NSSE is pleased to announce that the 2023 survey administration will launch on February 22.
Participating institutions have reached a three-year high, at 543, the most since 2020, and more than 2 million students will be invited to participate. In 2022, 469 institutions participated and 252,336 of the 1.1 million invited students completed the survey.
Participating colleges and universities select customization options designed to tailor both student recruitment efforts and survey content. Campuses customize recruitment message content, including signatories and subject lines, and have the option to post survey links for students in their portal/learning management system. Survey content is customizable by adding additional questions from NSSE's 10 Topical Modules or by participating in a consortium, as well as choosing from among four different open-ended questions on the final page of the survey. Institutions also have the option of customizing their open-ended question, too.
- 468 (86%) participating institutions elected to use at least one module.
- 106 institutions are participating in a consortium.
- The Academic Advising Topical Module continues to be the most popular module selection with 167 institutions.
Continue reading to learn more about NSSE 2023-related developments.
Edits to the Core Survey
Several changes to the “demographic” section of the core NSSE instrument have been made for the upcoming administration. These changes include (a) additional response options and the ability to select all-that-apply for the gender identity and sexual orientation questions, (b) adding a “prefer not to respond” option and more inclusive language for the education of parent(s), guardian(s), or others who raise students, (c) updates to the language in the race/ethnicity question to better reflect current preferred terms, (d) updating the Greek status item from a binary to a check all format, (e) adding response options for types of Greek organizations, and (f) adding high school zip code to both capture a proxy for students’ socioeconomic status and to identify students from U.S. territories (such as Puerto Rico and Guam) attending institutions in the continental US.
To view the specific edits to the survey, see our recent blog post, and to view the NSSE 2023 survey instrument, visit the NSSE survey instruments page of our website.
Mental Health and Well-Being Topical Module
We developed one new Topical Module for the 2023 administration, entitled Mental Health and Well-Being. This module assesses students’ experiences related to a range of dimensions for mental health and well-being. It also examines sources of support and explores students’ perceptions about campus resources. In 2023, 64 institutions will administer this module.
Continued Access of Early Raw Data
During the 2022 administration, we offered access to early raw data for the first time to help institutions get a jump on assessment, planning, and internal reporting during the spring and summer months. We will continue to offer this service during the 2023 administration.
To learn more about early raw data, visit our recent blog post.
2023 Experimental Efforts
This spring, we will also conduct several experiments.
The first experiment will make it possible for seven institutions to use a locally drafted set of items as a customized module, a service some institutions have requested in the past. For the second experiment, 20 institutions will administer shorter sets of NSSE items to students who did not not complete the standard NSSE instrument.
To learn more about these two experiments and their rationale, visit our recent blog post.
The third experiment entails randomly selecting 0.3% of each participating US institution’s survey sample (but no more than 30 students) and administering two questions related to religious identity:
Questions? Contact us!