First-Year Students Feel Increased Support

For first-year students, some aspects of a supportive campus environment have improved, while others have not. For instance, less than half of those who started college in 2020 said their institution substantially (“very much” or “quite a bit”) emphasized attending campus activities and events, compared to about three in five during the 2019-2020 academic year; in the 2021-2022 academic year, that share was on par with pre-pandemic levels. In the 2019-20 academic year, 70% of freshman in the U.S. felt their college or university provided opportunities for students to be involved socially; that share dropped to 57% during the height of disruptions (2020-21) and has risen to 67% in the last academic year.

Overall, first-year students’ perceptions of a supportive campus environment is near pre-disruption levels but between 2 to 6 percentage points lower, and lowest for support for well-being (5.7%-points lower than the 2018-19 or 2019-20 academic years) in areas like recreation, healthcare, and counseling. While the differences are relatively small and diminishing, it’s clear that students who started college amid the pandemic felt less supported overall than those who began before them.

Missed Opportunities for Learning Together

Both first-year and senior students engaged in collaborative learning—things like asking for or providing help to other students, working together on projects or to prepare for exams—less during the 2021-22 academic year than before the pandemic, but more often than during the height of disruptions. Where about half of all first-year students and 46% of seniors in the 2018-19 or 2019-20 academic years frequently (“often” or “very often”) studied for exams by working through and discussing course materials, only about one in three did during 2020-21. During the 2021-22 academic year, that share had only risen to about two in five (40% of first-year and 38% of senior students). Other collaborative learning activities similarly dipped, and while showings signs of improvement as universities, businesses, and governments rolled back restrictions, lagged pre-pandemic levels by 4 to 10 percentage points. Students still missed opportunities to learn and work together.

Starting in 2021 NSSE has queried students about how they take most of their courses. Arguably as the biggest change to higher education in response to the pandemic, trends in course modality can be taken as some indication of the prevalence of in-person restrictions.

In the 2021-22 academic year, a majority (66%) of first-year students and large number of seniors (42%) took courses mostly in person, compared to 2020-21 when two-thirds of students took courses mostly remotely (e.g. online or using video conferencing software like Zoom) and a small share (7% of first-years and 11% of seniors) were taking courses mostly in person. Although online learning can be effective for many, practical aspects may influence how students engage in the course.

Changes in Time Use

The disruptions in higher education also impacted how students allocated their time. Students spent more time on average studying and preparing for class in 2020-21, and slightly more time in 2021-22, than the typical student did prior to the pandemic. Similarly, students, especially first-years, said they spent more time working for pay off campus during the past two years than before. Somewhat predictably, students spent less time on co-curricular activities and commuting to campus than before, although these appear to be returning to pre-pandemic levels. Incoming students may have been more likely to seek part-time work off campus as they spent less time commuting and being involved in co-curricular activities.

While time spent working for pay has remained consistent among seniors—typically 16-20 hours weekly—first-year students have spent slightly more time working for pay than before, about an hour per week on average. While half of first-year students in recent years did not work at all, a greater share did in 2022, and those who worked did so more than first-year students several years ago. As more colleges and universities offer hybrid or online courses, students may find greater flexibility in their schedules to seek work opportunities off campus. Although working off-campus may be a financial necessity for some, students potentially miss out on opportunities for growth from co-curricular involvement.

A slightly larger share of students spent more than 15 hours per week—one hour per credit hour of a typical full-time student—studying, reading, writing, doing homework or lab work, analyzing data, rehearsing, and other academic activities than compared to the norm before the pandemic. Although welcome, this trend might be cooling as well, as that share of first-year students in 2021-22 (43%) more closely resembles that of earlier years (41% in 2018-19 and 2019-20) than 2020-21 (48%). As many instructors took their courses online, students could not meet in person and in turn spent more time preparing for class on their own.

Participation in high-impact practices remains below pre-pandemic norms. Participation overall suffered during pandemic restrictions, but appears to have rebounded slightly. The next Annual Results installment will examine high-impact practices more closely.