Today we’re publishing the final student and learner reports from the Digital Experience Insights (DEI) service. As we mark both the end of the DEI programme and ten years since the first pilot surveys, this is an opportunity to reflect on what we have learned about digital learning across the UK education sector.
Over the past decade, DEI has captured the experiences of thousands of learners, students and staff through periods of significant change, including the rapid expansion of online learning, the disruption of the pandemic, and the emergence of generative AI. Together, those responses have created one of the richest evidence bases on digital experience in UK education.
The final survey results show a sector that has made substantial progress, while also highlighting the challenges that still require attention. Most importantly, they remind us that understanding digital experience is not a one-off exercise, but an ongoing conversation with learners and staff.
Surveys that grew with the sector
When Jisc launched the Digital Experience Insights surveys, the ambition was straightforward: give the UK education sector a reliable, consistent picture of how students and learners actually experience digital technology in their day-to-day lives. Over the years, the programme grew into one of the most comprehensive sources of evidence on digital education in the UK, spanning further education learner, higher education students, and staff perspectives.
The 2025/26 surveys (drawing on responses from over 13,000 higher education students and over 3,800 further education learners) bring that programme to a close in its current form. What they reveal is a sector that has responded impressively to disruption and change, but one where digital inclusion, infrastructure and skills development remain critical priorities.
A story of steady progress and hard work
The longitudinal picture the surveys provide is striking. When the programme first gathered data, 88% of HE students and 74% of FE learners rated their digital learning environment as above average. Those figures dipped sharply during and immediately after the Covid-19 pandemic, a period that tested every institution’s digital infrastructure to its limits. But the recovery has been remarkable.
This year, 87% of HE students rate their digital learning environment as above average, effectively back to where it started, but now underpinned by a richer, more deliberate digital offer. For FE learners, the figure has reached 77%, the highest recorded and several points above the starting point. These gains did not happen by accident. They reflect sustained institutional investment, professional development for staff, and a genuine shift in how digital education is understood and delivered.
The trend is similarly encouraging on support for effective digital learning. In higher education, the proportion of students rating this support as above average has grown from 60% back in 2019/20 to 79% today. In further education, the equivalent figure has risen from 66% to 72%. Year on year, even through the disruption of the pandemic, these numbers moved upward. This is testament to the work of teaching staff and digital professionals across the sector.
Highlights from 2025/26: what the data tells us now
AI is here and usage outpaces support
Three years ago, artificial intelligence barely registered in this survey. Today, it is one of the defining features of the student experience. In higher education, 44% of students report using AI tools specifically in their learning activities, up from 22% just two years ago. In further education, 37% of learners say they are using AI in their learning, up sharply from 24% last year.
When looking at students’ use of AI beyond its use in formal learning activities, that percentage is even higher. In further education, 46% of learners reported using AI for accessibility or productivity purposes. In higher education, this rose to 64% of students reporting using AI for accessibility or productivity purposes.
Students are adopting AI whether institutions have fully developed their approaches or not. They are using AI to break down complex concepts, navigate language barriers, draft essays, and develop their skills, whether or not their institution has caught up. Yet only 34% of HE students and 28% of FE learners report receiving training on the appropriate and effective use of AI. The message from the student voice is clear: they want clear, coherent and balanced institutional guidance.
Satisfaction is at record levels but equity gaps are widening
In higher education, 85% of students rate the quality of the digital learning experience positively, the highest figure the DEI surveys have recorded. In further education, 75% of learners feel the same. These are real achievements, and the sector should take pride in them.
But headline satisfaction can obscure inequities beneath the surface. In HE, 39% of students report lacking a suitable device for learning, up from 27% three years ago. Among international students, that figure reaches 51%. Students from some ethnic backgrounds are significantly more likely to face device-related barriers. In FE, 61% of Black, Black British, Caribbean or African learners experience device difficulties, compared to 39% of white learners. These are not marginal variations. They represent a persistent structural challenge that improvement in average satisfaction scores may not resolve.
Connectivity remains a real and ongoing problem
Wifi issues affect 59% of HE students and 61% of FE learners. In further education, this is overwhelmingly an on-campus problem, with 50% of learners reporting connectivity difficulties on campus. With nearly half of all HE students now learning in public spaces such as cafés, and a quarter studying while at work, reliable off-campus access is no longer optional. It is the infrastructure on which participation depends.
Digital skills for employment: progress, but more needed
One of the more encouraging shifts in this year’s data is in career-focused digital skills development. In higher education, 45% of students report being offered opportunities to develop digital skills for future employment, up from 37% last year. In further education, 42% of learners report the same (up from 35%). This is important progress, suggesting that institutions are increasingly connecting digital capability to graduate employment outcomes.
Yet some indicators have barely shifted in years. Formal accreditation for digital skills sits at just 28% in HE, largely unchanged for four years. Formal assessments of students’ digital skills training needs remain at 38%. However, AI literacy and data analysis are now central to what employability means to many, and the sector’s skills frameworks need to keep pace.
Continuing the conversation on digital experience
The national DEI surveys have provided the sector with a shared evidence base for understanding digital experience. While the service is coming to an end, the need to listen to learners, students and staff has not diminished. If anything, rapid developments in AI, digital learning and learner expectations make local evidence gathering more important than ever.
In September 2026, Jisc will make the existing Digital Experience Insights survey templates available to subscribers of Jisc Online Surveys, giving universities and colleges the tools to run their own digital experience insight surveys – locally, on their own schedule, tailored to their own communities. Whether you want to understand the experience of your learners in greater depth, benchmark your progress over time, or build the evidence base to make the case for investment, these templates provide a ready-made, tested, and sector-informed starting point.
The most effective institutions are those that listen systematically to their students, learners and staff, act on what they hear, and track whether things are getting better. The availability of the DEI templates through Jisc Online Surveys will make this easier and help institutions continue tracking digital experience over time.
A decade of insight, a future of listening
Over the last ten years, Digital Experience Insights has helped institutions understand how technology shapes teaching, learning and support. The story told by the data is ultimately an encouraging one: digital experiences have improved across much of the sector, despite some of the most significant educational disruptions in recent history.
But the final survey results also remind us that the work is not finished. Challenges around connectivity, access to suitable devices, digital inclusion, employability skills and AI literacy continue to evolve.
While the DEI service is ending, the need to understand digital experience remains as important as ever. We hope the evidence gathered through the programme, and the survey templates that will be available through Jisc Online Surveys, will help institutions continue listening, learning and improving for years to come.
Thank you to every student, learner, member of staff and institution that has contributed to DEI over the last decade. Your feedback has helped shape one of the most comprehensive pictures of digital experience in UK education and has informed positive change across the sector.
Get ready to take your digital pulse
Digital experience survey templates for HE and FE will be available via Jisc Online Surveys to those on Project or Organisation subscriptions from September 2026.
In the meantime, explore the full 2025/26 reports:
And, join in our LinkedIn Data Community for updates and discussion among our wider community.