Celebrating the student voice: Whatuni team prepares to visit campuses around the UK

Following a two-year hiatus, preparations are underway for the return of one of the UK’s most esteemed higher education events: the Whatuni Student Choice Awards (WUSCAs). This year’s much-anticipated in-person event will be a celebration of the student voice and is scheduled to take place on 24 May at East Wintergarden in London. 

The Whatuni team will once again be visiting campuses around the UK to collect verified reviews submitted by students about their higher education experiences.  Each year well over 30,000 student reviews are collated across a variety of categories in preparation for the big event where top performing institutions for each category are announced and celebrated. The reviews are published on Whatuni.com - with almost 6 million visits a year - and form an important part of the student decision making process. 

Simon Emmett, CEO of IDP Connect, the company that owns Whatuni.com, says: “We are proud to celebrate the 10th year of the WUSCAs – these awards are a true celebration of the student voice and an important vote of confidence for many institutions.  The results and findings are central to our Whatuni brand, giving students honest, unbiased data to make the right choices about their future.   The WUSCAs are a means to understand our students’ needs, enhance their study experiences and impact on student satisfaction.” 

WUSCA 2022 will see the return of the Whatuni Student Bursaries programme, enabling institutions to showcase their most impactful work - the winner of which will be given the opportunity to reward five of their WP students with £10,000 worth of bursaries (£2000 per student). Bursaries will also be extended to the winners of University of the Year, Postgraduate and Small and Specialist (previously IHE) to support students across the Whatuni bursaries programme.  

A new development to the awards is the addition of regional winners’ badges. Instead of only having the main categories of University of the Year etc, there will now be localised categories such as Best University in the Southeast. This will enable institutions to compete and recruit on a more localised level.

The WUSCA team will be visiting campuses between now and 31 March, collecting verified reviews both in-person and digitally (using the whatuni.com website). Review submissions are open to all current students, giving institutions the chance to utilise the feedback given to enhance their offerings.  

If your institution would like to participate in this year’s WUSCAs, please reach out to Kieran Hill at kieran.hill@idp.com to schedule a campus visit by the review collection team. The new WUSCA review form is also live, so please do encourage your students to review your institution at https://www.whatuni.com/reviews/. 

Shortlisted institutions for each category will be released between late April and early May 2022.