Formulación del concepto de retroactividad en la Teoría general del Derecho

As described, a key tool for measuring the quality of the student experience in higher education in the UK is the National Student Survey that reports the levels of overall satisfaction with the experience along with satisfaction with six key areas of the experience such as teaching and assessment. As previously discussed, satisfaction with an experience is strongly linked to expectations although the NSS is does not specifically refer to expectations. Additional surveys are undertaken by HEPI, HEA and HESA do however record how the experience of higher education met with expectations. The Annual Student Experience Survey is undertaken by HEPI and HEA and reports on some aspects of the student experience not considered by the NSS notably how the experience met with they expectations. The difficulty with expectations is the personal nature of expectations and the fact that the majority have little experience of higher education (Ramsden, 2013) before entering their chosen institution and little experience of other institutions and therefore have little experience to based the expectations upon or indeed the experience they receive compared with other institutions provide. The most recent Annual Student Experience Survey published in June 2016, reports results of a similar level to previous years as described in figure 5. The results do show that for the majority of students the experience met expectations at least to some extent.

Figure 5 - Whether expectations were met (HEPI-HEA, 2016)

There are a number issues impacting on expectations of students, some are related to the on-going policy developments in higher education such as the widening participation agenda and the introduction of tuition fees. Longden (2006) examined a UK institutional response to the changing nature of first year students’ expectations in response to the widening participation initiative. The results indicated a number of ‘‘problem areas’’ surrounding retention of students, as a result of disparity in aspects such as; lack of academic preparation. Additionally, Marcus (2008) discussed the issue of students having expectations that were high and unmanageable. Ramsden (2013) suggests that the widening participation agenda has resulted is a greater range and variety of student resulting in a wider variety of expectations. One factor may relate to the information students receive while choosing the institution and programme of study through including prospectuses, marketing material and information provided at the further education/sixth form provider. Marcus (2008) suggests it is the responsibility of HEIs to

ensure a fair reflection of this information and suggests those with higher retention may be doing this more effectively. The latest survey reveals that student expectations are still not being met and that some management expectations in terms of what a student can reasonably expect of their experience of higher education is required.

The introduction of tuition fees in 1998 with students contributing up to £1000 per annum towards their University education represented a major change in the policy development. The development of this change to greater contributions of individuals participating in higher education continued with the contribution rising to £3290 by 2010/11 culminating in the recommendations of the Browne Review (2010) to allow universities to charge ‘top-up’ fees of up to £9000 per annum. With the introduction of the tuition fee system and the large financial investment required by students and their family, some concerns were raised regarding the impact this may have on raising student expectations. Jones (2010) suggested that the financial investment required would raise expectations of the university experience resulting in greater disparity between the expectation and the reality of the experience. Concern was also apparent that the introduction of the increased fees would result in the student becoming a ‘consumer’ in the process (Jones, 2010) and would place increased demands on HEI’s. The impact of the introduction of tuition fees on expectations is unclear as the way in which expectations and experiences may be linked, particularly with relevance to students’ financial investments in Higher Education is not proven. That is, since the increased fees may enhance the expectations, it is not clear how the expectations are increased or what aspects of the experience are affected. The importance of investigating the student expectations in light of the change in fees is highlighted by research documenting the effect of mismatched expectations and experiences. The picture becomes more complex in that since the introduction of the NSS in 2005, higher education institutions have responded to the feedback from students with more focus on meeting the expectations of students in terms of the students experience and teaching quality. However, Bates and Kaye (2013) contend that the increase in fee has made little impact on the reported satisfaction levels of students but the real issue “surrounds the fact that students are placing greater emphasis on graduate employment, and hold greater expectations of better job prospects as a result of investing more in Higher Education”. Give the focus of students on the extent to which participation in higher

education improves their career prospects, the methods higher education providers can integrate employability within the curricula is becoming a key indicator of student satisfaction.