What question would you like to see added to the National Student Survey? That was the question we put to our Twitter followers last week as part of the build-up to the Institute of Ideas¡¯ annual Battle of Ideas, which this year takes place in London on 18 and 19 October.

One of the sessions at the event, for which Times Higher Education is a media partner, looks at the importance of student satisfaction ¨C so we thought it would be interesting to solicit your views, via the hashtag , on the issues you think the current survey overlooks.

Sarah Peat (), a research postgraduate at the University of Aberdeen¡¯s School of Social Science, wanted to test what students look for in a higher education institution, asking ¡°what is more influential to your overall [NSS] rating: academic or social (other) experiences?¡±

Stewart Eyres (), whose Twitter profile reveals that he is into ¡°stars ¡®n¡¯ stuff¡±, wanted to find out how opinionated students are. ¡°Do you actually care about the aspects you disagree with?¡± he asks, adding that he is ¡°not sure¡± if students who say they disagree with some of the statements in the NSS ¨C such as ¡°the criteria used in marking have been clear in advance¡± ¨C are genuinely dissatisfied, or not really that bothered.

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Helen Matthews (), a ¡°university administrator, chartered manager, traveller¡±, wanted to know if students thought the NSS was ¡°asking the right questions¡±, and called for ¡°something about a mutually supportive ethos among students¡±, which ¡°often reflects whether course teams have fostered it or not¡±.

Maggie Garabedyan (), vice-president of academic affairs at the University of Brighton Students¡¯ Union, focused on assessment. ¡°What is your preferred method of receiving your feedback and why?¡± was her suggested question, while Becka () thought there was much to learn about how the information might best be used. ¡°What would you do with the data obtained in this survey¡± was her recommendation.

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, a self-declared ¡°excitable chap¡±, ¡°rat fancier¡± and ¡°gin fiend¡± was thinking big, proposing to give students the chance to respond to the statement ¡°Overall, I am satisfied that the years of my life given up for this course were a sound investment of time¡±. Meanwhile, academic Peter Hughes () wanted to ask whether students felt that members of university staff knew their names.

While Rachel Forsyth (), from Manchester Metropolitan University¡¯s Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, wanted to know if students felt that lecturers ¡°enjoy teaching me¡±, John Boursnell¡¯s question () had a slightly different tone. ¡°Do you think senior management bully students and staff?¡± was his suggested NSS addition.

Tanya Osborne¡¯s question () was elegantly simple: ¡°Why are you filling in this survey?¡± She added, however, that it would need to be multiple choice to make sure ¡°to filter out the poor souls who answer under duress¡±.

Ms Osborne¡¯s question was judged to be the best by É«ºÐÖ±²¥ editorial staff, and she won a pair of tickets to the Battle of Ideas.

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