Jisc account of Leeds Trinity practice: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/blog/five-signs-that-can-help-you-spot-student-disengagement-early, published on 7 September 2026, describes existing practice rather than a new rollout or a causal evaluation. The imagined support scenarios and suggestions for reviewing support are Stuart's practical proposals, not findings from the studies. Subscribe to The Student Voice Weekly: https://www.studentvoice.ai/ for the written issue each Friday. Explore the podcast: https://www.studentvoice.ai/podcast/ for previous episodes.

    What useful student support looks like

  2. Sep 11

    What feedback tells us, and whose voice is missing

    Dr Stuart Grey asks two connected questions: what can student feedback tell us, and who had a workable opportunity to give it? Episode 29 brings together teaching ratings, housing insecurity and the practical costs of taking part in student voice. In this episode - Matching the evidence to the decision a course team needs to make. - Keeping students' circumstances visible when comments move between teams. - Making preparation, dates, expenses and support clear before inviting students onto a committee. - Understanding what different participation routes can contribute. - Considering whose experiences a busy student committee may still be missing. - The OfS quality regulation survey for staff in England, closing on 12 October 2026. Sources and further reading - Student ratings and achievement: a modest link: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/student-ratings-achievement-modest-link/, with the research record at TED University: https://avesis.tedu.edu.tr/yayin/c0805e0b-8561-42a4-b26b-e44c72ba05a0/a-multilevel-meta-analysis-of-student-evaluations-of-teaching-and-academic-achievement. - Edinburgh students link housing insecurity to disrupted study: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/edinburgh-students-housing-insecurity-disrupted-study/, based on Hannah Awcock's published paper: https://sehej.raise-network.com/raise/article/view/1256. - QAA report shows how student engagement costs narrow student voice: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/qaa-report-shows-how-student-engagement-costs-narrow-student-voice/, with the official QAA announcement: https://www.qaa.ac.uk/news-events/news/new-report-highlights-the-costs-of-student-engagement-in-quality-processes and Student Perspectives on: Costs of Engagement: https://www.qaa.ac.uk/docs/qaa/about-us/ssac-costs-of-engagement-report.pdf?sfvrsn=6751b581_5. - OfS quality regulation survey opens ahead of wider reform: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/ofs-quality-regulation-survey-wider-assessment-reform/, with the official OfS survey announcement: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/news-blog-and-events/press-and-media/ofs-launches-survey-to-determine-the-impact-of-its-regulation-on-the-quality-of-education-for-students/. Reading the evidence The Edinburgh interviews concern experience at one institution in 2022/23. Stuart's observation about continuing housing difficulties is his own experience, rather than a current prevalence estimate from that study. QAA's report draws on 89 comments and committee members' experience; that is not a count of individual research participants. The practical examples and suggested responses are Stuart's interpretation. The OfS exercise is an evaluation in progress, with findings expected in spring 2027. Practical takeaway Ask what the feedback can tell you and who had a workable opportunity to give it. Keep those questions together when deciding what needs to change. Subscribe Listen to Student Voice Weekly: https://www.studentvoice.ai/podcast/ and subscribe to The Student Voice Weekly newsletter: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/newsletter/.

    What feedback tells us, and whose voice is missing

  3. Sep 4

    Where GenAI fits in student comment analysis

    QAA and Swansea University have published a practical approach to using generative AI for a first pass over free-text student survey comments. Dr Stuart Grey examines the safeguards author Sophie Leslie recommends and asks when universities need a more reproducible analytical foundation. The episode explains why Student Voice AI separates deterministic machine-learning categorisation and sentiment analysis from locally run LLM summarisation, and why that distinction matters for comparisons across cohorts, faculties and years. In This Episode - What Swansea University's GenAI-assisted comment-analysis pilot involved. - Why QAA recommends consent checks, anonymisation, controlled infrastructure and human validation. - What the Swansea example does and does not establish about effectiveness. - The difference between exploratory thematic work and repeatable institutional analytics. - Why Student Voice AI uses deterministic models for categorisation and sentiment. - Where locally run LLM summarisation fits after the analysis. - Practical stability and provenance checks for university pilots. About This Recording Recorded by Dr Stuart Grey for Episode 28 of Student Voice Weekly. The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity while preserving the substance and natural delivery of the recording. Sources - Faster thematic analysis of student survey comments, by Sophie Leslie of Swansea University: https://www.membershipresources.qaa.ac.uk/quality-and-standards/august-quality-quick-win - QAA sets safeguards for GenAI student feedback analysis: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/qaa-genai-student-feedback-analysis-safeguards/ - Student Voice Analytics versus generic LLMs: https://www.studentvoice.ai/compare/student-voice-analytics-vs-generic-llms/ - Student Voice Analytics: https://www.studentvoice.ai/student-voice-analytics/ Practical Takeaway Decide whether the task is exploratory or repeatable. For an exploratory first pass, test GenAI with QAA's safeguards. For reporting, benchmarking or longitudinal comparison, use a method that can reproduce its categories and sentiment, preserve a route back to the evidence, and maintain appropriate data residency. Subscribe Listen to and subscribe to Student Voice Weekly: https://www.studentvoice.ai/podcast/, or receive the written newsletter each Friday through The Student Voice Weekly newsletter: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/newsletter/.

    Where GenAI fits in student comment analysis

  4. Aug 28

    Student voice needs somewhere to go

    This week, Dr Stuart Grey asks what happens after universities collect student feedback. Drawing on new research into student-centred culture and longitudinal evidence about student engagement, Stuart explains why feedback needs a clear route to the people who can act-and why comments provide context that scores alone cannot. In This Episode - Why collecting student feedback is only the beginning. - How evidence can become trapped at a different level from the decision it needs. - Why closing the feedback loop does not mean agreeing to every request. - What longitudinal research tells us about engagement scores and student change. - How open comments help teams distinguish between different barriers to participation. - Why bot protection improves one part of survey integrity, but does not establish representativeness. - Why LLM-generated survey comments make response-quality checks increasingly important. Research - Student-centred culture needs student voice at every level: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/student-centred-culture-needs-student-voice-at-every-level/ - Engagement scores can mask student change: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/engagement-scores-can-mask-student-change/ Across the Sector - Jisc survey bot protection helps safeguard response quality: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/jisc-survey-bot-protection-response-quality/ - Pre-arrival feedback should identify strengths as well as risks: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/pre-arrival-student-feedback-strengths-continuation/ Practical Takeaway Take one recurring issue from last year's feedback and trace it from collection to decision and response. Give it a named route to the person or group that can act, carry enough context with the evidence, and show students what happened afterwards. About This Recording This episode was recorded by Dr Stuart Grey. The transcript was prepared from the final recording and lightly corrected for author names, research terminology, and readability. Subscribe Subscribe to The Student Voice Weekly: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/newsletter/.

    Student voice needs somewhere to go

  5. Aug 21

    When academic challenge becomes avoidable stress

    This week, Dr Stuart Grey asks where responsibility for academic stress actually sits. Drawing on a national study of more than 19,000 undergraduates and research into how early-career academics use student evaluations, Stuart explores how universities can distinguish worthwhile academic challenge from avoidable pressure created by course design. In This Episode - Why academic stress cannot sit with counselling and wellbeing services alone. - What a large Australian study suggests about the relationship between course experience and student distress. - How workload bunching, unclear criteria and weak explanations of purpose create avoidable friction. - Why evaluation scores show where to look while comments help explain what happened. - How developmental conversations make student feedback more useful and safer for staff. - Why repeated evidence and traceable comments matter when feedback concerns individual staff. Research - Academic stress is the strongest university-related distress signal: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/academic-stress-is-the-strongest-university-related-distress-signal/ - Student evaluations become useful when comments explain the scores: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/student-evaluations-useful-when-comments-explain-scores/ Further Reading - Three new QAA Subject Benchmark Statements open to student voice: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/qaa-new-subject-benchmark-statements-student-voice/ - QAA Subject Benchmark Statements: https://www.qaa.ac.uk/the-quality-code/subject-benchmark-statements Practical Takeaway Choose one point in a programme where students report pressure and trace it back to the design decision behind it. Test whether the challenge is necessary, its purpose is clear, the workload is manageable, and the comments reveal avoidable friction that a course team can remove. About This Recording This episode was recorded by Dr Stuart Grey. The transcript was prepared from the final recording and lightly corrected for names, research terminology, and readability. Subscribe Subscribe to The Student Voice Weekly: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/newsletter/.

    When academic challenge becomes avoidable stress

  6. Aug 14

    Where your student comments actually go

    This week, Dr Stuart Grey steps away from the usual research and sector-news format to talk directly about data security and provenance. Prompted by Student Voice's recent move to serve Irish institutions from an EU data centre, Stuart explains how regional residency and model provenance work together. UK customer data remains entirely in the UK, while Irish customer data is processed in the EU. Categorisation and sentiment analysis use deterministic machine-learning models; locally run LLMs are used only for summarisation. In This Episode - Why student comments need to be treated as sensitive evidence rather than ordinary spreadsheet text. - Why UK customer data remains entirely resident in the UK. - What EU data residency provides for Irish institutions-and what it does not answer by itself. - Why categorisation and sentiment analysis use deterministic machine-learning models. - Why LLMs are used only for summarisation and run locally on controlled hardware. - What data provenance means in practical terms. - Why model, taxonomy, prompt, and processing versions matter for credible trends. - Five questions to ask before uploading real student data to an analysis tool. Practical Resources - Student comment analysis governance checklist: https://www.studentvoice.ai/resources/student-comment-analysis-governance-checklist/ - Student Voice Analytics governance and reproducibility: https://www.studentvoice.ai/student-voice-analytics/ - Student Voice Analytics and generic LLMs compared: https://www.studentvoice.ai/compare/student-voice-analytics-vs-generic-llms/ - ICO guidance on UK GDPR: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/ - ICO guidance on international data transfers: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-and-the-eu/data-protection-and-the-eu-in-detail/the-uk-gdpr/international-data-transfers/ Practical Takeaway Pick one student comment and map its full journey from upload to analysis, reporting, retention, and deletion. Any point that cannot be clearly explained deserves attention before real student data is processed. About This Recording This episode was recorded by Dr Stuart Grey. The transcript was prepared from the final recording and lightly corrected for names, technical terminology, and readability. Subscribe Subscribe to The Student Voice Weekly: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/newsletter/.

    Where your student comments actually go

  7. Aug 7

    Let students shape the question

    This week, Dr Stuart Grey asks who gets to decide what universities ask students in the first place. Drawing on papers he read this week, his own teaching, and Student Voice's national NSS comment analysis, Stuart explores what changes when students help frame the question, produce the evidence, and interpret what it means. In This Episode - Why student-led consultation can change the quality of wellbeing evidence. - What Bangor University's student consultants added by working across the whole evidence pipeline. - What Student Voice's Feedback and Student Support categories reveal beyond the headline average. - What a study of more than 1,200 students reveals about self-doubt and feedback-seeking. - How CAH codes support like-for-like subject comparisons without becoming a league table. - Why a category is only a starting point when one comment can cover several experiences. - How earlier student involvement can carry through into curriculum review and routine practice. Research - Student-led wellbeing strategy works best when students lead the consultation: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/student-led-wellbeing-strategy-works-best-when-students-lead-the-consultation/ - Self-doubt makes students watch for feedback, but hesitate to ask for it: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/self-doubt-makes-students-watch-feedback-but-hesitate-to-ask/ Across the Sector - Advance HE says student voice should start before consultation: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/advance-he-student-voice-should-start-before-consultation/ - Northampton's Inclusive Curriculum Toolkit shows how student listening can reshape assessment and feedback: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/northamptons-inclusive-curriculum-toolkit-student-listening-assessment-feedback/ Student Voice Evidence - NSS open-text analysis methodology for UK higher education: https://www.studentvoice.ai/resources/nss-open-text-analysis-methodology/ - What UK students say about feedback: https://www.studentvoice.ai/category/feedback/ - What UK students say about student support: https://www.studentvoice.ai/category/student-support/ Practical Implication Bring students into the evidence process before the questions and proposed solutions are fixed. Use categories and CAH comparisons to locate patterns, then read the comments in context and turn the shared interpretation into routine practice. About This Recording This episode was recorded by Dr Stuart Grey. The transcript was prepared from the edited recording and lightly corrected for names, terminology, and readability. Subscribe Subscribe to The Student Voice Weekly: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/newsletter/.

    Let students shape the question

  8. Jul 31

    Designing participation that students can use

    This week, Dr Stuart Grey looks at how universities can design student voice around usable space, meaningful expression, a real audience, and visible influence. The episode considers a Manchester Metropolitan University case study applying Lundy's participation model, a scoping review of how higher education research defines belonging, Leicester's NSS 2026 results, and the consistency questions raised by Swansea University's Quality Enhancement Review. In This Episode - Why adding a feedback channel does not necessarily widen participation. - How space, voice, audience, and influence provide a practical audit for student voice. - What a reflective departmental case study can and cannot demonstrate. - Why belonging measures need definitions grounded in student experience. - How open comments can explain what students recognise as visible action. - Why strong partnership structures still need consistent assessment and support rules. Research - Student voice gets stronger when participation is designed, not assumed: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/student-voice-gets-stronger-when-participation-is-designed-not-assumed/ - Belonging surveys are stronger when students define what belonging means: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/belonging-surveys-are-stronger-when-students-define-belonging/ Across the Sector - Leicester's NSS 2026 results show why student voice gains need visible follow-through: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/leicester-nss-2026-results-student-voice-visible-follow-through/ - Swansea's QER says strong student partnership still needs more consistent assessment and support rules: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/swansea-qer-student-partnership-assessment-support-rules/ Practical Implication Take one existing student voice route and identify where students can contribute, how they can express a view, who is expected to respond, and what evidence will show that their contribution had influence. Subscribe Subscribe to The Student Voice Weekly: https://www.studentvoice.ai/blog/newsletter/.

    Designing participation that students can use
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About

The Student Voice Weekly is a short podcast for UK higher education leaders who want to turn student feedback, policy and research into practical action. Each week, Dr Stuart Grey, founder of Student Voice AI and Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow, unpacks the latest evidence on student voice, assessment, feedback, regulation and institutional improvement. Expect concise briefings on HE research, OfS and QAA developments, NSS and survey practice, and practical ways to use student comments more rigorously.

Information

  • Creator
    Dr Stuart Grey
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    30
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Student Voice Systems Limited
  • Show Website
    The Student Voice Weekly