Beyond the metrics: evasys heads to QSN Annual Conference 2026
16-17 September at Aston University
evasys is once again sponsoring the QSN Annual Conference 2026, taking place at Conference Aston in Birmingham on 16–17 September, where Glenda Saint John and Ben Rogers will be in attendance on the evasys stand.
Higher education has access to more data than ever before and institutions can measure, benchmark and analyse almost every aspect of the student experience. In addition, AI and increasingly sophisticated analytics are creating new opportunities to understand large volumes of qualitative feedback at a scale that would previously have been impossible.
However, more data doesn’t automatically mean better insight and insight alone doesn’t create better student experiences.
From measurement to meaningful action
At evasys, we spend a great deal of time talking to universities about what happens after feedback is collected.
Student surveys provide an extraordinarily valuable window into how students experience their courses and institutions, but the real value comes from joining those different sources of feedback together, identifying what matters and making sure insight reaches the people who can act upon it.
This can become particularly important when we think about quality. Dashboards, scores and benchmarks can help institutions understand where they are, but they are only part of the picture. Open comments can provide the context behind those numbers. Module-level feedback can reveal issues that may disappear within institution-wide results. Looking across different surveys and different stages of the student journey can uncover patterns that would otherwise remain hidden.
Keeping people at the heart of quality
That is one of the reasons this year’s QSN theme resonates so strongly with us. Technology, including AI, can make it much easier to process and interpret feedback, particularly the thousands of open comments universities collect each year. Used well, it can help quality and student experience teams identify themes more quickly, explore the evidence in greater depth and make insight available to colleagues across an institution.
Ultimately, however, understanding what that insight means within the context of a course, cohort or institution still requires people. And, just as importantly, students need to be able to see that sharing their views leads somewhere.
Closing the feedback loop is therefore not simply an engagement exercise. When institutions can demonstrate what they have heard, what they have learned and what they are doing as a result, they strengthen the relationship between student voice, quality enhancement and trust.
