More Carleton students are smiling about their educational experience than other Ontario students, according to a survey measuring how students feel about their university education.
Over 80 per cent of students surveyed said their educational experience was good or excellent. The results are above the provincial average, with students from 19 other Ontario institutions taking the survey. Carleton was also above average in this category in 2011, when it last participated in the survey.
“It tells us that [students] are taking advantage of all that Carleton has to offer,” said Suzanne Blanchard, associate vice-president (students and enrolment), via email.
This is the sixth time Carleton has participated in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). The survey is conducted by Carleton’s Office of Institutional Research and Planning (OIRP).
Over 80 per cent of students surveyed also rated the quality of interaction with their peers five or higher on a scale from one to seven.
More than 2,900 students in their first and final year of their undergraduate degree participated in the survey.
“It’s a really healthy response,” said Nathasha Macdonald, who wrote the report on the survey and is a researcher at the OIRP.
While students ranked educational experience and peer interaction positively, the survey found Carleton students were less likely than other Ontario students to collaborate with each other on coursework. Students were also less likely to talk to faculty about future plans and work together on activities outside of classwork.
Those surveyed were asked what needed the most improvement in the classroom. A quarter of first-year students wanted better teaching assistants. Sixteen per cent of final-year students said the same, a five per cent drop from 2011.
Blanchard said the school has used NSSE results to address issues like the quality of TAs.
“Carleton has used feedback from NSSE in our TA training program and this year we have seen less final-year respondents identify TAs as an area that most needs improvement,” Blanchard said.
Macdonald said studies like the NSSE are “really helpful to get a sense of what students are actually doing.”
“We feel pretty strongly that this is a good tool to get general trends and to see where there are differences,” Macdonald said.
Forty per cent of final-years and 33 per cent of first-year students said financial pressure was a major obstacle to academic success.
Outside of the classroom, 34 per cent of first-year and 44 per cent of final-year students also wanted to see more and better study spaces, up from 2011.
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