STUDENTS at St Helens College have been asked what they think of the college in a bid to improve services.

Management will use the students' feedback to compare different courses and programme areas with each other. The data gathered will allow college staff to see which courses are satisfying students' needs and which need to be improved.

A benchmarking service has also been used by the college to compare the results of the feedback with other further education colleges around the UK.

Geraldine Miles, Head of Curriculum and Quality at St Helens College, said: "The benchmarking gives us a different perspective, so that we can compare how we are doing with similar colleges in different regions."

She added that the results so far have been very encouraging, showing "our performance is above average in most areas.