Graduate student surveys: Assessment landscape, challenges, and solutions

Abstract

Most assessments of the graduate student experience are institution-based and largely focused on satisfaction exit surveys. Very few of these surveys touch on the experiences of graduate students as instructors or teaching assistants. Further lacking are trends from large-scale surveys or national data on the experiences of graduate students, which is especially concerning given the increasing number of graduate students entering the classroom to teach undergraduate students. Participants in this session will discuss how the assessment of graduate student experiences varies on different campuses, as well as examine the challenges and potential solutions associated with assessing these experiences. Finally, participants will learn about one large-scale survey of graduate student experiences, see a selection of results gathered from two years of administration of this survey, and hear about how institutions have used these results for graduate student professional development purposes.