NSSE–Gates Foundation Partnership

NSSE–Gates Foundation Partnership: Centering Student Voice in Higher Education Research and Assessment

NSSE partnered with the Gates Foundation to explore how student voice can more authentically inform higher education research, assessment, and institutional improvement. Informed by consultations with Gates-affiliated organizations on how they understand and utilize student voice, NSSE worked to develop a framework to help colleges and universities rethink the ways they listen to students, learn from them, and act upon their perspectives. This collaboration extends NSSE’s long-standing commitment to elevating student perspectives as essential evidence of educational quality and supporting institutions invested in equitable and responsive approaches to student success.

The framework of student voice draws from over two decades of engagement data and emerging research on student perspectives in institutional assessment and decision-making. It was developed by Dr. Roman Christiaens (postdoctoral fellow), Dr. Leonard Taylor (Director of NSSE) and Dr. Jillian Kinzie (Associate Director of NSSE). The white paper and resources created from this partnership offer actionable guidance for embedding student voice into assessment practice, organizational culture, and continuous improvement efforts.

In developing this framework, NSSE also engaged in extensive consultation with the Gates Foundation’s Intermediaries for Student Success (IFS) organizations to understand how student voice is currently used and where its potential can be realized across diverse institutional ecosystems. Through organizational consultations and a review of existing student voice practices, NSSE documented how the IFS organizations, including AASCU, AIHEC, CCA, Excelencia in Education, GIA and UNCF are capturing, interpreting, and applying student perspectives to inform institutional change.

This work revealed both the opportunities and challenges of student voice across contexts: the need for stronger feedback loops, more meaningful and consistent definitions of student voice data, greater capacity for data interpretation, and culturally grounded approaches tailored to the student populations. Insights from these consultations informed the design of NSSE’s student voice framework and highlighted the importance of developing tools which support institutions in curating, using, and sustaining student voice data as an integral part of their transformation efforts. NSSE continues to use this framework in its ongoing engagement with the IFS organizations, supporting collaborative learning and the refinement of student voice strategies across the institutions committed to student access and equity.

Check out the NSSE Primer: Centering Student Voice in Higher Education

Learn about the foundations of student voice, why student voice matters, the NSSE framework of student voice, and more.

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Project Rationale

Higher education institutions collect an abundance of student data, from academic performance indicators to course-taking patterns to survey results and student behavioral metrics. However, these forms of information often represent only a fraction of students’ lived experiences. Without intentionally integrating student voice into institutional assessment and decision-making processes, institutional improvement efforts risk being incomplete or disconnected from what students actually need to thrive in college. Student perspectives illuminate how policies and practices shape belonging, connection, learning, and success. They reveal insights that traditional metrics alone cannot capture. When institutions listen carefully to students, respond transparently, and partner with them, they build trust, strengthen accountability, and move towards fostering equitable campus environments.

With support from the Gates Foundation, NSSE examined the historical and contemporary landscape of student voice, including how it is invited, asserted, constrained, or overlooked. This work identified the cultural and structural conditions which enable institutions to solicit students’ perspectives and engage them in institutional decision-making. Drawing from research on student voice and NSSE’s extended expertise in student engagement, NSSE developed a framework to help campuses rethink how they listen to, interpret, and act upon student perspectives. The white paper provides research-informed insights and practical guidance for centering student voice inequity-focused assessment and institutional improvement efforts.

Read the White Paper

Using these Resources on your Campus

Alongside the white paper, NSSE created a set of companion resources designed to make the project’s insights accessible across campus audiences. The slide deck offers a visual overview of core concepts, the historical development of student voice, and the NSSE Framework of Student Voice, making it well suited for presentations, workshops, and campus briefings. The primer distills the major themes into a concise, practical guide for practitioners, senior leaders, faculty, and student partners who need an approachable entry point into student voice and its relevance for institutional improvement.

Institutions can use these resources to generate dialogue, guide reflection, and structure intentional improvements in assessment and student success work. The NSSE framework of student voice and accompanying materials can also be used to inform strategic planning, faculty and staff development, program review, assessment redesign, or student partnership initiatives by helping teams examine where student perspectives are currently captured, how those perspectives shape decision-making, and where opportunities exist to strengthen student insights in practice. These tools provide shared language and actionable guidance for embedding student voice as an enduring, equity-centered component of institutional transformation.

NSSE–Gates Foundation Partnership