Major Field Report, 2009 - 2012
Following the update of the NSSE survey, the Major Field Report was also updated in 2013. The information on this page corresponds to the previous version of the report which was delivered to institutions that participated in 2009 through 2012. To view the most current information about the Major Field Report, click here.
Until 2012, the NSSE Major Field Report broke down NSSE responses by up to eight categories of related majors within an institution and presented them alongside comparison group students in the same categories. By default NSSE used eight categories of majors, but institutions had the option to customize these (see below). The Major Field Report had two sections:
- Major Field Report Part I provided a "within institution" report that laid out frequency and benchmark results within each major category side-by-side for all of an institution's first-year students and seniors. An additional column for "overall" results was provided as a reference. The overall results were identical to those found in the Institutional Report.
- Major Field Report Part II compared a given institution's respondents in up to eight major categories against the same categories in their comparison groups. Like Part I, frequency and benchmark results were provided for each category that contained a minimum number of respondents.
Why Look at Majors?
Decades of research on college students holds that student experiences and outcomes are more varied among students within institutions than between institutions. Thus, NSSE encourages institutions to examine internal variations in their students' experiences. The Major Field Report is a model of what these analyses could look like. The Major Field Report also informs department-level improvements in teaching and learning. Deans, department chairs, and faculty may not derive much diagnostic value from institution-wide results. But when information for their schools or departments is known and can be compared to other majors on campus, it may get more traction.
Using the Major Field Report
The Major Field Report is available for download by participating institutions shortly after the delivery of the NSSE Institutional Report. Institutions are encouraged to identify areas of small and large difference in major field categories among their own students and against their comparison groups. This is a useful exercise for all benchmarks (NSSE 2009-2012) and selected items of greatest interest/importance to an institution. Worksheets are available in the NSSE Facilitator's Guide to assist with hosting campus meetings about these results.
Customizing Major Categories
Institutions have the option to customize the major categories to match their profile of degrees offered. Institutions participating before 2013 regrouped the 85 student-reported majors into as many as eight new categories via an online form in spring before their NSSE official reports were created. Institutions choosing not to customize their major categories received NSSE's NSSE's eight major field categories by default.
Technical Requirements
NSSE imposed a minimum of five respondents for frequency distributions and twenty for benchmark comparisons for the Major Field Reports in 2009 through 2012. Major field groups that did not meet these requirements were not reported (i.e., the column was left blank in Part I and no Part II report was generated). Though five and twenty represented our minimum cut points, institutions were asked to keep in mind that the Major Field Report, as with any statistical results, requires a sufficient number of students per category to produce reliable interpretations.