Cost

How is the survey administered?
Is it possible to administer the survey on the WWW?
How many mailings and contacts with students are done?
How can I view a copy of the instrument?
Can we pick the dates on which our students will receive the surveys from you?
Can I do local administration of NSSE in the fall semester instead of the spring?
What are the conditions for participating in NSSE and FSSE?

How many students will be sampled from my institution?
Can we increase our sample size?
Is it possible to increase sample size through local administration of the NSSE?
If my school has fewer than 400 freshmen and senior students can we still participate?
How does oversampling affect sampling error?
Why do I have to include all my school’s first-year and senior students in my data file? I just want to know about my traditional, residential undergraduates.
Why do I have to give my population file so early? Can I update it later?

Is it possible to include additional questions on the survey?
How can we form a consortium?
Am I allowed to send you the requirements for the population file and still comply with FERPA? Our institution’/states’ privacy laws prohibit me from sending the contact information.

The cost of NSSE is very reasonable and is determined by undergraduate enrollment and whether or not an institution chooses to oversample. For example, an institution with a total undergraduate enrollment of 5,000 using the paper version (traditional paper survey with web option) would be charged a $300 Institutional Participation Fee plus a sampling fee of $4,500.

The fee structure in the table below is for small schools that have less than 400 students in their combined first-year and senior classes. The fee applies for either Web-only or paper administration and is based on combined first-year and senior enrollment.

For paper institutions, oversampling can be done at a cost of $7.50 per surveyed student if NSSE does the administration. If the institution chooses to oversample through local administration (distribution of surveys in classrooms, at residence hall meetings, etc.), the cost is $2.00 per surveyed student.

Web-only institutions (students receive all correspondence by e-mail and complete the on-line version of The Report) can also oversample for a cost of $1.50 per surveyed student.

I’m using the paper mode and want to oversample but can’t afford to pay for paper oversampling. Can I use the web oversample mode instead?

No, but you can choose to administer a local oversample. Conducting a local oversample is similar to conducting 2 administrations, possibly doubling the work-load for the institution. Please contact NSSE to discuss this option.

All students who participate in the project have the option of completing The College Student Report on the World Wide Web. Students will receive the URL address of the survey with their "Invitation to Participate" letter and in all follow-up correspondence (postcard, follow-up letter, e-mails, etc.)

It is also possible to administer the survey exclusively via the web. With Web-only institutions, students receive all correspondence by e-mail and complete the Web version of The Report. This version requires an accurate list of student e-mail addresses.

The Center for Survey Research (CSR) at Indiana University collects all of the data using techniques based on best practices in large-scale survey research. For paper version institutions, the CSR sends (1) an initial packet including an individualized invitation to participate letter to the student on institutional letterhead, a copy of The College Student Report, and a postage-paid return envelope, (2) a follow-up postcard or e-mail to non-respondents, (3) a second packet with another letter from the institution to non-respondents, and (4) additional e-mail reminders. For Web-only institutions, all correspondence and follow-ups to students are by e-mail.

Survey instrument samples can be viewed here.

NSSE cannot promise precise dates for administration of the survey. It may be possible to identify target mailing dates within a certain week, but we cannot do this until a few weeks in advance of the date and only if materials are finalized in time. Even then there are no guarantees. However, the sooner we receive materials, the more time NSSE has to accommodate institutions.

No. Many of the survey’s questions relate to a year of school experiences; therefore administering the survey in the fall would not produce credible results. An institution would want a full semester of first-year experience before the students participate in the survey. However, if you are looking to administer a fall survey, CSEQ or CSXQ is a possible answer. Please contact NSSE for further information on CSEQ or CSXQ.

When institutions register for NSSE, they agree to abide by these conditions.

Sample size is determined by total undergraduate enrollment and the mode of administration (standard or web only).

Can we increase our sample size?

Yes. Institutions may increase the sample size by adding $7.50 for each additional sampled student if NSSE does the oversampling. Web-only oversampling is also available for a charge of $1.50 per student. Institutions also have the option of administering the NSSE locally (in classroom, residence halls, etc.) for a charge of $2.00 per survey which includes scoring.

Yes. Institutions may increase the sample size through local administration (having students fill the survey out at dorm floor meetings, in classrooms, etc.) by adding $2.00 for each additional surveyed student. This price includes scoring and inclusion in the institutional student response data file.

However, only those students that were randomly selected by NSSE project staff will be included in reporting national or regional norms. This process helps insure that the results from the The College Student Report are comparable, meaningful, credible, and usable for consortium comparisons and national benchmarking.

Yes. The fee structure in the table below is for small schools that have less than 450 students in their combined first-year and senior classes. The fee applies for either Web-only or paper administration and is based on combined first-year and senior enrollment.

Check out the page below for tips on how to boost your response rate: http://www.iub.edu/~nsse/html/increase_rates.cfm.

NSSE needs the population files early so we can prepare the institutions-specific materials for the spring administration of the survey. Schools will, however, have the opportunity in January to remove from their population files students who are no longer enrolled or who graduated in December, although we will not replace those students in the sample.

Institutions participating in NSSE receive an Institutional Report in August that includes:

• Respondent characteristics
• Comparative data with three peer groups selected by the institution
• Mean comparisons and frequency distributions for all questions
• A report on institutional performance on the five benchmarks of effective educational practice
• Data file of students' responses
• Pocket Guide Report – institution-specific reports that complement the popular "Pocket Guide to Choosing a College"

The NSSE Institutional Report Web site reports grand means and frequencies for all NSSE questions and descriptive statistics for the five benchmarks, all broken down by Carnegie classification.

Institutions may ask additional questions if they partner with groups of 6 more schools in a consortium with similar areas of interest.

Participating institutions can use the data we provide to conduct their own analyses, or request additional analysis from NSSE staff.

Most year-to-year changes in benchmark scores are likely attributable to subtle changes in the characteristics of an institution’s respondents or are simply random fluctuations and should not be used to judge the effectiveness of the institution. The assessment of whether or not benchmark scores are increasing is best done over several years. If specific efforts were taken on a campus in a given year to increase student-faculty interaction, for example, then changes in a benchmark score can be an assessment of the effectiveness of those efforts.

NSSE will only release data or reports that identify specific institutions to the designated contacts at those institutions. Requests from other individuals at that institution or outside individuals and organizations will be directed to contact the institutional contacts who registered for NSSE services. You can read more about NSSE’s position on disclosing student engagement data here.

NSSE encourages public disclosure of student engagement results in ways that serve to increase understanding of collegiate quality and that support institutional improvement efforts. Each institution must make its own decisions about how this should be done. You can read more about NSSE’s position on disclosing student engagement data here.

Yes. This option is available to institutions that have agreed to participate in data sharing within a self-selected institutional consortium of at least six institutions. This policy reflects one of the primary goals of the NSSE project: to help institutions improve the quality of the undergraduate experience.

The NSSE staff will enable your institution to take advantage of this opportunity for data sharing and comparisons. Please contact us at consorti@indiana.edu to have any questions addressed.Click here for more information about consortia.

If an entity is acting on behalf of an institution to better educational practices, FERPA approves the entity; thus NSSE complies with FERPA. See the FERPA webpage for an explanation of this. NSSE is covered by Subpart D 99.31(A) 6(i), which states:

(a) An educational agency or institution may disclose personally identifiable information from an education record of a student without the consent required by § 99.30 if the disclosure meets one or more of the following conditions:

(6)(i) The disclosure is to organizations conducting studies for, or on behalf of, educational agencies or institutions to:

(A) Develop, validate, or administer predictive tests;

(B) Administer student aid programs; or

(C) Improve instruction.

http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/pdf/ferparegs.pdf