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Students give UT experience high marks |
| By
Jim Winkler |
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Oct 29, 2008
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Seven out of 10 University of Toledo students are satisfied with their overall experience at UT, according to a new survey of student centeredness.
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| More than 80 percent of students surveyed reported they were satisfied with UT facilities, including the University's recreational centers. |
Main Campus Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Rosemary Haggett and Vice President for Student Life Kaye Patten Wallace shared the findings with members of the Board of Trustees’ Academic and Student Affairs Committee last week.
The survey also suggested that overall students were pleased with campus life at UT.
The survey, which was conducted last school year, covered four areas: facilities and services, helpfulness of staff, educational experience and outside classroom experiences.
The survey was the result of discussions and recommendations by the Student Centeredness Work Group in August 2007 and developed by the Office of Institutional Research in a Web-based format.
E-mails were sent to all UT students during the last week of November 2007, and several follow-up reminders were sent to students before the survey was taken offline last spring. A total of 685 students completed the questionnaire.
Among the findings:
• Seventy percent of the respondents were satisfied with their overall experience at UT while 18 and 12 percent said they were neutral or dissatisfied.
• Of the four areas, students were most positive about their educational experiences. Some 72 percent said they were satisfied, with the highest-rated items being the variety of courses, the willingness of faculty members to discuss ideas outside of class, and class size.
• More than 80 percent said they were satisfied with campus facilities such as the Student Recreation Center and Carlson Library.
• More than 60 percent said the University’s staff was helpful.
• More than half the respondents said they were pleased with their experiences outside the classroom such as practicums, internships, clinical and field experiences, community-service and volunteer opportunities, and capstone courses.
• Satisfaction rates of more than 60 percent were recorded for Internet access, classrooms, extracurricular activities, Student Union, distance learning, computer facilities and campus events.
• Parking continues to be students’ biggest gripe, with only 16 percent expressing satisfaction. Opportunities for improvement also exist in the residence life program, Rocket Solution Central and food services, where satisfaction rates were under 40 percent.
“I’m pleased with this effort to assess student centeredness,” Patten Wallace said. “It is important for students to know that we listen to them. The survey results identify strengths and opportunities for improvement in different areas. We are using them as baseline data for establishing goals for the future and for continuous planning and improvement. We have already begun to address improvement in some of the areas with the least amount of student satisfaction. For example, we have a new food service, more parking has been made available to students and parking deck improvements also have been made, and a task force has been commissioned to address Rocket Solution Central improvements.”
“The student-centeredness survey will be conducted annually, and when used with the results of the national surveys, which are administered every two years, will provide us with continuous assessment,” Patten Wallace added.
Haggett also shared the results of the National Survey of Student Engagement.
The survey is sent in the spring every two years to randomly selected first-year and senior students and measures their responses in five areas — enriching academic experiences, faculty-student interaction, level of academic challenge, active and collaborative learning, and supportive campus environment.
The provost said both surveys are valuable because they aid strategic planning, identify the University’s strengths and weaknesses, help benchmark, are useful for research, and improve accountability and transparency.
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