National Survey of Student Engagement

In the spring 2009 semester, the University of North Florida participated in a second administration of the National Survey of Student Engagement on campus. The "NSSE" survey is coordinated by Indiana University and was first administered on the UNF campus in spring 2006. It is a survey designed to capture freshmen and senior's perception of their own level of engagement with their institution and the results can provide powerful information on how to improve the educational experience for all students. Questions include topics such as number of hours studied, interactions with faculty, and whether a student feels part of the community on campus. What we find interesting are the comparative results for the freshmen and senior respondents in our sample. For example, 23% of our UNF first year students in 2009 responded that they "planned to work on a research project with a faculty member outside course or program" while only 15% of our seniors responded that they have already done this activity. Further comparisons can now be made between responses from 2006 and 2009 which will provide us with some measures of progress or improvements as indicated by student response.

For the spring 2009 distribution, 324 freshmen and 590 seniors (24% response rate) participated in the online NSSE survey. In addition, UNF student responses are compared with three selected groups participating in NSSE for spring 2009.

Group 1: Universities enrolled in the NSSE Urban University consortium. For a list of the Urban universities participating in NSSE in 2009 and the extra questions designed for this group, click here.

Group 2: UNF Peer-Aspirant universities. These institutions, identified through our strategic planning process as UNF’s peer-aspirants for benchmarking, participated in NSSE 2009 distribution. This list includes:
            Miami University (OH)
            Montclair State (NJ)
            Portland State (OR)
            The College of New Jersey (NJ)
            Towson University (MD)
            University of Maryland, Baltimore County (MD)
            University of North Carolina, Charlotte (NC)
            University of North Carolina, Wilmington (NC)

Group 3: Basic 2005 Carnegie Classification 18 (Master’s Colleges and Universities (larger programs). For a list of these institutions, click here.

NSSE also provides five benchmarks important for UNF to consider as it moves toward a regional institution of national quality. These five benchmarks include: