About the Learner Voice Survey
The Learner Voice Survey has been commissioned by Medr, the Commission for Tertiary Education and Research in Wales. It is a central component of Medr’s approach to understanding and improving learning across Wales’ tertiary education sector. The survey will provide Medr and providers with robust evidence on learners’ experiences, enabling regulation, quality assurance, and learner centred improvement across the sector.
The survey is delivered by IFF Research, who bring extensive experience running large‑scale education surveys, bilingual research, advanced data‑linkage, and complex reporting for public sector organisations.
The survey will be run annually, with each cycle comprising a full provider rollout, live response monitoring, comprehensive analysis, and reporting at national and provider levels.
What providers gain from this survey
While many providers already run their own learner surveys, this national Learner Voice Survey offers distinct advantages that cannot be achieved through the use of local surveys alone.
- Sector‑wide benchmarking through an interactive dashboard, enabling comparison with similar providers across Wales.
- Clear, bilingual reporting via a professionally developed dashboard, with breakdowns by learner group and course type.
- Robust, nationally consistent data, using standardised methods and weighting to reflect the learner population.
- Richer insight through data linkage, with the ability to link to the Lifelong Learning Wales Record (LLWR).
- Deeper understanding of learner experience, using advanced analysis to identify key drivers and patterns.
- Trusted, independent evidence, supported by quality assurance and opportunities for shared learning through feedback workshops.
How does it work?
Annual survey administration
The survey involves all eligible providers inviting their learners to take part. Each year, the process begins with:
- A survey announcement email sent to all providers and stakeholders
- Introductory webinars (two live slots and a recorded version) explaining the survey processes and answering questions
Survey links and distribution
Each provider receives:
- A bilingual online survey link that can include the provider’s branding
- Additional links for different campuses or subcontractors where needed
For this pilot, providers should share the survey link widely with all learners aged 16+ in colleges, apprenticeships and adult learning.
In following waves, the survey will be shared with all learners in Wales who are currently (at that point in time) undertaking tertiary education including Further Education, apprenticeships and Adult Community Learning. A separate pilot exercise will be undertaken with sixth forms in school settings in 2027.
How learners complete the survey
- The survey is primarily online, mobile‑friendly, and accessible
- Learners can also complete paper questionnaires (main or easy‑read) where online completion is not possible
- All learners have access to Welsh and English formats
Paper questionnaire packs are supplied for providers, with provision built into the project for standard and easy‑read formats.
Live monitoring
Providers get access to a live online dashboard, refreshed daily, showing:
- Number of completes
- Unweighted high‑level metrics
This helps providers track engagement and coordinate reminders.
What do providers need to do?
1. Distribute the survey link
- You will be asked to share your provider‑specific survey link with all eligible learners.
- IFF will supply template messaging, promotional material, and a comprehensive Survey Instruction Pack explaining recommended distribution routes and best‑practice engagement.
2. Encourage learners to complete the survey
To ensure the findings are representative and valuable:
- Promote the survey in learning sessions
- Use posters, digital screens and social media
- Encourage tutors to mention the survey in class or in learner meetings
- Send email and SMS reminders provided in the instruction pack
The survey includes an iPad prize draw, with a prize allocated per provider, as part of the cross‑provider promotion strategy.
3. Monitor completion rates
Using the live dashboard, providers can check response levels throughout fieldwork.
IFF monitors overall completion at the Wales level and supports providers to increase uptake.
4. Provide alternative formats for accessibility
To ensure no learner is left out, providers may support learners by offering:
- Paper questionnaires
- Easy‑read formats
- Bilingual versions
- Help with accessibility features such as screen‑readers and browser‑controlled text sizing
Support available to providers
Liaison team
Each provider will have access to the IFF liaison team responsible for:
- Responding to queries
- Confirming paper questionnaire quantities
- Escalating issues promptly
- Maintaining a log of all provider questions to improve future guidance
A helpdesk email, monitored daily, is also available throughout fieldwork.
Instruction pack and webinars
These include:
- Detailed instructions for distributing the survey
- Promotional materials
- FAQs
- Sampling guidance (if applicable)
- Timelines and fieldwork schedule
How findings will be used and reported
Data linkage
Survey responses will be securely linked with the Lifelong Learning Wales Record (LLWR) to enhance analysis accuracy and reduce duplication of questions to learners.
This linkage enables weighting, richer sub‑analysis, and consistent reporting.
Analysis and reporting
Providers will receive:
- Weighted provider‑level data tables
- Provider‑specific results on the reporting dashboard
- An offline presentation pack summarising and benchmarking their findings
- National‑level bilingual reporting, including an all‑Wales dataset, technical report, and executive summary
Two additional thematic analyses per year will also be produced.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why can’t IFF administer the baseline survey themselves?
IFF is unable to administer the baseline survey directly because we have no access to learners’ contact details.
Will it be possible to get a copy of the questionnaire, so we can familiarise ourselves with the questions?
Yes – a provider reference copy of the questionnaire will be distributed to all providers. If you have not received this, please contact your IFF Liaison Officer.
What does administering the survey involve?
You can find details on how to administer the survey on the main provider page of this website, or for more information see the full guidance PDF sent to all providers by IFF Research. If you do not have the guidance PDF, please contact your IFF Liaison at lvsqueries@iffresearch.com.
Will providers be able to see which learners have completed the survey and which have not?
No, we can’t show which learners have completed the survey as data protection rules mean that we need to keep this confidential.
Who should we administer the survey to?
Learners at your institution are eligible to take part in survey if they are in:
- Further Education (FE)
- Apprenticeships
- Adult and Community Learning (ACL)
If providers are unsure about the eligibility for any of your cohorts please contact the IFF liaison team.
Medr is keen to understand the benefits of all the learning so we are asking you to include any learners enrolled in any Medr funded learning.
What response rate are you expecting? Will providers receive targets for the baseline survey response rate, and will they be penalised if these are not met?
Medr ask us to support providers to reach a target response rate of 50%. Providers are asked to disseminate the survey to all learners, remind and encourage them to complete the survey as much as possible.
What do we do if our courses are subcontracted to other providers?
If you sub-contract this is eligible for the survey and learners enrolled with sub-contractors should be invited to take part. The main contractor is responsible for ensuring that the survey information is cascaded to sub-contractors and that all eligible learners are invited to participate.
Will you give us updates on how many surveys are completed each week?
Each provider will have access to an online dashboard which they can access to see the number of their live survey responses at any point after the survey goes live.
How can learners complete the survey?
The survey is designed to be completed mainly online but paper alternatives are available for learners who need them. You should distribute the survey to students in a variety of ways: via an information leaflet at enrolment, by emailing the survey link direct to learners, and via tutors in classes promoting the survey (and offering the option to complete in class if possible). You can request paper copies of the questionnaire, with reply paid envelopes, for learners that are unable to complete the survey online and need to do it on paper. Paper questionnaires are limited and IFF will liaise with you in advance about how many are available. Please do not photocopy additional copies.
Will providers have access to the survey results from their own learners?
Yes, results from the mainstage survey will be shared with specific providers in anonymised / aggregate form so that you can see the overall results from your own learners.
What should we do if learners have issues completing the survey?
The survey has been designed to be as straightforward as possible, but we recognise that some learners may have difficulties completing it due to language or literacy issues or lack of digital skills to get online.
Learners can complete the online survey in English or Welsh.
A limited number of paper questionnaires with pre-paid envelopes will be made available to providers after the online survey has launched. Accessible versions for learners with additional learning needs will also be made available as hard-copy versions, where required. Please let your liaison officer at IFF know if your learners are facing any difficulties completing the survey.
Is the learner ID requested in the survey the Lifelong Learning Wales Record (LLWR)?
The survey asks for their learner ID, which is the number that providers give to their students on enrolment (LN02). It is very useful if students give us this number, but it is optional in the survey.
Who should learners contact with technical problems?
We anticipate that most ‘technical problems’ will relate to learners not being sure how to complete the survey. In these cases, the first point of contact should be tutors. To help reduce the number of queries directed to tutors, we will also include troubleshooting information on the learner website FAQ page, so learners can be signposted there for additional support. Any major technical issues (for example, if learners are unable to access the survey link) should be referred to the team at IFF.
You mention a learner ID is asked for in the survey? We don’t usually give our students a learner ID on registration – do we need to generate one?
We will use the learner ID in two ways – to check if a learner has already completed the survey and does not need to do it again, and to allow us to match the data from the survey to the Lifelong Learning Wales Record (LLWR).
It is not mandatory to enter a learner ID, and learners will be able to complete the survey without one – in that case we would use other information (such as name, date of birth etc.) to match each learner to their Lifelong Learning Wales Record (LLWR) record.
However, without a learner ID we won’t be able to flag to learners if they have already completed the survey previously, so to avoid any extra burden on learners it may be helpful if you were able to allocate learner IDs to your learners for this reason.
Are we able to ring students and do the survey with them over the phone?
This isn’t something we expect providers to be able to do, but we are happy in principle for this to happen if necessary, and if the provider wishes to do so.
Is there a way of making sure the Learner Reference Number is not duplicated across different institutions?
Our system will combine the Learner Reference Number entered by the learner with the provider ID code to create a unique identifier for that learner, and it can use that unique ID to check if that learner has already completed a baseline survey.
How long will the survey take learners to complete?
Based on analysis previous survey completes, it should take learners around 10 minutes on average, but we recognise that some learners may take longer than this. Learners can complete the survey in stages if they enter their email address at the start, as this enables us to send them a new link which they can use to pause the survey and return to where they left off, if they need to finish it later.
How is our learners’ data protected?
IFF Research have ISO27001:2013 accreditation, the gold standard of data security, and CyberEssentials. This means all our processes are geared towards meeting stringent data security requirements. We adhere to the GDPR and learners will get information on how their data will be used, where it will be stored and when it will be deleted, at the start of the survey. Learners’ contact information is stored on our secure servers at IFF and only members of the project team have access to it.
What languages is the survey available in?
The full survey is available online in English and Welsh.
Do learners get anything in return for taking part?
Learners who complete the survey will be entered into a prize draw to win an iPad. One learner from each main provider (not subcontractor) will win an iPad.
Who can I contact with questions?
For project questions: IFF Research — lvsqueries@iffresearch.com
For privacy questions: dataprotectionofficer@medr.cymru