A new report, "Engaged Learning in a Public University," provides findings from a 2008 census survey of undergraduate students at the campuses of the University of California. The University of California Student Experience Survey (UCUES) has been administered regularly since 2002, and is a product of the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Project based at the Center for Studies in Higher Education at UC Berkeley.

Co-written by the SERU research team of Steven Brint, John Aubrey Douglass, Gregg Thomson and Steve Chatman, this year's report offers two new areas for analysis: the extent of research engagement among undergraduates at UC, and an analysis of student self-assessed learning gains. Among their findings:

Research participation, by type of major

Research Engagement

• University of California students are engaged in some form of research activity outside the classroom under faculty supervision at a much higher rate than the national average. Some 33 percent of upper division undergraduates at UC were involved in research activity, while the national average at four-year institutions is closer to 19 percent.
• Women and minorities are participating at high rates in undergraduate research opportunities. Across the UC system, 33 percent of women and 32 percent of men reported engaging in undergraduate research. A higher percent of science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) majors (43 percent) than humanities/arts or social science majors (26 percent) engage in research opportunities.

Learning Outcomes

Analytical and critical thinking skills, by field of study % rating skills "very good" or "excellent" as freshmen % rating skills "very good" or "excellent" in senior year

The UCUES's census design, and the array of questions that then can be linked with a great variety of other institutional data (such as grades), may give institutions such as the University of California a better tool than standardized tests to gauge learning outcomes at the campus-wide level and, perhaps most important, at the level of the major or among specific demographic groups.

• Students from all backgrounds reported that their analytical and critical thinking skills increased dramatically between their freshmen and senior years.
• Among major ethnic groups, all reported sizable gains in their analytical and critical thinking skills, with white/European American students reporting the highest gains, followed by black/African Americans and Chicanos/Latinos. Asian/Asian American students expressed the lowest sense of their skill abilities at the freshman level, and reported the lowest gains.
• In reading and comprehension skills, the largest overall gain was reported by black/African American and Chicano/Latino students, and again the lowest gains, by Asian/Asian American students.
• Students in the humanities/arts fields reported the greatest ability as entering freshman (32 percent) and at their senior year (77 percent), followed by students in the social sciences, biological sciences and physical sciences/engineering.

Degree aspirations of UC students

Other sections of the report provide data on the socio-economic background of students, their academic engagement, co-curricular activities and civic engagement. Among other findings of the report:

• Sixty-one percent of UC undergraduate students were either themselves foreign born or have at least one foreign-born parent, up from 57 percent in 2003. More than 70 percent of respondents at UC Irvine and UC Riverside reported that they had either immigrated to the United States or had at least one parent who was born outside of the United States.
• Ninety-three percent of Asian/AsianAmericans and 74 percent of Chicanos/Latinos reported that they were first- or second-generation Americans. By contrast, more than 60 percent of white/European Americans and black/African Americans said that their parents were born in the U.S. Yet even these groups have significant numbers of students with at least one-parent an immigrant: 15 percent for white/European Americans and 26 percent for black/African Americans.
• Nearly three-quarters of UC students indicated an intention to attain graduate degrees. Intentions to pursue medical or other health related degrees were more common than intentions to pursue law or business degrees; a significant proportion of students (34 percent) in the biological sciences reported aspiring to a medical degree. Humanities/arts students were least interested in graduate degrees.

The SERU Survey is now a central component in UC's efforts at quality assessment and for promoting a culture of self-improvement. It is viewed nationally and internationally as an innovative survey with practical uses for major research universities.

SERU-generated survey data is used extensively at UC, from reports to the Regents and the Legislature, to program review, and policy analysis on issues such as campus climate, admissions and learning outcomes. In addition, as part of the SERU Consortium, seven AAU institutions now use a version of the SERU survey, including the University of Michigan, the University of Minnesota, University of Texas, Rutgers University, the University of Florida, University of Pittsburgh and the University of Oregon.

For access to the study, visit http://cshe.berkeley.edu/research/seru/.