Every two years, WSU participates in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) to help assess student engagement in educational practices associated with high levels of learning and development. Following each administration, the UCORE Committee and Subcommittee for Assessment, in concert with the UCORE Director, review selected NSSE results aligned with the learning outcomes of the UCORE general education program to help continually improve the learning experience for students.
While WSU’s NSSE 2025 results show that most first-year and senior students’ perceptions of their learning are well aligned with the learning outcomes that the UCORE general education program intends to deliver, the NSSE data have also informed a number of discussions around students’ sense of belonging and ways that UCORE courses and instructors can help support student belonging. Spring 2026 UCORE faculty development offerings included sessions on incorporating Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and service-learning into UCORE courses, for example.
“For the UCORE general education program, NSSE results help faculty and leadership understand first-year and senior students’ perceptions of the learning experience at WSU,” said UCORE Director Kate Watts. “We examine NSSE results alongside other UCORE assessments of first-year students and seniors as we consider the UCORE curriculum and develop faculty initiatives.”
For additional information about how UCORE assessment contributes to decision making intended to support student learning and quality undergraduate education, see UCORE’s Use of Student Learning Evidence webpage. See UCORE’s NSSE webpage for more information about how NSSE contributes to UCORE Assessment.
Beyond the UCORE context, the NSSE survey also provides WSU valuable data about the student experience for undergraduate degree programs, departments, colleges, campuses, and the institution. NSSE provides participating institutions with a variety of reports — WSU’s current and historic NSSE results are available on the WSU Institutional Research website. NSSE results are also disaggregated for undergraduate degree programs and colleges, see the Office of Assessment for Curricular Effectiveness’s NSSE webpage for more information.
At the institutional level, NSSE data are used to provide insights into critical outcomes like retention, graduation, and student success and to help drive WSU’s student experience strategy. While students continue to show high levels of engagement and satisfaction with WSU, the NSSE results also indicate opportunities for improvement, such as developing strategies around helping students manage their non-academic responsibilities. WSU’s NSSE results are also one of the many inputs being utilized in WSU’s evaluation by the National Institute for Student Success to identify and resolve institutional barriers to college completion, see more details in the WSU Insider.