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University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES)

FAQ

What are the key results of UCUES?
The UCUES Work Group designed the survey to collect a broad range of data about the experience of undergraduate students at the University of California and, consequently, do not plan to report a single result. To see selected charts that graphically represent systemwide student responses, go to the Selected Charts & Tables section. To see key findings from the survey, go to the Highlights From Survey page.
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What is the response rate for UCUES?
The systemwide response rate for UCUES 2006 is 37.9% (range 31.4% to 47.9%).
For more information on response rates for past UCUES and about how UCUES response rates compares to other, similar surveys go to the Response Rates page of this website.
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How does UCUES compare to other national surveys of undergraduates such as the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and those surveys (CIRP, YFCY, CSS) conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI)?
None of the national surveys adequately meet the UCUES research priorities and several different instruments would have to implemented systemwide in order to cover the same content as UCUES.
In 2006, the IR Work Group, SERU principal researchers, and other campus constituents developed a research agenda that focused on the content that was unique to UCUES.
  • Supporting academic program review became a priority. The sampling procedures of other national surveys do not provide enough respondents in each major to be useful for this purpose.
  • The polling of need, use and satisfaction with student services is not accomplished in enough detail by national surveys.
  • Expanding on student opinions of their own research opportunities, the 2006 survey also included items for assessing student opinion of the resources, opportunities and mission of their research universities.
  • The UCUES instrument is flexible and can be adapted to include issues of timely importance in each administration.
  • The UCUES modular design also allows individual campuses to mount a census survey on local issues through use of campus-specific modules. NSSE and CSS limit the number of institution-specific questions that can be included.
To approximate the content of UCUES using other surveys, UC campuses would need to implement several of these surveys each year and the data gathered could not be integrated because of differences in sampling procedures (NSSE results could not be combined with YCFY/CSS, for example). Working with HERI and its related family of surveys would require administering three different surveys each year, Cooperative Institutional Research Project (CIRP) for incoming freshmen, YFCY at the end of the first year and CSS for seniors. Although the HERI surveys are designed as a sequence and would result in a longitudinal data set, their questions are focused more on student psychological and moral development than on academic experiences.
None of the national surveys offer the same coverage of student population as UCUES’ census design. NSSE surveys a small sample (n=2,000) of freshmen and seniors. The HERI surveys are targeted at incoming freshmen, students at the end of their first year, and seniors. UCUES staff investigated the costs of doing other, similar "national" surveys including the NSSE, ACT’s Student Opinion Survey and the CIRP and its follow-up studies, YFCY and the CSS. Initially, it does appear less expensive to do these surveys because they work with a smaller sample. However, to replicate the response rate of past UCUES administration, the costs become more similar. For example, duplicating a UCUES–like administration (census of all undergraduates vs. sample of freshmen/seniors only) of NSSE would cost over twice as much as a standard administration of NSSE—approximately $240,000 for all campuses. As noted, above, all three of HERI’s surveys would have to be administered to cover the same population as UCUES.
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How can I get a copy of the UCUES questionnaire?
Click here to see a Word version of UCUES 2006.
Click here to see the online versions of the survey seen by students.
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Who is responsible for the development of UCUES?
The UCUES Work Group consists of the SERU principal researchers, representatives from each of the nine undergraduate campuses and UC Office of the President staff. The group reviews the survey content before each administration and modifies the instrument based on the results of validity studies and feedback from campus constituents. Individual campuses develop their own questions independently.
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How can I use UCUES for my own research?
The UCUES principal investigators and steering committee welcome research proposals from faculty, independent researchers and students. Click here for more information about submitting a proposal to use UCUES data. Click here to see existing research papers, reports and dissertations using UCUES.
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How can I obtain UCUES results for a specific UC campus?
Contact the individual campus representatives.
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© 2006 UCOP | last updated: July 16, 2007