Insight into student member perceptions and experiences
Student members took part in the survey
%
Response rate achieved
Student members of the RSC
Challenge
The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a not-for-profit organisation that acts as the professional body of chemists in the UK, with over 50,000 members across 125 countries, including scientists, librarians, teachers, students and people who love chemistry.
Since 2021, free RSC membership is offered to all UK chemical science students and international students at an RSC-accredited university. The Society aims to provide student members with valuable opportunities, information, resources and support to give them the best foundation for their future careers, with the hope that they progress to professional membership when they complete their studies.
The RSC wished to conduct a survey of its student members to gain a better understanding of this group and enable the delivery of appropriate future offerings and targeted engagement activities.
Approach
Enventure Research has worked with the RSC to deliver this survey in 2020 and 2022. On both occasions, an online survey was co-designed to provide insight into the perceptions and experiences of student members, focusing on future career plans, engagement with student societies, RSC membership, communications and engagement. A number of questions from the 2020 student survey and 2022 member surveys were retained to track and compare attitudes.
The survey was administered via email to all RSC student members, and an open-access link to the survey was also created, allowing promotion of the survey via a number of online channels and student networks.
Outcome
A positive response rate to the survey was achieved, with 790 responses received in 2022, representing a response rate of 8%. This provided a robust sample size for confident statistical analysis. Detailed analysis on all findings was undertaken by Enventure Research and presented in a comprehensive report, supported by a summary infographic report to make the findings easy for members to digest.
The report provided useful insight into the perceptions and experiences of RSC student members and recommended ways in which the Society’s future offer for this member group could be further improved.
“Enventure Research once again helped us generate deeper insight into our student membership and guided us to achieving maximum amount of value from the research. Their contributions elevated the work from just a repository of member information to impactful insight and recommendations to deliver upon our membership strategy.”
Insightful research. Expertly delivered.
