This week sees publication of the National Student Survey for 2026, by the Office for Students.
This year’s survey asked final-year undergraduates (2025), finishing their studies in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, to complete the annual set of 26 questions on themes including teaching and assessments, academic support, and the wider student experience.
The resulting data may be filtered to provide insights on recent students’ experience of a particular subjects at degree level. This includes ‘history’ and allows comparison of responses from 2025 graduates with those for all subjects studied in UK higher education.
Archived data also shows trends in the views and experience of history undergraduates.
In both cases, UK history undergraduates demonstrate very high levels of appreciation: for the quality of teaching by university historians, for the rigour and intellectual richness of the courses designed by these historians; and the value of a history degree in preparing them for personal and professional life on leaving university.
This week sees publication of the National Student Survey for 2026.
This year’s survey asked final-year undergraduates, finishing their studies in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, to complete the annual list of 26 questions on themes including teaching and assessments, academic support, and the wider student experience.
The NSS 2026 results were published by the Office for Students on 8 July and are available here. The data may be filtered by subject to the third tier of HESA’s subject chart which includes ‘History’ (CAH Level 3, 20-01-01). This allows comparison of responses from 2025 history graduates with those for all subjects studied in UK higher education.
From the list of 26 questions we’ve chosen eight that directly relate to the work and contribution of academic historians working in UK higher education: in teaching and course design; in the development of programmes; in the skills gained, and the value of the degree for life and work upon graduation. (For a list of these eight questions from the Survey, please see below.*)
Responses to each question are given a ‘positivity score’ which is shown as a percentage in the survey results. Positivity is the proportion of respondents choosing the top two (of four) possible responses to each question, i.e. ‘Very good’ or ‘Good’.
Ninety-one universities (77 in England, 7 in Scotland, 5 in Wales and 2 in Northern Ireland) provide data relating to history degrees in 2026. The response rate for all students for the 2026 NSS as a whole was 71.8% and 68.1% for history undergraduates.
How does History compare with all subjects in NSS 2026?
In Chart 1, below, responses from all UK history undergraduates to these eight questions are set against responses to the same questions from all students who took part in the 2026 Survey. Click on the image to enlarge.
Chart 1 shows a particularly strong showing for history, compared with all subjects, in areas such as the quality and value of teaching (Questions 1 & 2) and students’ appreciation of the intellectual rigour, challenge and complexity of a history degree (Questions 3 & 5).
Such qualities rely on specialist historians teaching to their area of training and expertise, and on time for personal research to develop intellectually engaging courses. Both are now being seriously undermined by unsustainable cuts to history departments and teaching provision.
In other questions, the responses of history students are in line with those for all subjects, in terms of the incremental development of their degree, and the integration of knowledge and skills from specific modules to the degree as a whole (Questions 6 and 7).
Finally, and contrary to the recent views of selected politicians and commentators, 85% of history students (NSS 2026) express confidence that their degree choice has ‘developed the knowledge and skills that you think you will need for your future’. At 85.1% the score from history students is marginally below that for all subjects (86.8%) which includes many explicitly vocational subjects and degree courses.
This high score is especially welcome given the understandable appeal of — and, on occasions, pressure to choose — vocational degree subjects.
Relative to other subjects, especially in some STEM and applied subjects, few of today’s history students will embark on a pre-set dedicated career path. And yet, having pursued a course of their choice, history graduates enter the workforce across a wide range of sectors, well equipped to interpret, navigate, and adapt to our future world and workplace.
How have History responses changed 2022-26?
Charts 2 and 3 below map changing responses to these same eight questions in comparable recent National Student Surveys, 2022 to 2026.
Chart 2 shows responses over time for the first four selected questions (Qs 1-4) which relate to the quality of teaching by academic historians, and of the courses they design and lead, Again, please click on the images to enlarge.
As Chart 2 shows, recent history graduates are consistently, or increasingly, positive with reference to questions about teaching and course content and assessment.
Chart 3 shows responses over time for the second set of selected questions (Qs 5,6,7 & 9), which relate to the coherence and integrity of a history course, and (Question 9) to the application of skills, knowledge and understanding from their degree for life after university.
While responses to each of these questions show rising positivity, the affirmation of the value of a history degree for the future — from those who have just completed their studies — is again striking. This comes in a period when negative messaging has remained strong, and new technologies have prompted some to question the humanities in higher education.
Contemporary students, in tandem with a growing number of employers, appear to disagree, having experienced high-quality historical education at first hand.
Question Number 9
We can take the study of Question No. 9 a little further thanks to the data within a helpful WonkHE post (published on 9 July) which explores this year’s National Student Survey in greater detail and sophistication than is possible here.
Question 9 — ‘How well has your course developed your knowledge and skills that you think you will need for your future?’ — is interesting for the insights it offers on students’ sense of their preparedness following a particular subject of study.
The WonkHE post makes it possible to compare responses to Question 9 across the range of subjects available to all students in UK higher education.
Chart 4, below, provides the positivity scores for Question 9 for the 21 top-level (CAH 1) HESA subject categories, from ‘Architecture, Building & Planning’ to ‘Veterinary Sciences’. Again, click on the image to enlarge.
Here, History features within ‘Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies’ (HPRS), which is marked in red with a score of 84.4% against a mean score for all subjects of 86.8%.
Scores for Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies are, for Question 9, slightly below the mean for all available subjects. Certain subject areas (for example, Medicine & Dentistry, Veterinary Science, and Education & Teaching) also score more highly, given the closer correlation between course and expected professional choices after graduation.
But what’s also striking is, first, that there’s no obvious correlation between scores and subjects broadly defined as ‘STEM & Applied Sciences’ or ‘Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences’; and, second, that aside from more overtly vocational categories, most subjects areas closely grouped in terms of scores.
At 84.4%, Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies is with + / – 2% of eight other subjects areas, including Computing, Psychology, Architecture, Building & Planning, Engineering & Technology and Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences.
* Eight selected questions from the 2026 Survey
- Q01 How good are teaching staff at explaining things?
- Q02 How often do teaching staff make the subject engaging?
- Q03 How often is the course intellectually stimulating?
- Q04 How often does your course challenge you to achieve your best work?
- Q05 To what extent have you had the chance to explore ideas and concepts in depth?
- Q06 How well does your course introduce subjects and skills in a way that builds on what you have already learned?
- Q07 To what extent have you had the chance to bring together information and ideas from different topics?
- Q09 How well has your course developed your knowledge and skills that you think you will need for your future?
