February 2001 University Reporter

by Erika McCarthy

The College Student Report, a survey performed by the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), shows the University of Massachusetts Boston holding its own when compared to 226 similar institutions in areas relating to student learning and personal development.

Of the more than 63,000 randomly selected first-year and senior students from 276 four-year colleges and universities that participated in the survey, 300 were UMass Boston students. The survey was made up of 40 questions that fell into five classifications including level of academic challenge; active and collaborative learning; student interactions with faculty members; enriching educational experiences; and supportive campus environment. These classifications were then used as national benchmarks of effective educational practice.

graph of academic challenge levels

Among the 276 institutions surveyed, UMass Boston was among 22 universities measured in a subset classification called ‘doctoral intensive' — a term for institutions that award doctorates in smaller numbers or in a more concentrated set of fields than ‘doctoral extensive' universities.

The most significant finding of the survey, according to Jennifer Brown, director of UMass Boston's Office of Institutional Research, is UMass Boston's benchmark score in the level of academic challenge category. UMass Boston scored higher here than the national average benchmark score among first-year students. Senior students scores were higher in this category than both the urban consortium (schools most like UMass Boston) and doctoral-intensive benchmark scores, although slightly lower than the national average benchmark score.

“Our students are saying that our level of academic challenge is higher at UMass Boston than at the cluster of doctoral-intensive institutions for both first-years and seniors,” said Brown.
The survey also showed that UMass Boston students do more work, both inside the home caring for dependents and outside the home for pay, than students at peer institutions. According to the survey, 72 percent of UMass Boston seniors work more than ten hours per week off campus, compared to an approximate 50 percent at other institutions.

Another notable result for UMass Boston was the level of diversity on campus. Fifty-five percent of the UMass Boston first-year students surveyed and 57 percent of the UMass Boston seniors surveyed reported that they “often” or “very often” had serious conversations with students of a different race or ethnicity than their own. In addition 59 percent of the first-years and 61 percent of the seniors said that the UMass Boston campus environment “encourages contact among students from different economic, social and racial backgrounds,” either “quite a bit” or “very much.”

The survey did reveal that technology is one area in which UMass Boston can improve. But this is no surprise to the university, according to Brown. “Technology is something that we can work on. The faculty has already put technology literacy as one of the GenEd goals,” explained Brown.

The survey was a $3.3 million project sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts with the intent of creating a more accurate representation of educational quality than current rankings done by national publications like US News and World Report. “US News and World Report measures college quality in a way that has become a national standard,” said Brown, who, along with others in the educational community, disagrees. “There are pieces (of their measurements) that are very subjective.”

UMass Boston, who was a participant in NSSE's pilot survey in the spring of 1999 and again in the second pilot in the fall of 1999, will participate in the survey again in 2002. No matter what the results are, this will offer valuable information for the university. “We'll be able to compare data from year to year and see how we are improving,” said Brown.

UMass Boston Holds its Own in The College Student Report

by Erika McCarthy