On May 24 at 2 p.m. EDT, the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities and Noel-Levitz will present a webinar reviewing the CCCU composite results of the Student Satisfaction Inventory and offering campuses guidance for using these results.
As part of the CCCU’s Comprehensive Assessment Project, in the fall of 2011 the Noel-Levitz Student Satisfaction Inventory (SSI) was administered to a representative sample of currently-enrolled students. Some institutions broadened their data by using the Institutional Priorities Survey to collect responses from campus personnel. A few campuses also administered the new Parent Satisfaction Inventory to survey parents of currently-enrolled students.
Forty-three CCCU institutions participated in the Comprehensive Assessment Project (CAP) this past fall. Since the CCCU began utilizing Noel-Levitz instruments in 1997, the SSI has been administered every other year as part of the odd-year CAP. A total of 16,428 CCCU students completed the SSI between October 24 and November 11, 2011.
Julie Bryant, Noel-Levitz associate vice president for retention solutions, will present the 90-minute May 24 webinar, which will include input from Fay Nielsen, associate dean of retention at Fresno Pacific University in Fresno, Calif., and Matt Rehbein, director of institutional research at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn., regarding how they have used the satisfaction data on their campuses. The webinar session on May 24 will provide CCCU institutions with direction on how to best celebrate institutional strengths and respond to campus challenges.
One item of note in the demographic overview of the 2011 CCCU data: 71 percent of CCCU students indicated they were attending their first-choice institution as compared with 63 percent of students in the national four-year private institutions comparison group comprised of over 253,000 student records from 354 institutions over a three-year time period. Typically, students who perceive themselves to be at their first-choice institution are more likely to be more satisfied with their experience.
The CCCU composite data set reflected satisfaction scores that were significantly higher than the national four-year private institutions comparison group in all 12 cluster areas, including instructional effectiveness, academic advising, and student centeredness, as well as on the majority of individual items on the survey.
The data also revealed a positive trend of improving satisfaction scores as compared with the CCCU composite results in 2009, with significantly higher satisfaction on all twelve cluster areas and the majority of items. Only one item had significantly lower satisfaction in 2011 compared with 2009: “Computer labs are adequate and accessible,” which dropped by just 0.03.
The individual items on the survey reflected items of strengths (high importance and high satisfaction) as well as items of challenge (high importance and low satisfaction). Notable strengths in the CCCU composite data set included:
- Instruction in the major field is excellent.
- Nearly all faculty are knowledgeable in their fields.
- Students are able to experience intellectual growth here.
- It is an enjoyable experience to be a student on this campus.
- This institution shows concern for students as individuals.
The data also reflected summary scores on students’ overall levels of satisfaction and their likelihood to re-enroll. The following table presents the percentage of students who were satisfied or very satisfied and the percent that would probably or definitely re-enroll if they had it to do over again.
| | CCCU 2011 | CCCU 2009 | National Four-year Private Institutions |
|---|
| Rate your overall satisfaction with your experience. |
70% |
69% |
55% |
| If you had it to do over again, would you enroll here? |
72% |
71% |
58% |
The students at the participating CCCU schools reflected much higher satisfaction and likelihood to re-enroll scores than students in the general four-year private comparison group, and these scores have held steady over time. Studies have shown that these scores often positively correlate to a student’s likelihood to be retained at an institution.
The Noel-Levitz SSI results, as well as the results from the Institutional Priorities Survey and the Parent Satisfaction Inventory, provide many opportunities for CCCU members to better understand the experience of their students and to identify areas for campus improvement. Please join us for the webinar on May 24th to better understand your own results and to receive guidance on how you can take positive action for continuous quality improvement on your campus. CCCU institutions who have not previously administered the Noel-Levitz surveys are also invited to attend the webinar in order to learn how the results could be beneficial for their campuses.
To register for the May 24 webinar, please email julie-bryant@noellevitz.com. Participants will receive the weblink and phone dial-in information prior to the event. Please include your name, title, phone number, and institution name in your email message. Registrations are encouraged by May 18.
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About the CCCU: The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is a higher education association of 185 intentionally Christ-centered institutions around the world. The 116 member campuses in North America are all fully-accredited, comprehensive colleges and universities with curricula rooted in the arts and sciences. In addition, 69 affiliate campuses from 25 countries are part of the CCCU. The Council’s mission is to advance the cause of Christ-centered higher education and to help our institutions transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth. Visit www.cccu.org.