PTES Survey 2026

At the University of Exeter, the PTES 2026 survey opens from Monday 23 February to Friday 12 June. During this period, students will receive direct correspondence starting with an email from the Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education & Student Experience) on Monday 23 February with a unique individual link to complete the survey. Colleagues across the University will carry out complementary communications activity to encourage our students to respond.

• PTES provides students with the opportunity to provide honest feedback on their student experience;
• Their feedback is used to improve the student experience at the University;
• Feedback from previous PTES surveys has helped to improve the student experience.

Incentives

Anyone eligible to take part in this year’s PTES can choose to enter a prize draw. The prizes are: 

1x top prize of £500
2x prizes of £250
5x prizes of £100 

During the survey period (23 February to 12 June 2026) the University will be given an update on response rates which can only be shared with certain colleagues. We have to keep a log of who has received the response rates, when and why. If you have any questions, contact studentcomms@exeter.ac.uk

The overall response rate can be made public once the survey has closed.

Word of mouth is a really effective way of encouraging students to fill out PTES. It is important to make clear that PTES can only be completed using the unique link sent directly to the student.

If you want to help promote PTES to students that you work with, you need to be aware of what you can and can't say, to ensure that the survey is carried out in a fair, unbiased way. You are able to tell students of improvements made as a result of the survey – however you must ensure that the improvements were made as a direct result of PTES and not another survey/feedback source.

You must ensure you don't inappropriately influence the student(s) who are completing it. Please make sure to:

• Let each individual decide whether or not they wish to complete the survey
• Ensure that those who do choose to complete it are able to answer each question with their own honest opinion
• Give students privacy to complete it
• Don't guide students as to what a particular question (or scoring) may mean – they must make their own interpretation   

Staff can access assets to help promote PTES. If you would like a copy of these assets, please contact studentcomms@exeter.ac.uk. You can also find some in the 'PTES promotional materials' drop-down below. Please ensure that you adhere to the guidance on avoiding inappropriate influence when using them.

Directors of Education will also be provided with a template email, which can be sent from Faculties to promote PTES.

You can view a webinar from the Vice-President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Education and Student Experience, about promoting the NSS. For PTES 2026, we are adopting the same principles mentioned in the webinar. ‌

If you have any further questions you can contact your colleagues within your Faculty, please see the list below.

Providing opportunities for our students to feedback – both on aspects of their experience they find positive and areas for improvement – is really important to helping us drive continuous improvements and these data are invaluable to Departments in thinking about the development of their programmes, as well as being a key consideration in the development of their Teaching Excellence Action Plans (TEAPs) .  

The support of academic colleagues in Departments and Professional Services colleagues who are regularly interacting with postgraduate taught students is critical in promoting the PTES to eligible students to ensure as much participation as possible. The promotional material on these pages provides key information and resources to support you in the promotion of the survey.  

If you have any questions regarding the PTES, then please contact your Faculty Education Partner in the first instance.  

Departments, Faculties and Services are encouraged to consider their own local approaches and activities in order to encourage participation. We know that students respond well to staff members who they know well e.g., Module Convenors, Programme Directors, Heads of Department and so finding opportunities during the survey window to promote the survey is welcomed.  

You can find the individual PTES faculty toolkit resources under 'PTES Promotional Materials' on this page.

Please find below the promotional materials you'll need to encourage postgraduate taught students to complete the PTES. 

You must also adhere to the guidance on avoiding inappropriate influence when using these assets. You can find all the information you need below.

PTES skeleton email for academic colleagues

PTES script for lectures

PTES Slides for Lectures: 

Please make sure you're using the correct slide for your campus (with the Students' Guild logo for Exeter and Students' Union for Cornwall)

Exeter slides:

PTES slide 1 (Exeter)

PTES Slide 2 (Exeter)

PTES Slide 3 (Exeter anon.)

PTES Slide 4 (Exeter anon.)

Cornwall slides:

PTES Slide 1 (Cornwall)

PTES Slide 2 (Cornwall)

PTES Slide 3 (Cornwall anon.)

PTES Slide 4 (Cornwall anon.)

PTES Email Dates

All emails will be sent from the Student Communications inbox studentcomms@exeter.ac.uk on the following dates: 
Monday 23 February 
Monday 9 March 
Monday 23 March 
Monday 27 April
Monday 18 May 
Monday 8 June 

Social Media

Please share social media posts from these central social media accounts. 

Facebook: 

University of Exeter students 

University of Exeter Cornwall 

Instagram: 

@uniofexeterstudents 

@uniexecornwall 
 

Need further information or advice?  

Contact studentcomms@exeter.ac.uk  

You must ensure that you don't inappropriately influence the student(s) completing the PTES. We do this by using the guidance issued for the National Student Survey (NSS). Please read the NSS Inappropriate Influence Help Card 2026.

There is also a webinar from the Vice-President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Education and Student Experience, which includes all of the information you need about inappropriate influence. This focusses on the NSS but the information and guidance is the same for PTES. You can find the slides from this webinar here.

Please see your Faculty PTES contact listed below.

If you have a question about how PTES will be publicised in your faculty, please use the contacts below. For all other enquiries it's studentcomms@exeter.ac.uk.

Faculty PTES contacts:

You can refer students to our PTES student page - www.exeter.ac.uk/students/ptes

Otherwise you'll find all you need to know on these webpages. 

If you have any further questions, please contact studentcomms@exeter.ac.uk.