NSSE Overview

NSSE 2022 Overview

Features
•Data/Methodology
•U.S. Institutions
•Response Rates
•Survey Customiz.
•U.S. Respondents
•Canadian Respond.

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The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE, pronounced “nessie”) collects information from first-year and senior students about the characteristics and quality of their undergraduate experience. Since the inception of the survey, nearly 1,700 bachelor’s-granting colleges and universities in the United States and Canada have used it to measure the extent to which students engage in effective educational practices that are empirically linked with learning, personal development, and other desired outcomes such as persistence, satisfaction, and graduation.

NSSE data are used by faculty, administrators, researchers, and others for institutional improvement, public reporting, and related purposes. Launched in 2000 with the support of a generous grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts, NSSE has been fully sustained through institutional participation fees since 2002. This document provides an overview of NSSE 2022, including administration details, response rates, participating institutions, and respondent characteristics.

Much has changed across the higher education landscape since the pandemic began over two years ago, most notably a shift from predominately online learning during the 2020-21 academic year to more in-person instruction this past year. Despite fewer NSSE participating schools over the last two years, especially among public institutions, interest in measuring student engagement remained robust with hundreds of colleges and universities using data to understand the student experience during these changed circumstances. To the credit of institutional leaders, faculty, students, and staff, student engagement as measured by NSSE has remained relatively constant, on average, during these turbulent times. However, recent results have also made clear that engagement in several activities typically requiring face-to-face interaction that declined last year have shown signs of rebounding in 2022: collaborative learning, discussions with diverse others, student-faculty interaction, perceptions of campus support, and participation in servicing-learning courses, internships, and study abroad.

Survey Data and Methodology

Approximately 1.1 million first-year and senior students from 469 institutions (460 in the US, 5 in Canada, and 4 in other countries) were invited to participate in NSSE 2022. Of this population, 252,336 students responded to the survey. First-year and senior students were about equally represented among the respondent population.

NSSE’s sampling methodology calls for either a census of all first-year and senior students or a random selection of an equal number of students from each group, with sample size based on total undergraduate enrollment. Census administration is available only via email recruitment, in which students get a survey invitation and up to four reminders by email. In 2022, all participating institutions opted for this method rather than the regular mail option, in which sampled students get up to three messages by post and up to two email reminders.

Unless noted otherwise, the results presented below are from 456 institutions—451 in the US and 5 in Canada—that participated in NSSE 2022. Due to nonstandard details of their participation, 13 institutions are not represented. In these summary tables, and in the Institutional Report 2022, only data for census-administered and randomly sampled students are included. NSSE 2022 U.S. respondents profiled here include 245,071 first-year (47%) and senior (53%) respondents.

U.S. Participating Institutions

NSSE 2022 participating institutions and students reflect the diversity of bachelor’s-granting colleges and universities in the US with respect to institution type, public or private control, size, region, and locale (Table 1). A searchable list of participating institutions is on the NSSE website.

Table 1: Profile of NSSE 2022 U.S. Institutions and Respondents and Bachelor’s-Granting U.S. Institutions and Their Students
Institution Characteristics	Institutions (%)		Students (%)
	NSSE	U.S.	NSSE	U.S.
Carnegie Basic Classification
Doctoral Universities (Very high research activity)	6	8	18	32
Doctoral Universities (Higher research activity)	8	8	16	16
Doctoral/Professional Universities	11	9	15	10
Master's Colleges and Universities (Larger programs)	27	22	31	26
Master's Colleges and Universities (Medium programs)	13	12	7	5
Master's Colleges and Universities (Smaller programs)	8	8	4	3
Baccalaureate Colleges—Arts & Sciences Focus	13	15	5	4
Baccalaureate Colleges—Diverse Fields	12	18	4	5
Control
Public	40	35	59	67
Private	60	65	41	33
Undergraduate Enrollment
Fewer than 1,000	11	22	2	2
1,000–2,499	34	32	13	9
2,500–4,999	24	17	16	10
5,000–9,999	17	15	21	18
10,000–19,999	7	8	15	21
20,000 or more	7	7	32	39
Region
New England	7	8	7	7
Mid East	19	18	12	16
Great Lakes	12	15	9	14
Plains	11	10	7	7
Southeast	28	26	28	24
Southwest	10	8	14	12
Rocky Mountains	4	3	12	6
Far West	7	10	10	13
Outlying Areas	1	3	1	1
Locale
City	46	47	58	62
Suburban	25	25	26	23
Town	25	22	14	14
Rural	5	6	2	2
Notes: Percentages are unweighted and based on U.S. postsecondary institutions that award baccalaureate degrees and belong to one of the eight Carnegie classifications in the table. Percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding. U.S. percentages are based on the 2020 IPEDS Institutional Characteristics data. For information on the Basic Carnegie Classification, see carnegieclassifications.acenet.edu/.

Institutional Response Rates

The average response rate for U.S. NSSE 2022 institutions was 28%, a one-point decline from last year. The highest response rate among U.S. institutions was 67%, and over half achieved a response rate of 25% or higher. Higher average response rates were observed for smaller institutions and at institutions that offered incentives for survey participation (Table 2).

Fifty-nine percent of institutions offered a survey incentive. On average, these institutions had a 31% response rate, eight percentage points higher than those that did not offer an incentive. Institutions also had the option to use their learning management system or student portal to recruit students. In 2022, 114 U.S. institutions chose this option, and the average share of respondents who accessed the survey this way was 28%.

Table 2: NSSE 2022 U.S. Participation and Response Rates by Undergraduate Enrollment and Use of Incentives
Institution Characteristics	Number of Institutions	Average Institutional Response Rate (%)
2,500 or fewer	211	32
2,501 to 4,999	108	25
5,000 to 9,999	72	24
10,000 or more	60	21
Use of Incentives Some institutions used recruitment incentives, such as small gifts or raffles, to encourage students to complete the survey.
Offered incentives	266	31
No incentives	185	23
All Institutions	451	28

Survey Customization

Participating institutions may append up to two additional question sets in the form of NSSE Topical Modules or consortium questions (for institutions sharing a common interest and participating as a NSSE consortium) (Table 3). Of the ten modules available in 2022, the most widely adopted was Academic Advising (Table 4).

Table 3: Summary of NSSE 2022 Participation in Additional Questions Sets
Selection of Additional Question Sets	Number of Institutions	Percentage of Institutions
None	36	8
One module only	111	24
Two modules	259	55
Consortium items only	6	1
Consortium items plus one module	57	12
Notes: Includes U.S., Canadian, other international institutions, and institutions with nonstandard population files or administrations. Percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding.

Table 4: NSSE 2022 Participation in Topical Modules
Topical Module	Number of Institutions	Percentage of Institutions
Academic Advising	169	36
Inclusiveness and Engagement with Cultural Diversity	145	31
Career and Workforce Preparation	106	23
First-Year Experiences and Senior Transitions	109	23
Experiences with Online Learning	44	9
Development of Transferable Skills	34	7
HIP Quality	26	6
Experiences with Writing	27	6
Civic Engagement	17	4
Global Learning	9	2
Notes: Includes U.S., Canadian, other international institutions, and institutions with nonstandard population files or administrations. Percentages sum to more than 100 because many institutions selected two modules.

U.S. Respondent Profile

Table 5 displays selected demographic and enrollment characteristics of NSSE 2022 U.S. respondents alongside all U.S. bachelor’s degree-seeking students for comparison. NSSE reports use weights as appropriate to correct for disproportionate survey response related to institution-reported sex and enrollment status at each institution.

Table 5: Characteristics of NSSE 2022 U.S. Respondents and Undergraduate Population at All U.S. Bachelor’s Degree-Granting Institutions
Student Characteristics	NSSE Respondents (%)	U.S. Bachelor's-Granting Population (%)
Sex
Male	32	44
Female	67	56
Race/Ethnicity
African American/Black	10	12
American Indian/Alaska Native	1	<1
Asian	7	8
Native Hawaiian/other Pacific Islander	<1	<1
Caucasian/White	58	54
Hispanic/Latino	17	18
Multiracial/multiethnic	4	4
Foreign/nonresident alien	3	4
Enrollment Status
Full-time	88	83
Not full-time	12	17
Note: Percentages are unweighted and may not sum to 100 due to rounding. Institution-reported, using categories provided in IPEDS. NSSE percentages do not include students with “another” or “unknown” sex (0.5% of all respondents) or unknown race/ethnicity (4.2% of all respondents). The NSSE 2022 sampling frame consists of first-year and senior undergraduates. Data were provided by participating institutions. U.S. percentages are based on data from the 2020 IPEDS Institutional Characteristics and Enrollment data. Includes all class years.

Canadian Respondent Profile

Canadian respondents profiled here include 4,917 students (61% first-year, 39% senior) from 5 institutions in 4 provinces, including 2 institutions in Ontario and 1 from Alberta, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia. Female students and full-time students accounted for about 62% and 80% of Canadian respondents, respectively. The average response rate for Canadian NSSE 2022 institutions was 34%, with the highest response rate being 49%. All but one institution achieved a response rate of 25% or higher. About 24% of Canadian respondents were at least 24 years old. The majority of students providing ethnocultural information identified as Caucasian or White (63%), while 9% were multiracial, 6% South Asian, 6% Chinese, 4% Black, and less than 4% from each of nine other categories.

Looking for a bit of NSSE history?

See all historical NSSE Overviews dating back to 2000 in PDF format.

NSSE Overview

NSSE 2022 Overview

Survey Data and Methodology

U.S. Participating Institutions

Table 1: Profile of NSSE 2022 U.S. Institutions and Respondents and Bachelor’s-Granting U.S. Institutions and Their Students

Institutional Response Rates

Table 2: NSSE 2022 U.S. Participation and Response Rates by Undergraduate Enrollment and Use of Incentives

Survey Customization

Table 3: Summary of NSSE 2022 Participation in Additional Questions Sets

Table 4: NSSE 2022 Participation in Topical Modules

U.S. Respondent Profile

Table 5: Characteristics of NSSE 2022 U.S. Respondents and Undergraduate Population at All U.S. Bachelor’s Degree-Granting Institutions

Canadian Respondent Profile

Looking for a bit of NSSE history?

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