National Survey of Student Engagement
The  National Survey of Student Engagement is a survey that tracks the  educational efforts of college students. This includes tracking the  amount of effort being put towards studying, and also the amount of  effort being put towards other educational related activities.
The  conceptual idea for the survey was initially presented in 1998, and the  first official survey was launched in 1999. The first survey was funded  by The Pew Charitable Trusts, and its primary goal was to create an  effective platform for collecting collegiate data.
The  process of collecting information involves working with hundreds of  four year colleges and universities. Through this partnership, the  National Survey of Engagement team members are able to collect data on  student participation levels, how students spend their time, and what  they are learning from college. The colleges and universities that  participate in the survey receive a summary report of student responses  from other competing schools. This helps them identify common student  traits, and also potential ways on how to improve their own student  participation. This may mean increasing the number of on-campus student  organizations or expanding specific degree programs 
Another  major goal of the survey is to determine if specific student behaviors  impacts degree choices or educational goals. Some examples include  serious minded students being more likely to choose a career in medicine  or science, and extroverted students being more likely to choose a  career in a creative field like public relations, marketing or  advertising. 
The  survey also provides data on the percentage of men and women who earn  specific degrees. For many years most male students majored in areas  like accounting, banking and finance. While a large percentage of female  students majored in fields like nursing and education. This trend has  been changing significantly over the past several years. This year's  survey has also revealed that more and more college students are  majoring in technology related courses. 
SUMMARY 
Over  300,000 students participated in this year's survey, and over 4 million  students have participated in the survey since it was officially  launched. Some of the staff positions that make up the survey team  include senior associate director, research project associate, project  manager, principal investigator and research analyst. 
One  of the reasons the National Survey of Student Engagement organization  has been so successful in gathering data, is because of several key  partnerships. Some of these partners include the Council of Independent  Colleges, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Spencer Foundation, and the American Association for State Colleges and Universities. 
To learn more about the National Survey of Student Engagement, go to www.nsse.iub.edu.
 
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