QAA surveys students on the accessibility of academic language

One of the laments most commonly heard from students, from employers, from members of the public, and indeed from academics themselves, concerns the accessibility – or otherwise – of the language used by universities and colleges, whether in their regulations, programme documents, learner guidance or even assessment briefs.

QAA’s Student Strategic Advisory Committee (SSAC) is therefore seeking to improve the accessibility of language used across tertiary education in order to create a resource to help teaching staff reflect on student perspectives on this subject.

To gather data to inform this initiative, SSAC has launched a Padlet survey to collect the views of current higher education students and recent graduates about their own experiences of the ways in which their colleges and universities communicate key information to them.

We are looking for responses from learners across all different types of study, including foundation, undergraduate, postgraduate and research degrees, and degree apprenticeships.

SSAC comprises students, student representatives and staff from students’ unions or representative bodies in higher education, whose expertise, experience and perspectives provide QAA with essential guidance and advice.

To access the Padlet and share your thoughts, please click here. Your quotes will remain anonymous. The survey will be open until 5pm on Tuesday 6 May 2025.