National Survey of Student Engagement:
A Summary Report of Winthrop University Results for 2004

Office of Assessment
September, 2004

Introduction 

This report summarizes the results of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) completed by 644 Winthrop University students (394 First-year students and 250 seniors) in the Spring of 2004. The Winthrop sample was up over 20% from the 2003 sample of 505.  Winthrop was one of 473 (up from 437 in 2003) four year colleges and universities nationally that participated in the 2004 NSSE.   It is the only public university in South Carolina to have administered the NSSE each of the past four years. In 2004, Winthrop also participated in a consortium of American Democracy Project colleges and universities that administered both the regular NSSE items and special items pertaining student engagement in community and political activities.  

The NSSE project surveys undergraduates at four-year colleges and universities to assess the extent to which they engage in a variety of good educational practices.  The 2004 year was the fifth in which the survey was nationally administered and the fourth in which Winthrop participated.  The project is supported by a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts and cosponsored by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and The Pew Forum for Undergraduate Learning.  

The NSSE’s instrument, The College Student Report, consists principally of items related to institutional contributions to student engagement, important college outcomes, and institutional quality.  Questions pertain to both student perceptions of the extent to which the institution actively encourages student engagement as well as to student reports of actual behavior. A copy of The College Student Report may be examined on-line at www.indiana.edu/~nsse. 

Major sections of this introduction were taken or adapted (with permission) from the NSSE Overview provided by the National Survey of Student Engagement project.
 

NSSE 2004 Institutions and Respondents 

The NSSE 2004 sample was comprised of 334,093 first-year and senior students who were randomly selected from electronic data files provided by the participating four-year colleges and universities.  NSSE sampling procedures call for an equal number of first-year and senior students to be sent the survey with the standard sample size determined by the number of undergraduate students enrolled at the institution.  Students at the majority of colleges and universities, including Winthrop were asked to respond to a web version of the survey.  NSSE data indicate that mode of administration (web-based versus paper survey) has “little practical impact” on student responses, although these are some items (e.g., regarding use of technology) on which web-based responses are more positive.

 
Profile of NSSE 2004 Institutions

Table 1 below shows the degree to which NSSE participating institutions approximate the characteristics of the national profile of all four-year colleges and universities. The source of the comparative data is the 1999-2000 IPEDS database, the most recent complete data file available. 

Table One
Profile of NSSE 2004 Institutions 

                                                                             NSSE 2003                    National
Carnegie Classification
     Doc/Res-Ext                                                          10%                             11%
     Doc/Res-Int                                                           9%                               7%
     Master’s I & II                                                       47%                             43%
     Bac-Liberal Arts                                                     17%                             16%
     Bac-General                                                           16%                             23%

Sector
     Public 4-year                                                          42%                             37%    
     Private 4-year                                                         58%                             63%

Table 1 shows that NSSE schools generally mirror the national profile of four-year colleges and universities.
 

Profile of NSSE and Winthrop Respondents

Table 2 below shows selected respondent characteristics.  The first column represents Winthrop first year and seniors who responded to the survey, the second column represents the profile of students at four-year colleges and universities in the American Democracy Project (a special consortium of which Winthrop is a member), the third column represents the profile of students at four year colleges and universities in Winthrop’s Carnegie classification, and the fourth column shows the profile of the national NSSE sample.

Table Two
NSSE 2004 Respondent Characteristics
Winthrop University