A majority of students are highly satisfied with their experience at the University of Hawaiʻi–West Oʻahu, but they still face obstacles, according to recently released results of a student survey administered by UH West Oʻahu this past spring semester.
UH West Oʻahu distributed the Revealing Institutional Strengths and Challenges (RISC) survey in spring 2021 to over 2,500 of its students. There were 735 survey responses, for a 29% response rate. A summary of the RISC survey results is available at go.hawaii.edu/ThP.
“My overall interpretation of the RISC results is very positive, and I believe the survey generated a substantial amount of actionable data,” said UH West Oʻahu Institutional Research Office Director John Stanley. “While it is rewarding to see that the majority of our students are highly satisfied with their educational experience, RISC revealed that many students still face significant challenges in balancing their education with their personal and work life.”
The RISC survey probed further into these work and personal challenges, and uncovered a greater amount of insight into these areas compared to past surveys that the university has administered.
Stanley noted that student surveys such as the RISC survey are important for UH West Oʻahu because they allow the university to pinpoint where students experience obstacles and identify campus offices that excel in helping students succeed. The surveys also provide UH West Oʻahu with essential information for its reaccreditation by the WASC Senior College and University Commission.
Most surveys ask about student satisfaction with functional areas on campus, such as the financial aid office. These results can be difficult to interpret, Stanley said, because students may simply be dissatisfied with the amount of aid they received, not with how effectively the financial aid office processed their aid.
“The RISC survey is unique from other surveys in that it directly asks students to rate functional areas on campus in three key areas: faculty/staff accessibility, student perceptions of how concerned faculty/staff are about helping them, and how effectively faculty/staff can resolve their issue,” he said.
Stanley highlighted some of the key takeaways from the RISC survey findings:
- The RISC survey found that work and personal issues were the top two challenges UH West Oʻahu students said impeded their academic success, with 69% of students reporting one or more challenges in these areas.
- The most common challenge was Work, with 51% choosing challenges in this subcategory. The most specific challenge within the Work subcategory was “Work hours do not leave me enough time to study,” with 30% of UH West Oʻahu students mentioning this as a challenge to their success.
- The second most common challenge was Family, with 46% choosing challenges in this subcategory. The most specific challenge within the Family subcategory was “Difficulty balancing demands of family and college,” with 36% of UH West Oʻahu students mentioning this as a challenge to their success.
- RISC also provided information about the extent that students interact with various student support units at UH West Oʻahu. The Academic Advising Office was the most commonly used office, with 61% of students reporting using the office during the spring 2021 semester, followed by Noʻeau Center (24%), and Office of Student Life (8%).
- Besides challenges and office interactions, students were asked several questions about UH West Oʻahu overall. First, students were asked how likely they were to recommend UH West Oʻahu to a friend. 95% of students responded that they would be somewhat or very likely to recommend UH West Oʻahu, compared to 81% of students in the RISC benchmark group.
- Next, students were asked to rate the overall value of their education at UH West Oʻahu. 94% of our students believe their education is worth what they paid (or even worth more), compared to 85% of students in the RISC benchmark group.
“The Institutional Research Office is working with the Office of the Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs and student government to facilitate focus-group discussions this fall that will conduct in-depth qualitative analyses of the RISC 2021 and National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) 2020 survey results, so please keep an eye out for that announcement,” Stanley noted.
Stanley added that he wanted to express his gratitude toward the RISC survey vendor.
“On behalf of UH West Oʻahu, I would like to mahalo the vendor of RISC, Percontor, who offered this survey administration at no cost to our campus,” Stanley said. “In these difficult times, when many colleges are experiencing financial constraints, UH West Oʻahu is grateful to Percontor.”