A survey of graduating seniors in 2022, conducted before commencement, saw declines in level of agreement with six separate statements provided on the survey.
The Graduating Seniors Survey is conducted annually by the KSC Office of Institutional Research and Assessment as part of an online form required for those participating in commencement.
The survey has been conducted for more than twenty years, with published reports dating back to 2004, and data accessible from 1996; however, the survey was not conducted in the years of 2014 and 2016, and the 2009 report largely focused on the Mason Library, as opposed to traditional questions.
The questions asked on the survey haven’t always been the same, but one consistent area that has been documented is overall satisfaction with education at KSC.
The graduating class of 1996 saw the lowest level of satisfaction by far, clocking in at 70.6% of respondents saying they were satisfied with their education at the college. Since 1996, the percentage of those satisfied with their education has fluctuated, peaking in the mid-2000s in the low 90s and in recent years declining to the mid to low 80s.
The graduating class of 2022 saw 80% of respondents reporting satisfaction with their education, the lowest percentage since 2015, which also reported at 80%, with no graduating class having dipped below 80% satisfaction since 1996.
One question that was introduced in the 2013 survey, whether or not KSC provided support for students to thrive socially, has been an area of lower agreement. The 2013 report indicates 79% of graduating students agreed with the statement while the 2022 report indicates 68% of students reported agreement, a drop of over 10% over the years. Anne Shattuck, the senior director for institutional research and assessment at the University of New Hampshire (UNH), said she works closely with KSC’s team, as graduating students surveys are provided across institutions in the state, with some variances in questions.
Shattuck noted that there’s nuance when it comes to comparing data across years. “None of these results are being tested for statistically significant differences. It’s possible that these aren’t statistically significant differences, as opposed to being generalized across the entire [student] population,” she said.
Shattuck explained that, as researchers, it isn’t in their purview to make policy prescriptions based on survey results, but noted that she hopes administrations across institutions take the data into account. The Director of Institutional Research at KSC is currently vacant, according to Associate Director of Institutional Research Vicki Hulburt. According to Hulburt, the director is typically the one to craft the questions for the survey and works with administration at the college to include areas they wished to gather input on.
In recent years, KSC’s survey has included questions about College Wide-Learning Outcomes (CWLOs). The surveys initially asked about familiarity with CWLOs, and in 2022 students were asked if they agreed that the CWLOs “have prepared you for your life following KSC,” to which 78% of respondents agreed.
The 2022 survey report was five pages long while previous years’ reports often exceeded 20, 30, 40 and even 50 pages at times. Hulburt said that this is attributable to changes in the nature of the survey. “We stopped asking questions that were open-ended because it’s hard to compile the results… [the survey] is more quantitative now, as opposed to qualitative,” Hulburt said.
In the coming years, the institutional research team is looking to administer a “First Destination Survey” annually, which will be conducted in the August following commencement, according to Hulburt.
In a copy of the survey provided to The Equinox, the bulk of questions asked primarily relate to employment, as well as questions relating to past internships when the student attended KSC. Hulburt noted that the survey will be more standardized institutions in comparison to the Graduating Seniors Survey.
The survey itself was conducted on the graduating class of 2022 and it saw a response rate of around 40%, which was much higher than previous alumni surveys, according to Shattuck. She explained that the results of the 2022 survey will be released some time in the coming months. Shattuck noted that a survey call center was utilized to reach out to graduated students and that gift cards were offered as an incentive to those who completed it.
Additionally, Shattuck explained that the current Graduating Seniors Survey will not be eliminated. “The two surveys will be an expansion of what we’ve done in the past,” she said. Shattuck said she hopes having surveys both before and after commencement will provide an accurate picture of students and alums in regards to their academic and working career.
Nathan Hope can be contacted at
nhope@kscequinox.com
