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To find out how much students believe that their college education contributes to their future, the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) interviewed more than 300,000 first-year college students and graduate candidates in the United States. Among the aspects analyzed in the study, one was the participation of students in extracurricular activities such as research practices, mentoring, social projects, or belonging to a specific learning community (such as a mathematics club). According to the institutions surveyed, participation in these types of activities has a high impact because they promote connections among students and teachers and the experiences that support their success.
One topic of great interest to the NSSE was to discover how are the interactions between teachers and first-year students. These interactions are crucial to impulse students to continue studying. According to the survey, teachers and students should discuss topics that go beyond the classroom, such as their career plans. Beyond strengthening the teacher-student relationship, these types of interactions help students to persevere in their development and show them that the institution has career services and support units to provide them the help they need.
Another item of interest analyzed in the survey was the time that students dedicate to their academic preparation. The study found that students now spend more time studying than they did a decade ago, although it indicates that the trend is starting to stall. In 2004, 34% of freshmen students spent about 15 hours per week studying. In 2017, this figure had increased to 45%, while in 2019, this percentage fell two percentage points to 43%. On average, students currently spend about two more hours per week preparing themselves and studying than fifteen years ago. The study does not specify whether the increase in study hours is due to higher expectations or new programs and methodologies such as collaborative learning, flipped classroom, competency-based education, and real-world problems or applications. Still, it is an encouraging discovery for educational institutions, according to the NSSE. According to their previous report, the time spent studying is related to institutional retention and graduation rate.
The survey also highlighted the importance of the quality of academic advisors in the lives of university students; in fact, the quality of counseling is more important than the quantity. As mentioned before, first-year students must have a good relationship with their professors. However, it is also essential that universities focus on providing counselors with whom students can talk about their life plans and careers after college. Having the support of a quality advisor with experience motivates students to remain in the university and complete their degrees.
In this rubric, the survey also analyzed the number of times students attended counseling and the quality of those experiences. In general, the surveyed institutions recommend that at least once per semester, students should visit an advisor. In these counseling sessions, only 3% of the students surveyed discussed their academic interests, classes, or performance. However, one session per semester is not enough. Of those students who attended five or more appointments per semester, 56% reported discussing these issues with their advisors. The quality of the advice was also assessed. The NSSE asked ten questions about the experience of the students with their counselors, including the number of advisors available when they needed them, the speed of the response, and whether they actively heard their concerns. Both freshmen students and seniors reported average to low results in the quality of counseling, indicating that this is a need that the universities are not addressing.
On average, in the United States, only 58% of students who start college finish, which results in lower wages, student loan debts, and, according to the study, less satisfaction in life than those who did get a degree. On this issue, the NSSE investigated what the indicators of commitment were. The survey found that the most popular was the quality of interactions they had with professors and advisors, their sense of belonging and security in the university, an environment where they feel supported, economic stability, and benefit from the effectiveness and experience of teachers. Of the indicators of student commitment to stay in school, the ones having the most significant influence were related to the quality of the interactions and the environment. Those that had the least magnitude of impact were the learning strategies.
Finally, to increase the percentage of those new-entry students who end up graduating, higher education institutions need to promote and strengthen their counseling and orientation programs. According to the NSSE, the institutions that participated in the survey recommend that students see an academic advisor at least once a semester and that topics are discussed beyond the student’s academic performance. These can include aspirations for the future, their plans for life and career, and their physical and emotional well-being.
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This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 
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