NSSE celebrates 10th anniversary with symposium
Survey started in 1999 with 57 institutions participating; in last decade, more than 1.5 million students surveyed, nearly 1,400 participating institutions
Monday, October 26, 2009
A group of more than 80 higher education leaders, researchers, and faculty came to Indianapolis over two days to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and talk about its future. The NSSE 10th Anniversary Symposium took place Saturday and Sunday, October 24 and 25, at the Westin Hotel in downtown Indianapolis.NSSE is an annual survey of undergraduate students at 4-year institutions in the U.S. and Canada designed to provide an estimate of how postsecondary students spend their time and what they gain from attending college. Survey items represent empirically confirmed "good practices" in undergraduate education--reflecting behaviors by students and institutions that are associated with desired outcomes of college. Fifty-nine institutions chose to participate in the first NSSE in fall 1999. In 2009, 643 colleges and universities took part. Over the last decade, 1,393 institutions have administered NSSE. By 2007, nearly 1.5 million college students had taken the survey.
The survey started with original support from the Pew Charitable Trusts. Pew funded the proposal by George Kuh, Chancellor's Professor of Higher Education and Director of the Center for Postsecondary Research at the IU School of Education, which won out over bids from numerous other competing institutions. During the panel discussions over the weekend, Kuh recalled how Russ Edgerton of Pew convened a group to discuss creating a new survey instrument to assess undergraduate education quality.
"Who knew it would work," Kuh said, noting that the odds were against the survey persisting after the original funding ended. Kuh said the scholars who imagined the new survey wanted something that would provide more substantial information about postsecondary education quality than just the popular college rankings system. Kuh stepped down as director of NSSE after 2007, but continues as director of the Center for Postsecondary Research.Panel discussions at the symposium focused less on the past than on the future, said Alex McCormick, the director of NSSE since January 2008. McCormick said roundtable discussions and panels were intended to bring out what NSSE should do in its next phase of development. The participants--from as far away as Australia and South Africa--offered suggestions for how the survey could evolve and improve. Speakers shared thoughts about how the student population is changing and how the survey might need to adjust to reflect that change. Others suggested ways to make sure participating institutions make better use of the survey data.
More about NSSE is available on the survey website at www.nsse.iub.edu.
