Student academic achievements and research accolades have long been indicators of higher education institutional success. However, something else is becoming an increasingly important consideration for prospective students. They’re looking at the student experience — what will learning and living at your institution be like? The question is — do you know?
This guide dives into the concept of student experience, its many facets, and how to measure it. It also provides strategies for improving the student experience based on student feedback and data-driven insights. By identifying and addressing issues with the student experience, you can help students and your instruction thrive.
What do we mean by the student experience?
The student experience refers to everything a student goes through at an institution to acquire their degree. It starts when a student applies to study at your institution and extends past graduation. Each step of the way, students experience things that shape their perception of your institution and the value of your services.
While the majority of a student’s experience revolves around academic pursuits, there’s much more to the student experience. It encompasses three core areas:
Academics: Academic factors that affect the student experience include anything to do with learning. Curriculum, teaching, equipment, resources, and professors can all impact the academic experience. Available academic facilities — like libraries, lecture halls, study rooms, and laboratories — also affect student performance.
Campus life: When students aren’t learning, they’re participating in various non-academic activities across campus. Shared campus spaces — like parks, gyms, dormitories, and cafeterias — are where students spend a lot of time. Campus culture, co-curricular activities, and events can also significantly impact the social side of the student experience.
Support: Students require multiple support resources to succeed in their degrees, ranging from academic and financial to emotional and physical. These services help students when they need extra guidance. The range, availability, ease of access, and quality of support services can affect the student experience.
Why higher education institutions should care about the student experience
The student experience is becoming increasingly significant in today’s higher education landscape. Many young adults are choosing not to pursue higher education as they become aware of other non-traditional career opportunities. They’re starting to doubt the value of paying for education, especially as enrollment costs increase.
By focusing on enhancing the entire student experience, institutions can improve:
Enrollment rates: Higher education institutions must work harder to attract students and make degrees or courses seem worthwhile. Prospective students value more than the outcome — they want to enjoy their time studying. When your institution has a positive, supportive, and enjoyable student experience, people are more likely to choose it over other options.
Retention rates: Students who feel positive about their experience at your institution are often more engaged and happier. They’re less likely to drop out, helping your institution increase its retention rate.
Academic outcomes: The student experience is primarily responsible for how well students perform academically. A positive experience where students have everything they need can lead to better learning outcomes and higher grades.
Institutional reputation: A positive student experience directly correlates with institutional reputation and growth. Students who enjoy being at your institution will perform better and share glowing testimonials. Their academic success and praise will impact how people view your institution and help you remain competitive.
So, how exactly do you measure student experience?
At first glance, assessing student experience can seem overwhelming. The student journey is long, and many factors that are outside your control can affect their experience along the way. Thankfully, various tools and techniques exist that make it easier to understand students and their experience at your institution:
1. Surveys and questionnaires
An effective way to understand the student experience at your campus is to use surveys. During a survey, you’ll send out questionnaires to students and analyze their responses. A questionnaire contains a list of questions you can use to gather information about their experience. Here are some examples of common higher education surveys:
Student satisfaction: Student satisfaction surveys are a popular option, as they assess overall satisfaction across the entire student experience.
Campus climate: Campus climate surveys assess how safe, welcome, and comfortable students feel on campus. It covers topics surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and accessibility, among others.
Course evaluation: Course evaluation surveys determine how students feel about the effectiveness of course content and teaching methods.
Withdrawal: Withdrawal surveys collect feedback from students who choose not to return to their studies.
Most questionnaires contain close-ended questions, which ask responders to choose an answer from given options. However, you may want to include some open-ended questions — which allow students to write more — to get more in-depth answers. You can also use rating scales to ask students to rank how happy they are with areas of the student experience.
2. Retention and graduation rates
Retention and graduation rates are examples of data that can indicate how enjoyable the student experience is. When students feel engaged and supported, they’re more likely to stay and complete their course. Your institution may already be collecting this information, and it can give you a general idea of how positive or negative the student experience is.
Higher retention and graduation rates compared to industry averages indicate that your institution is doing something right. However, lower rates highlight a need for further research and change. In addition to improving the student experience, focusing on retention rates can save your institution money from lost fees and replacement student recruitment costs.
3. Student engagement metrics
Student engagement refers to how involved, interested, and passionate students are during their studies. Many factors influence student engagement, but their experience on campus plays a big part. A supportive, positive, and empowering experience can engage students more.
Class attendance, course completion, co-curricular participation, and use of support services are all examples of engagement metrics. Your institution can also use the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) to find areas of improvement. The NSSE is a nationwide survey that assesses student engagement across four engagement themes — academic challenge, learning with peers, experiences with faculty, and campus environment.
4. Academic performance indicators
Student engagement and satisfaction can significantly impact academic achievement. As student experience affects engagement levels, institutions that improve the student experience often see increased academic performance. Consequently, academic performance indicators can give you an idea of how satisfied students are with their experience on campus.
Examples of academic performance indicators include:
Grade point average (GPA)
Exam scores
Course completion rate
Research output
Total credit hours
Employment rate
5. Qualitative feedback
Quantitive data — like retention rates and academic results — can give you a general idea of the state of the student experience. However, you often need more detailed student feedback to uncover the reasoning behind the data. Qualitative feedback methods gather valuable information about the individual student experience to give you a deeper understanding.
Try these qualitative data collection methods to get more specific feedback:
Focus groups: Gather students from various backgrounds and courses to ask them questions in a group setting. Allow students to discuss questions, share their unique perspectives, and elaborate on their answers.
Interviews: Conduct one-on-one interviews with students to understand their personal experiences at your institution. This method can help you explore their unique perspective further.
Online discussion: Social media and online forums allow students to share their feedback less directly and receive replies from peers. Observing these discussions can highlight specific areas of improvement.
Strategies for improving the student experience
Collecting student data and feedback should help you better understand student needs. However, turning this data into actionable information can be difficult without further analysis. Spend time organizing the data and looking for trends and patterns. The goal is to find valuable pieces of information — called insights — that allow you to understand the cause and effect of a problem and implement change to correct it.
Decisions backed by insights are more impactful and long-lasting. By assessing student feedback and uncovering insights, you can make changes to your institution that improve the student experience and make students feel heard. Below are ideas for the various changes you can make to impact the student experience:
Academics
Use the following tips to revamp the academic side of the student experience:
Enhance campus facilities: If your campus facilities are old, outdated, or do not meet student needs, it’s time to make some changes. Use student feedback to address missing facilities first, then upgrade existing facilities where needed. You may need to do maintenance, implement modern amenities, or make accessibility adjustments.
Leverage new technology: Technology upgrades can help modernize your campus, improve teaching methods, and increase engagement. It can help your institution boost student academic performance and increase enrollment. Some recent technology trends in higher education include personalized digital learning, artificial intelligence tutoring, gamified learning, cloud-based resource platforms, and 3D lectures.
Improve faculty-student interaction: Supporting and engaging faculty interactions are vital to the student experience. Students need to be able to access their professors for one-on-one learning support and guidance. Ensure faculty can find time to meet with students, and consider creating smaller classes to increase personal attention.
Invest in faculty development: Faculty development can increase teaching effectiveness and help create an engaging learning environment for students. Consider hosting training workshops for faculty and offering incentives for their development program participation.
Campus life
Make campus a place where students want to be by:
Empowering student voices: Listening to what students say can improve their perception of your institution and make them more involved. To allow students to voice their opinions, establish student councils to represent the student body and share their feedback with institutional decision-makers. You can also set up suggestion boxes around campus to collect anonymous feedback.
Creating safe shared spaces: Students may have a better experience on campus when they can spend time in comfortable, safe shared spaces. Places like parks, libraries, study rooms, and lounges allow students to study, collaborate, and socialize. Keep these spaces clean and organized so they’re more inviting.
Providing engaging activities: Campus events and activities can help students have a better out-of-class experience. They provide a way for students to learn soft skills, socialize, and feel a sense of belonging. Offer various co-curricular activities to enhance student learning, such as student councils, debate competitions, and leadership classes. You can also host de-stress events, like scavenger hunts, movie nights, and yoga classes.
Fostering a positive culture: Your institution should be a place where everyone feels welcome and safe. Campus culture — the shared values and beliefs of everyone on campus — is largely responsible for how students feel on campus. You can create an accepting campus culture by prioritizing DEI initiatives and addressing issues as soon as they occur.
Support
These changes can help you provide better support to students:
Implement academic pathways: Students often need course and career guidance to achieve their goals. You can assist them with personalized, guided academic pathways. The pathway acts as a map for students to follow toward success, with support and guidance from faculty to keep them on track.
Prioritize support services: Student mental health has declined in recent years, and it’s clear that students need more support than ever. Offering mental health services on campus can help you combat poor mental health and improve student well-being.
Offer financial support: Financial uncertainty makes students stressed, withdrawn, and distracted. These negative feelings lead to a poor student experience and decreased engagement. Your institution can combat this issue by providing financial aid and consulting services that assist students with funding applications. You can also track student progress to identify when students are struggling before they drop out.
Start a mentorship program: Mentorship programs greatly benefit students and staff. Faculty who become mentors act as student role models, offering personal advice and forming strong connections. This experience helps students grow their skills and feel more confident.
Measure and improve student experience with Watermark
We believe positive student experiences are pivotal to institutional success. We’ve designed Watermark Student Success & Engagement to help higher education institutions like yours create an experience where students thrive.
Our award-winning software makes tracking and supporting students from recruitment to graduation easy. It also helps you create guided pathways, receive early alerts for students who veer off course, and connect with them through mobile support. We also offer other software solutions for curriculum management, course evaluations, and faculty development to make managing the whole student experience simple.
