Engagement Insights: Survey Findings on the Quality of Undergraduate Education–Annual Results 2019

This latest volume in NSSE’s Annual Results series, Engagement Insights: Survey Findings on the Quality of Undergraduate Education, presents key findings from the 2019 administration of NSSE and its companion survey, the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (FSSE). NSSE surveyed first-year and senior students attending 531 bachelor’s degree-granting institutions across the United States in spring 2019, while FSSE results came from 120 institutions, almost all of which administered NSSE as well. Annual Results 2019 also provides findings from a subset of NSSE respondents who answered additional questions about academic advising and from a study of the persistence of first-year students. Noteworthy findings include:•The percentage of first-year students who spent more than 15 hours per week preparing forclass increased from 34% in 2004 to as high as 45% in 2017.•The proportion of first-year students who interacted frequently with faculty about career plans,on course topics outside of class, and in activities other than coursework increased by morethan 10 percentage points from 2004 to 2019. Notably, FSSE 2019 results show that faculty and student views about interaction reasonably align; 68% of faculty frequently talked with undergraduates about their career plans, and 59% discussed course topics, ideas, or concepts outside of class.• From 2004 to 2019, the share of students reporting a substantial institutional emphasis on diverse interactions rose more than 10 points for first-year students and seniors. • More than half of both first-year students and seniors had five or more meetings with an advisor, faculty member, or success coach to discuss their academic interests, course selections, or academic performance; only a trivial proportion (3% first-years and 6% seniors) neverhad such meetings in the current school year. • Regardless of the frequency of their interactions with advisors, seniors who experienced high-quality advising, compared to those who experienced low-quality advising, indicated that their college experience contributed much more to their job- or work-related knowledge and skills. • While just 66% of responding faculty received adequate training for advising, 93% felt comfortable in their role as advisor, and 70% would feel comfortable training or mentoring others in advising. • Students’ responses on Quality of Interactions and Supportive Environment, two of NSSE’s 10 Engagement Indicators, had the strongest positive correlations with persistence; students who persisted also spent more time preparing for class and were more likely to believe their institution emphasizes spending significant amounts of time on academic work. • Students who returned to the institution exhibited higher levels of financial well-being, belongingness, and safety than their peers who did not persist; this suggests the importance of monitoring and enhancing these dimensions of the student experience