Goals UC is committed to ensuring the continued high quality of undergraduate education, reflective of the values and practices that are unique to a research university.

Measures The University regularly collects and reports data on student experiences and proficiencies through the University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES). UCUES data reported in this section show that, on the whole, undergraduate students are satisfied with their experience at UC and feel they have benefited from it. Overwhelmingly, they rated their ability to appreciate, tolerate or understand racial and ethnic diversity as good, very good, or excellent. In terms of learning, they reported that their analytical and critical thinking skills, their ability to write clearly and effectively and their understanding of a specific field of study increased significantly. But there are gaps. Slightly less than half, for example, reported taking an independent research course or participating in an internship course; only slightly more than half had assisted faculty with research or a creative activity.

The UCUES survey uses a number of questions comparable to those found in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). However, comparative data from the NSSE survey is not available for the most part, since most institutions consider their NSSE results to be proprietary information. Comparative data on undergraduate student experiences may become more available in the future as more institutions participate in, and publicly release, data from their student experience surveys.