Graduating Students' Educational Satisfaction Ranks High at USU
As part of Utah State Today's mission to keep readers informed about campus issues and trends, each month one highlight will be dedicated to "Assessment News." This information, straight from the Assessment Office, provides statistical information about Utah State as collected from graduating seniors. Look for this highlight the first week of each month.
The Survey
The graduation application packets contain a survey which students are asked to complete as part of the requirements for the graduation process. Students make application year round and surveys are collected monthly. The present results are those of students who made application for graduation from May 2001 - May 2002.
The sample was representative of the baccalaureate graduating class of 2002. It contained 2386 cases which was over 88 percent of the target population of baccalaureate graduates (N = 2687). The sample contained over 450 more cases than last year's sample. The sample was representative of the entire student population in terms of:
• the proportions of respondents from each college
• gender
• ethnicity
WHAT WOULD STUDENTS TELL THEIR FRIENDS ABOUT USU?
Almost 83% would tell their friends to come here or tell them mostly positive things.
| What they say: | Percent |
| It’s great, come here to school | 40.7% |
| Mostly positive things | 42.2% |
| Nothing much, positive or negative | 13.4% |
| Mostly negative things | 2.8% |
| It’s not great; don’t come here to school | 0.9% |
HOW SATISFIED ARE STUDENTS WITH THEIR EDUCATIONS AT USU?
Respondents were satisfied or very satisfied in the following proportions:
| To what extent were you satisfied with each of the following at USU? | Satisfaction (%) (Very Satisfied + Satisfied) |
| Overall quality of education | 95.2% |
| Challenge of courses in the major | 93.9% |
| The degree to which you were treated fairly | 93.2% |
| Overall quality of the program in the major | 93.0% |
WHAT ARE STUDENTS’ IMPRESSIONS OF USU?
Respondents appear to favor more those areas with which they are supposedly more familiar. Lack of familiarity of most undergraduates with the university’s research activities and with its public relations my account for the lower ratings of these two items which are consistently responded to relatively lower than the remaining items in this section. The rank order of responses to these items varies little across the years of this survey. The summary below shows respondents rating of good plus very good in descending order.
| Impression of USU in: | Very Good + Good (%) |
| Their major departments | 85.4% |
| Their undergraduate programs | 80.7% |
| The teaching ability of faculty | 78.2% |
| The quality of students | 78.1% |
| The personal interest of faculty in students | 69.9% |
| USU’s research activities | 62.9% |
| USU’s public relations | 58.6% |
HOW WELL PREPARED ARE STUDENTS IN GENERAL EDUCATION?
The following proportions of respondents rated themselves as well or very well prepared in:
• Communications -- 92.2%
• Social Sciences -- 90.2%
• Computer Literacy -- 89.3%
• Humanities and Arts -- 88.1%
• Life Science -- 86.9%
• Numeracy -- 86.7%
• Physical Science -- 86.5%
Assessment Web Site
For this study and others, see the University Assessment Web site.
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