Results for 353 colleges and universities participating in NSSE 2021 are now available. Approximately 890,000 first-year and senior students were invited to participate. Of this population, 211,667 students responded. First-year and senior students were about equally represented among the respondent population.
The coronavirus pandemic continued to have a profound impact on higher education and its students this past year, demanding rapid adaptation to unusual circumstances like shifting academic calendars and constantly changing health and safety requirements. NSSE adapted by adding a pandemic-specific question, and introduced two salient modules, Coping with COVID (created specifically for the 2021 administration) and Experiences with Online Learning.
Recognizing these difficult and changing circumstances, NSSE asked students about the extent faculty and staff had done a good job helping them adapt to pandemic-induced changes. Hearteningly, nearly 3 out of 4 respondents (73%) said faculty and staff had helped them substantially (“quite a bit” or “very much”) in this regard. However, some student groups reported slightly less support than their peers, such as those studying mostly online (71%), those at a doctoral degree-granting institution (71%), and Black or African-American students (72%).
Participating institutions are encouraged to Register for "Your NSSE Institutional Report 2021: Step-by-Step" to learn more about their reports.