So how was it for you? The question may prompt sly grins of recollection from graduates, but rarely in the context of their courses. Student satisfaction is the hot new issue for universities, however, as they come to terms with the consumer market unleashed by tuition fees of £3,000 a year. Nobody has offered a money-back guarantee yet, but the new university challenge is to keep students happy — and hope that they spread the word.

The top of the market, where demand for places far exceeds supply, may be as cut-throat as ever, but most universities recognise that they will have to sell themselves harder. Would-be students are moving from desperate to discerning as they decide where to invest their money and time to get the best returns for their futures.

The latest edition of The Times Good University Guide includes a measure of “student satisfaction” for the first time, in recognition of the fact that customer demand will incr-easingly shape the higher education system.

The student satisfaction results are drawn from information in the National Student Survey, which collated opinions about courses from 170,000 final-year undergraduates.

Results from the government-backed study have been posted on the Teaching Quality Information website, www.tqi.ac.uk, to help prospective students to see how previous students rate their lecturers.

Undergraduates were asked to grade the quality of teaching that they received, the level of feedback and support available, the state of study facilities and their overall sense of satisfaction with their courses.

The Good University Guide 2007 took the questions most directly related to teaching quality and ranked each university out of a maximum of 20 points. Some surprising names emerged in the list of universities with the country’s most satisfied students. The top 10 for overall student satisfaction were Loughborough, Lampeter, Leicester, East Anglia, Lancaster, Chichester, Chester, Royal Holloway, York, and Aberystwyth.

The range of institutions that made the top 10 emphasises the need for students to research choices thoroughly before selecting their preferred universities.

One caveat is that Scottish universities were not included in the survey, while Oxford, Cambridge and Warwick refused to take part. All three institutions are part of a follow-up survey later this year.

The least satisfied customers were at London’s University of the Arts, Middlesex, Brunel, Luton, Greenwich, University of Central England, Westminster, Sunderland, Leeds Metropolitan, and Kingston.

Universities will become increasingly sensitive to perceptions of their “product” among prospective students as information builds about the quality of experience on offer. Those with good or bad ratings can expect to feel the impact on the number of applications they receive. Leeds Metropolitan and Greenwich are two of only four universities that have chosen not to levy the maximum £3,000 charge from September. Leeds Met has set the lowest annual fee of £2,000 as part of a “low charging, high-impact” strategy to attract students. It seems to be working, since applications have risen by 8.3 per cent this year against a decline nationally of 3.2 per cent. This demonstrates that students are already becoming price-sensitive about the trade-off between reputation and cost in choosing a university. It is a lesson that other universities may be forced to learn.

Equally, universities may start to set different charges for individual courses to reflect the level of student demand for places.

They cannot break the £3,000 cap for popular courses, but some universities will see advantage in attracting customers to struggling departments through an old-fashioned discount. Variations on the traditional degree will also emerge as universities seek to satisfy customers.

The British government has given its blessing to pilot schemes starting in September that will offer honours degrees in just two years rather than three, with students studying for 40 weeks each year instead of the usual 30.

American-style credit accumulation schemes will become more widespread, allowing students to take a break from their studies and to complete their degrees later, perhaps at a different university. Accommodation has become another key measure of happiness. The slum digs immortalised in The Young Ones may have been instantly recognisable to their parents, but today’s students expect something a bit more akin to Hollyoaks. Universities have responded by offering halls of residence that have more in common with hotels than hovels. Manchester’s Wilmslow Park in Manchester has been dubbed Britain’s most luxurious student digs, offering a swimming pool, gym, spa, steam room and whirlpool bath in addition to its en suite bedrooms with Internet connection as standard.

Other universities have upgraded their accommodation to offer on-site gyms, free Internet access, widescreen TVs and dishwashers. With crime an increasing concern, particularly in the major cities, many highlight 24-hour porters and high-tech security at their halls of residence.

The increasing focus on student satisfaction is a natural development of the emerging consumer market for higher education, according to Professor Alan Smithers, of Buckingham University, Britain’s only private university. “The wishes of students and what they want to study will shape the form of higher education in future,” says Smithers.