Studiebarometeret – higher education

2025

  • Studiebarometeret 2024 – Main trends

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    Summary

    The Student Survey (Studiebarometeret) was conducted for the twelfth time in autumn 2024, and approximately 26,000 students responded to the questionnaire. The survey covers virtually all Norwegian universities and university colleges, including a total of around 1,900 study programmes.

    Students are still satisfied with their study programme
    Overall, students are satisfied with the study programme they are attending. At the programme type level, the secondary teacher education and the primary and lower secondary teacher education stand out negatively. Generally, students at these programmes are less satisfied than students in other programme types. Nonetheless, the majority of students in the teacher programmes are satisfied with their study programme as well.

    The positive trend we saw in 2023 continues on most questions
    Compared to 2023, there is only a marginal negative change in two of the survey questions. For all other questions, the results are the same or marginally better than they were in 2023. The negative impact of the corona pandemic is completely offset in 2024, and for some questions on topics such as feedback and guidance and organisation, we measure the best results in the history of the Student Survey. Although the differences on individual questions at the national level are small, there seems to be a slight positive trend overall in the students’ responses.

    The use of generative artificial intelligence has increased significantly from 2023 to 2024 – However, students do not feel that they receive sufficient training in the use of AI tools
    In 2023, 61 percent of students responded that they use generative artificial intelligence (AI) in their studies. This proportion has increased to 81 percent in 2024. The proportion of students who responded that they sometimes or often use AI in their coursework increased from 38 to 59 percent. In 2024, we added a new question about training in the use of AI tools in the study programme. 67 percent of students responded that they had not recieved sufficient training in the use of AI tools. At the same time, we see that those who receive training in the use of AI tools use it to a greater extent in their studies.

    The use of AI varies greatly across different subject areas. Approximately 80 percent of students in economics and administration and natural sciences and technology use AI sometimes of often in their coursework. Meanwhile, only around 30 percent of students in humanities and aesthetics do the same.

    Students on full-time programmes spend somewhat less time on their studies than ever before
    Since 2017, we have seen a gradual decline in the time full-time students spend on their studies, going from 34,9 hours to 32,5 in 2024. Meanwhile, time spent on paid work has increased slightly from 7,8 hours in 2017 to 9,3 hours in 2024. Until 2022, the decrease in time spent on studies roughly corresponded to the increase in time spent on paid work. In 2023 and 2024, however, time spent studying continued to slowly decline, while time spent on paid work remained static. Therefore, the hypothesis that increased time spent on paid work – as a result of either lower unemployment or increased inflation – has led to a decrease in time spent on studies does not apply to the last two years. What may have affected the time spent on studies, however, is the students’ use of AI. Among full-time students, we see a trend that those who often use AI in their studies spend more time on self-study and less time on organised learning activities than other students. This trend applies to most subject areas, with some exceptions. There should be carried out more analyses to look more closely at possible causal relationships.

    Authors: Ingebjørg Flaata Bjaaland, Mathias Meier Nilsen, Gustavo Guajardo, Magnus Strand Hauge

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2024

  • Studiebarometeret 2023 – Main trends

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    Summary

    The Student Survey (Studiebarometeret) was conducted for the eleventh time in autumn 2023, and approximately 29,000 students responded to the questionnaire. The survey covers virtually all Norwegian universities and university colleges, including a total of around 1,900 study programmes.

    Students are more positive about their study programmes than they were last year
    Overall, students are satisfied with their study programme. In 2022, we saw that students were somewhat less satisfied with their study programmes than in previous years. In 2023, however, the results were back to pre-2022 levels. At the subject field level, the secondary education teacher (lector) and primary school teacher programmes stand out negatively. Here, students are generally much less satisfied than they are in other programme types. At the same time, the majority of students are still satisfied with their study programme in these programmes as well.

    We see the greatest improvement in results for the questions on the organisation of the study programme, and the questions about information, and contact with, the labour market representatives
    Compared with 2022, there is no negative development in any of the topics covered by the questionnaire. In several areas, we see improvement from last year. In 2023, students are more positive about the organisation of the study programme than they were in 2022. The same applies to the questions about information and contact with the labour market. When it comes to the questions about contact with the labour market (e.g. thorough industry representatives), 2023 sees the highest item scores since the questions were first introduced in 2019. Although there is only a slight positive improvement compared with 2019, it may be that the focus on this topic in the Student Survey over several years has had a positive impact on the results.

    The social learning environment has improved somewhat and is close to the level it was at before the pandemic
    During the pandemic, we saw a decline in satisfaction with the social learning environment. In 2022, this improved somewhat, and in 2023 we see further improvement. Student satisfaction with this aspect of their student experience is approaching the level it was at in the years before the pandemic (2019 and previous years). However, students are somewhat still less satisfied with the social environment between students in the study programme than they were up to and including 2019.

    From a long-term perspective, students attending full-time programmes still spend a considerable amount of time on paid work alongside their studies
    In both 2021 and 2022, students' self-reported time spent on paid work increased. The estimates have not increased further in 2023 but appears to have stabilised at the same level as in 2022. The results from 2023 thus reinforce what we found in 2022. While the average student on full-time programmes spent 8 hours a week on paid work in the years 2017 to 2020, the number of hours has increased to 9.3 in 2023. The increase is likely due to more students being in employment, and students in employment working more hours than before. Two likely reasons for the increase are the low unemployment and high inflation that has characterised Norwegian society in both 2022 and 2023. In 2023, however, we also see a small further decline in total academic time spent. Over time, this has decreased from 34.9 hours in 2017 to 33.0 hours in 2023.

    New questions show that students at different campuses and programme types vary with regard to what is important to them when choosing a place of study and study programme
    In 2023, we added some new questions about the perceived importance of different factors when choosing a place of study and a study programme. When it comes to choosing a place of study, it is clear that the different institutions, and campuses, have different compositions of students. While a majority of students at some campuses believe that proximity to their hometown and friends and family is important, a higher proportion of students at other campuses believe that an attractive social study environment is important. These locations may also have a high proportion of students from other parts of the country who consider it important to change environment or move from their hometown. We also see some campuses that attract students because they offer programmes that are not available elsewhere, or that are only available in a few places. For the majority of the locations, however, there is great variation in what students consider important when choosing a place of study.

    Academic interest is clearly the most important factor for students when choosing a study programme. This is consistent across all programme types. In some programme types, academic interest is the only thing that is of significant importance, while in other programme types, students are just as concerned with career opportunities as they are with academic interest. In some fields, it also appears that many programmes are designed for students who are working alongside their studies. Here we also see that some students use the programme to retrain for a new profession.

    The use of artificial intelligence varies greatly between different disciplines and types of education programmes
    This year, we also included some questions about the extent of and type of use of artificial intelligence (AI). Overall, 60 % of students report that they have used AI in their studies, while 40 % have not. Students studying natural sciences and technical subjects and business and administration are the most frequent users of AI, while students in humanities and health, social and sports subjects use AI the least. Younger students also use AI significantly more than older students. When it comes to what students use AI for, the most common use is to explain topics, syllabus, concepts, terminology, etc. Of the range of uses that students were given to select from, the fewest selected that they used AI to generate audio, images or video.

    Authors: Magnus Strand Hauge, Kristoffer Fretland Øygarden

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