Raising the bar

In the National Survey of Student Engagement, zero percent of faculty think seniors devote “Very Much” or “Quite a bit” of their time doing community service or volunteer work. Six percent of seniors said they devote “Very Much” or “Quite a bit” of their time for community service or volunteer work.

The National Survey of Student Engagement was sent out to seniors last spring at the same time the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement was sent out.

In these surveys, 298 seniors and 226 faculties participated. Percentage-wise, that’s around 31 percent of seniors and 40 percent of the faculty. A part of the results from both surveys for the 2016-17 academic year shows how upper division faculty thinks seniors spend their time versus how senior say they spend their time.

Upper division faculty were asked how much time do they think seniors devote to participating in co-curricular activities. Faculty answered only one percent of students devote “Very Much” or “Quite a bit” of their time participating in co-curricular activities. On the other hand, seniors answered seven percent.

According to the same surveys, upper division faculty thinks 41 percent of seniors devote “Very Much” or “Quite a bit” of their time relaxing and socializing, while seniors answered only 23 percent.

Almost half of all seniors in the survey said they devote “Very Much” or “Quite a bit” of their time to prepare for class, on the other hand, Upper division faculty think only 13 percent of seniors do so.

It’s not the first time HSU students participate in the National Survey of Student Engagement. The first time was back in 2002, according to NSSE website, though last spring was the first time HSU conducted the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement on HSU faculty.

According to the Office of Institutional Effectiveness, the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement costs $2,008 and the National Survey of Student Engagement cost $5,550.

Such surveys are important as they help the university administration understand students and how do they spend their time and how both student and faculty are seeing and perceiving things.