National Survey Findings
As part of its research agenda, the Policy Center on the First Year of College (now Gardner Institute) conducted national surveys of first-year structures, policies, and practices in both the collegiate curriculum and co-curriculum. In 2000, two separate survey instruments, one related to the first-year curriculum and one related to the first-year co-curriculum, were embedded in e-mail messages and sent to chief academic officers and chief student affairs officers, respectively, at 621 two- and four-year colleges and universities. The instruments asked a broad range of questions, and responses to these questions have been analyzed by institutional size, type (2-year and 4-year), and Carnegie classification (2000 edition). The 2002 survey, focusing on the first-year curriculum, was designed to complement and expand the Policy Center’s 2000 National Surveys of First-Year Curricular and Co-curricular Practices. The Second National Survey was successfully transmitted electronically to 1,867 chief academic officers at both two- and four-year institutions. Taken together, data from these survey initiatives paint a comprehensive picture of first-year policies, procedures, and programs at institutions across the US. These data can be used by institutions as a means of comparing institution-specific information with national trends.
Click here to view information on the 2000 National National Surveys of First-Year Curricular and Co-Curricular Practices
Click here to view information on the Second National Survey of First-Year Academic Practices, 2002