PTES | Learning and Teaching @ Newcastle

NEW: A vision for education and skills at Newcastle University: Education for Life 2030+

PTES 17th March - 9th May 2025

What is PTES?

The Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) is a national survey managed by Advance HE in the UK. It is designed to gather feedback from postgraduate taught (PGT) students, such as those pursuing master’s degrees (e.g., MA, MSc, MBA, or MEd). The PTES focuses on evaluating the quality of the taught postgraduate experience and helps institutions identify areas for improvement.

Why participate in PTES?

Benchmark your institution's provision against your peers and competitors

Data from the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) allows you to compare your institution’s postgraduate provision against others in your sector at both a discipline and institution level. You can use this information to identify areas of strength, as well as to address areas for development - increasing the appeal of your programmes and the information you can provide to prospective students.

We have designed and tested the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey in conjunction with experts from across the higher education sector. PTES allows you to:

gain valuable data to inform enhancements to the experience of postgraduate taught students
benchmark your provision against others, while your results remain confidential

What does the survey ask students about?

The Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) enables your higher education institution to gather important information about the experience of any taught postgraduate student on a Masters, Postgraduate Certificate or Diploma course.

PTES helps you to better understand your postgraduate students’ experience in the key areas of:

Teaching and learning
Engagement
Assessment and feedback
Organisation and management
Skills development

PTES also considers students’ motivations for taking their programme and – where relevant – their experience of undertaking a dissertation or major project. We developed PTES in consultation with the sector and robustly tested the survey across diverse disciplines, institutions and students to ensure it produces valid results.

Results

Student feedback gives us the chance to change things for the future. Around 100 universities and colleges take part in the PTES which means we can compare our student experience with that of students at similar universities. Student feedback is confidential to the surveys team and any reporting of the feedback will be anonymous.

You can use the findings of the survey to improve the PGT experience for students across the University. The results will be discussed within your Schools/Departments as well as at University level.

Results will be shared after Advance HE have completed their analysis which is usually July/August.

How Results Are Shared

Results are shared with senior leaders for strategic review. Data is presented in detailed reports, including comparisons to sector benchmarks and the reports are made available through the Strategic Insights Portal and is placed in the School Shared Access folders.