We use different research formats for different jobs, and label them accordingly. The aim is simple: publish useful student insight without making the evidence sound stronger than it is.
Keeping the formats separate makes it easier for readers, search engines and journalists to understand what each result can support.
A planned questionnaire with a defined recruitment route, achieved sample, fieldwork period, multiple questions and deeper analysis. The 2026 Student Experience Survey was fielded through Pollfish with 500 UK respondents recorded as students.
Quick questions put directly to the Unifresher Instagram audience. Polls are published with the exact response total, collection date, raw counts and a clear statement that the result is indicative rather than representative of all UK students.
The 2026 survey uses a transparent chain from the original response to the final public claim.
Unifresher defines the research questions, exact wording and answer formats.
Responses are collected through the documented recruitment route and time period.
Counts are reconciled, open-text answers are coded, derived measures are documented and problematic fields are held back.
Results appear with counts, bases, wording, methodology, limitations, citation guidance and licensing.
The methodology page should make the decisions behind the live result explicit.
Polls are deliberately lighter-weight than the structured survey, but they still publish enough information for the result to be checked.
The response count is stated, not implied.
The fieldwork date stays attached to the finding.
Percentages are backed by the original answer totals.
Poll results are not described as representative of all UK students.
Possible data issues can be sent to editorial@unifresher.co.uk. Media and reuse questions can be sent to press@unifresher.co.uk.
Pollfish supplied both raw and stratified results. The export does not identify a benchmark population specifically designed to represent UK students, and some stratified results move materially away from the achieved 500-response sample. Until that benchmark is confirmed as appropriate for the student population, Unifresher uses the unweighted results as the public editorial series.
Every published raw percentage can be traced directly back to the number of respondents who selected that answer.
We do not use weighting to imply that the study represents every UK student when the supplied export does not establish that benchmark.
If a suitable UK-student weighting benchmark is documented later, the methodology can explain any revised weighted series separately rather than silently replacing the original result.
