A new survey of more than 58,000 undergraduates provides surprising insights into the composition of our student body and level of satisfaction students have about the quality of their education.

The UC Undergraduate Experience Survey, known as UCUES, was offered to all undergrads in spring 2006. The 58,047 who participated in the online survey represent a 38 percent response rate.

In a presentation to the UC Board of Regents at their July 17 meeting, UC Vice President for Student Affairs Judy Sakaki said the survey is intended both to support independent scholarly research about the backgrounds, experiences and attitudes of undergraduate students and also to help the university itself plan to meet the needs of undergraduates.

“At UC we are fortunate to have such an exciting and diverse student body," Sakaki said. "UCUES gives us an additional window into who they are and what they are thinking. The data from this survey will be extremely useful for research purposes, and just as importantly, we in the university administration will use the results to inform decision making about how best to improve programs and services for our undergraduates.”

To read the full survey, visit UC's new Web site at www.universityofcalifornia.edu/studentsurvey.

Survey highlights

23 percent of UC undergraduates were born outside the United States, and another 37 percent born here have at least one parent born outside the United States.

35 percent are not native speakers of English.

78 percent of juniors and seniors plan to earn a graduate or professional degree.

87 percent of lower-division students and 89 percent of upper-division students report satisfaction with the quality of faculty instruction.

Between 79 percent and 90 percent report that students are respected at UC regardless of gender, sexual orientation, religion, political beliefs, race/ethnicity, or economic or social class.

77 percent of undergraduates participated in research as part of their coursework during the last academic year.

59 percent participate in campus clubs or organizations, 56 percent are employed either on- or off-campus, and 44 percent participated in community service in the last academic year.

42 percent say being easily distracted and not able to concentrate on their work has been an obstacle to their academic success.

On average, students in the survey spend 13.1 hours per week outside of the classroom on coursework, 11.1 hours per week using the Internet for non-academic purposes, and 5.7 hours per week watching television. Employed students work an average of 14.6 hours per week during the academic year.

Survey background

UCUES is a collaborative research project of UC faculty and campus institutional research professionals. The UC Office of the President and the nine undergraduate campuses sponsored the project, which is based at UC Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education as part of its Student Experience in the Research University Project.

UCUES was first administered in 2002 as a sample online survey. In 2003 and 2004, the survey expanded, and the 2006 survey is the most comprehensive to date. The next UC-wide administration of UCUES will be in spring 2008.