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Most College Students Satisfied But Transfer Students
Less Engaged
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Findings from a national survey
released today show that the vast majority of undergraduate
students are satisfied with their college experience.
About 87 percent rate their overall experience as “good”
or “excellent” and 80 percent would probably
go to the same institution if they had it to do over.
Transfer students, though, are generally less engaged
across the board in learning activities, a troubling finding
inasmuch as two-fifths of all seniors started college
somewhere other than the school from which they will graduate.
Student engagement represents the combination of the effort
students devote to educationally sound activities and
what colleges do to prompt students to take advantage
of these activities. Many studies show that engagement
is a strong predictor of how well a student learns. The
more engaged students are in college, the more likely
they are to develop the habits of the mind that are key
to success after college including participating in civic
affairs.
The 2002 report from the National Survey of Student Engagement
(NSSE) is based on information from 135,000 first-year
and senior students at 613 different four-year colleges
and universities. The NSSE study, titled From Promise
to Progress: How Colleges and Universities Are Using Student
Engagement Results to Improve Collegiate Quality, gives
schools an idea of how well students are learning and
what they are putting into and getting out of their undergraduate
experience.
Carol Geary Schneider, president of the Association of
American Colleges and Universities, said that “NSSE
findings can help campuses explore the connections between
their expectations for student achievement and what students
actually experience.”
The survey results provide comparative standards for determining
how effectively colleges are contributing to learning.
Five benchmarks are measured:
- level of academic challenge,
- active and collaborative learning,
- student-faculty interaction,
- enriching educational experiences, and
- supportive campus environment.
According to the NSSE director, Indiana University Bloomington
professor George D. Kuh, “prospective students and
their parents can better determine a school’s quality
and fit by asking the kinds of questions NSSE asks: How
many students work with faculty members on research and
other activities? How muchreading and writing is required?
How often do students interact with other
students who are from different backgrounds and cultures?
How good is the academic advising?”
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Some of the key findings from
the 2002 report are:
- Experiences with diversity heighten student engagement and overall
satisfaction with college.
- International students are more engaged overall than American students.
- Women majoring in science, engineering and math study more and interact
more with faculty members than students in other majors.
- Participating in a learning community enhances the overall quality of the
educational experience.
- Sixty two percent of first-year students and forty seven percent of seniors
never worked with faculty members on activities other than coursework.
- Forty one percent of first-year students and twenty six percent of seniors
never discussed ideas from their reading or classes with faculty members outside
of class.
- About two fifths of all students spend ten or fewer hours per week preparing
for class, far less time than what faculty members say is needed.
Schools of all types are using student engagement results to improve
the quality of the undergraduate experience. Peter Smith,
the president of California State University-Monterey
Bay, calls NSSE "an invaluable resource. It sheds light
on our strengths while pointing to areas where improvement
is needed."
The NSSE 2002 Report is co-sponsored by The Carnegie Foundation
for the Advancement of Teaching and the Pew Forum on Undergraduate
Learning. NSSE is supported by grants to Indiana University
from Lumina Foundation for Education and The Pew Charitable
Trusts.
| The NSSE 2002
Report, “From Promise to Progress: How Colleges
and Universities Are Using Student Engagement Results
to Improve Collegiate Quality,” may be obtained
for $20 from the National Survey of Student Engagement,
1900 East Tenth Street, Eigenmann Hall, Suite 419, Indiana University,
Bloomington IN 47406-7512. |
The NSSE Website: www.iub.edu/~nsse.
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