Students highly satisfied with college experience

Students at Furness College have reported high levels of satisfaction in what has been a challenging year for education.

The annual student survey was undertaken by more than 700 students across both the Channelside and Rating Lane campuses.

Some 98 per cent of learners said they would recommend the college to family and friends – an increase of four per cent from the previous survey.

Overall, 96 per cent of students agreed that teaching had been good or better whilst 91 per cent found lessons engaging.

The proportion of learners who felt that the college listens to and actions on their views has increased by six per cent to 95 per cent this year.

Assistant Principal for Planning, Performance and Quality Zee Walker said the college was very pleased with the outcomes.

“Our learning environment has been operating in unprecedented circumstances due to the pandemic and yet we are still seeing improvements. It’s really heartening to read the comments from our students who have faced so many changes yet risen to the challenge of learning in lockdown,” she said.

“This is also testament to the hard work of our staff who have adapted, evolved and often made improvements to ensure not only that our learners can continue but that the lessons are interesting, challenging and engaging.”

Head of Quality Mark Preston, who oversaw the project, said the survey had a strong response rate.

The respondents covered all areas of curriculum ranging from business and IT to catering, construction, engineering, early years and education, hair and beauty, health and social care, media, motor vehicle and sport and public services as well as sixth form subjects.

“We can see the areas where we are succeeding but we know there are also some areas where our students think we could do better.

“These include our students asking for more testing and revision sessions and more time to complete assignments as well as some wanting more 1-1 support.

“We will work on those areas identified by our students and let them know what action we have taken as part of our ‘you said, we did’ next steps.”

Furness College is on two main sites with a world-class campus at Channelside and specialist sixth form at Rating Lane. Its successful merger with Barrow Sixth Form College in 2016 was praised by Ofsted.

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