Student Engagement: Pathways to Collegiate Success—2004 Annual Survey Results

Abstract

The 2004 report from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) is based on information from 163,000 first-year and senior students at 472 different four-year colleges and universities. The NSSE study, titled “Student Engagement: Pathways to Collegiate Success,” gives schools an idea of how well students are learning and what they put into and get out of their undergraduate experience. Findings show that students who are more engaged in civic activities also gain more during college in terms of ethical development and contributing to the welfare of their community. Some aspects of the student experience have improved over the past five years. For example, today more seniors participate in service learning (from 12% to 19%), have serious conversations with students with different social, political, and religious views (from 45% to 55%), and perceive their campus administration to be helpful, considerate and flexible (from 48% to 63%). About half of all students publicly expressed their views on political or community issues important to them, though only about 10% acted on these views by volunteering for a political campaign or organizing a petition. Only 10% of students rely on newspapers or magazines as their primary source of local, national or international news while more than 50% say television is their primary source. Other key findings from the 2004 report are: • Students spend only about half the time preparing for class as faculty expect. • Two-fifths of first-year students and 25% of seniors “never” discussed ideas from their classes or readings with a faculty outside of class. • About half of first-year and senior students “reported they often” or “very often” had serious conversations with students of a different racial or ethnic group. • One-third of all students frequently participate in spirituality-enhancing activities, while 42% never do so. • Though about a quarter of all students frequently attend cultural and performing arts events during the year, a comparable size group never attends such events. • Students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities are far more likely to participate in a community project linked to a course (28%) versus students at predominantly white institutions (16%).