In an attempt to better understand undergraduate students’ experiences at MU, the inbox of every first-year college student and college senior at MU received an email from Chancellor Brady Deaton. The email urged students to fill out a survey about their lives on MU campus and during college in general.
“Completing the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) will provide me and others with valuable first-hand information from students that can help us improve our curriculum and campus life,” Deaton said in the email.
NSSE is a staffed online institution focused on bettering educational practices in the United States. The idea for mass collecting data about college students, faculty and other involved members was created in 1998 and piloted in 1999, according to the NSSE website.
Senior Ryan Bueckendorf said he is not opposed to taking the survey.
“I think, given the current financial limitations facing all types of education but most specifically those facing higher education institutions such as MU, that it is more important than ever to track the types of programs our students are most taking advantage of,” he said. “This enables our faculty, staff and other stakeholders to streamline what is available to students and to divert available funding to the areas and programs where they will be most effective and reach the greatest number of students.”
Buckendorf also said he thinks the survey helps prepare MU for the future.
“I think having incoming students and departing seniors take the survey effectively demonstrates any changes in these figures over time, which will have the added benefit of enabling MU to prepare for future trends in student engagement and programming,” he said.
According to the NSSE website, through the student survey, The College Student Report, NSSE annually collects information at hundreds of four-year colleges and universities about student participation in programs and activities that institutions provide for students’ learning and personal development.
“NSSE will collect the information about student participation in programs and activities that Missouri provides for their learning and personal development and come up with an estimate of how undergraduates spend their time and what they gain from attending Mizzou,” stated an Office of Undergraduate Studies press release. “The results will point to areas in which Missouri is performing well and aspects of the undergraduate experience that could be improved.”
Students are urged to find and take the survey as soon as possible in order to aid MU in fixing any problems they might have regarding students.
“The final reminder to students will be sent from NSSE on April 4,” senior information specialist Josh Murray said. “However, the survey will be available to students until early June when NSSE closes it in order to compile results. We are encouraging students to fill it out before the end of the semester.”
This NSSE survey is important for students to take because of the amount that it gives back to both the student body and the university as a whole.
“The NSSE survey is a needed resource for universities like the University of Missouri as they evaluate what they can improve here on our campus,” MSA President Xavier Billingsley said in a news release regarding the survey. “I urge all Mizzou students to fulfill their civil duties and let our university know our needs.”
