The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE, pronounced "Nessie") is now ten years old.  UNC Charlotte students have been participating for years, and the results have been circulated on campus.  According to Molly Broad, former UNC system president and current head of the American Council on Education,

...higher education is “not moving fast enough” right now to have in place accountability systems that truly answer the questions being asked of higher education. The best bet for higher education, she said, is to more fully embrace various voluntary systems, and show that they are used to promote improvements.

The danger, she said, is that without such a shift, government entities will set their own standards. She said that right now she sees that potential coming less from the federal government than from states. Those with very high levels of unemployment, Broad warned, “may be tempted to tie their level of support [for higher education] to very specific outcomes tied to job creation.” [h/t Inside Higher Ed]

Point taken.  There is definite value in using our universities to help develop the workforce, but this is not the usual approach we take towards assessing student engagement while they are on campus.  The NSSE could then turn into something very different, I suppose.

Garvey

J. Garvey Pyke, Ed.D. | Center for Teaching and Learning | UNC Charlotte