PSQS: Meet the team
University of Nottingham
The University of Nottingham is a pioneering university that provides an exceptional research-led education and an outstanding student experience. Since 2013 the Strategy, Planning and Performance team have led the development of the PSQS to help improve the delivery of Professional Services across the University and the sector.
Andrew Hindmarsh
Andrew is the co-initiator of the PSQS. With 35 years experience in university professional services - 20 of them as a leader in the field - he established the PSQS at the University of Nottingham in 2013. He remained project leader for the following 6 years and is now Senior Consultant to the PSQS.org project. He has extensive experience of managing staff and student surveys as well analysing and interpreting their outcomes.
Tribal
Tribal has been delivering comparative insight to the education sector for 25 years, giving universities the financial insight to help deliver a world class student experience and enhance their competitive advantage. Tribal's analysis and benchmarking tools help universities identify and understand opportunities for delivering improvements. The PSQS aligns with Tribal’s financial benchmarking service to help assess whether institutions are getting value for money from the level of investment in Professional Services.
Software for Data Analysis
SDA/GIDE is devoted to the collection, processing and presentation of data. Using SCROLL, our integrated survey platform, we've delivered thousands of research projects for government and industry to help them obtain and understand the information they need to develop and progress. Our work with the PSQS has enhanced the survey process and the value that can be derived from the data, helping to improve performance and drive standards.
University of Nottingham, lead partner
Nottingham University's Strategy, Planning and Performance team recognised the central importance of a consistent and cumulative evidence-base for service quality assessment: one that spanned all of their professional support services and which was comparable over time. By these means they would seek to identify areas of strong and well-regarded provision as well as those where there is evidence that suggests improvement is required.
In 2013 the team designed and administered a survey of the University's entire staff to evaluate their opinions and experiences of the full range of professional services within the institution. Their goal was to develop an ongoing measure of service quality which could inform their own performance and improvement strategy whilst being sufficiently flexible to be adopted by other universities and adapted to their contexts.Crucially, their approach offers the significant advantage of providing participants with the ability to benchmark the perceived quality of service within their insitution with the average derived from the analogous services at a number of broadly similar institutions.
Their endeavour has now evolved into a vibrant and growing community where excellence can help to improve performance and drive standards.
Tribal, financial benchmarking experts
Tribal Benchmarking provides comparative analysis of your resources, giving you the financial insight you need to challenge stakeholder assumptions and drive organisational investment. Our consultants work onsite to collect data, and deliver detailed presentations to help you improve buy-in and ensure report findings are fully understood.
- Compare against sector trends, peer groups and “best practice”
- Evaluate distance travelled by comparing year on year performance
- Compare the performance of teaching departments against sector benchmarks
Learn more about the synergy between financial benchmarking and PSQS.
SDA/GIDE, survey authority
SDA is a technology company devoted to the collection, processing and presentation of data. For many years we produced the Department for Education’s School Performance Tables alongside the Department’s research and statistics function. More recently we delivered the national Resilience Capability Survey on behalf of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, a directorate of Cabinet Office.
GIDE is our sister company specialising in market and social research, with whom we collaborate closely and are co-located. GIDE is staffed by technical and statistical market research professionals with decades of operational research experience.
Together we have worked extensively with industry and government to provide a range of information technology, data processing and research solutions, launching thousands of research and survey projects to address some of the big questions and issues along the way.
PSQS: Participants
Since its inception in 2013 the PSQS has grown steadily, providing more data for richer analyses. Though participation flexes according to the priorities of individual institutions, successive surveys have included representation from the following universities:
Testimonials
“...SDA's fully managed service enabled all of (our) service requirements to be seamlessly integrated into the delivery plan...each delivered to time and cost.”
Civil Contingencies Secretariat, Cabinet Office
“We like working with (them) because we know that the team will really get into the details of our project, read it carefully, give us good advice and script it perfectly.”
Ipsos MediaCT
“I realise that our needs were very demanding at times, but you and your colleagues responded magnificently with a high degree of professionalism and technical ability.”
Jon Thompson, Director General of Corporate Services Directorate, DCSF
“All services have been major high-profile initiatives for Ofsted, which have delivered core business services in areas where timeliness, accuracy and responsiveness have been paramount.”
Anthony Boucher, Chief Statistician, Ofsted