Engagement Insights: Survey Findings on the Quality of Undergraduate Education. Annual Results 2015

In 2015, the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) collected responses from more than 315,000 first-year and senior students attending 585 bachelor's degree-granting colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. This report presents selected NSSE results from students at 541 U.S. institutions or subsets of that group where supplemental survey items were included. It also shares selected results from NSSE's two companion surveys, the Beginning College Survey of Student Engagement (BCSSE) and the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (FSSE). The report investigates NSSE results that bear on the importance of challenging students to do their best work, seniors' preparation in the major, and the relationship of financial stress to engagement and views of the campus environment. The BCSSE analysis examined high school study habits and their relationship with the first year of college. The FSSE results were used to investigate faculty perceptions safety and crisis preparedness. Key findings include: (1) Only about half of first-year students and three in five seniors reported that their courses highly challenged them to do their best work; (2) Coursework in the major that emphasizes creative skills (e.g., generating new ideas, taking risks, inventing new methods to find solutions) was positively related to student engagement in several areas; (3) Financial stress was common among undergraduates, particularly among first-generation, women, Black, and Hispanic students; (4) Academic habits developed in high school, such as the amount of time devoted to studying, tend to carry over to college with lasting positive effects; and (5) Nearly nine out of ten faculty felt safe at their institutions. Institutions where faculty felt safer provided more training about sexual assault, more resources for victims of sexual assault, and more crisis response training. [For "Bringing the Institution into Focus. Annual Results 2014," see ED574511.]