Navigating Changing Options (NCO) research

Tracking the impact of the pandemic on current and prospective students. Please note, the NCO reports are provided free to our UPP clients.

Please speak to your account manager if you do not have an UPP yet.

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What is Navigating Changing Options?


The Student Room and TSR Insight's Navigating Changing Options survey is a regular temperature check, exploring the needs of young people considering or currently undertaking higher education.


A follow-up to The Student Room’s successful annual Options reports, this research was initially developed in response to the first Covid-19 lockdown. Through our regular surveys we have continued to explore the impact of the pandemic on the lives and educational choices of our audience.

How it works


TSR Insight developed an online survey informed by our existing knowledge of the HE environment and the changes brought about by the pandemic, in consultation with university clients and informed by the conversations we were seeing on The Student Room platform.

In each wave, we updated the questions to reflect the different stages in the decision-making cycle, and in the external environment, while also tracking key questions over time.

The value


With different question sets for students in Years 11,12, 13, gap years, apprentices and current students, we are gathering a full picture of the current state of play for young people navigating important educational choices in a regularly changing environment.

Get your NCO reports here

The 2023 applicant report are included in our University Partner Pack (UPP) package and UPP Unlimited also receive 2024 applicant data. Please use your UPP password to access your reports.