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Higher education professionals have noted that today’s students are less engaged than previous classes. Many experts attribute this shift to the lack of socialization caused by COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. But according to a recently published study, students’ participation rates have been declining for the past decade.
A March report from the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Consortium found that while student engagement in various on-campus activities—including academic, civic, career, extracurricular and research work—has trended upward since 2020, rates are still lower than they were in 2019.
“The pandemic brought great disruption to [engagement] … and the narrative around is that, ‘Oh, things are back to normal. We’re operating normally.’ And it looks like, you know, on campuses, the pandemic has been forgotten … but in the data, in fact, we don’t see that,” said Igor Chirikov, senior researcher and SERU Consortium director.
Methodology
The report includes 10 years’ worth of survey and institutional data by the SERU Consortium, including 1.1 million student survey responses from 22 major research universities. The consortium is based at the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California, Berkeley, and research was done in partnership with the University of Minnesota and the evaluation firm Etio.
“Pre-pandemic” data is categorized as responses collected between 2016 and 2019, and “post-pandemic” data reaches 2023. Survey respondents were all students at R-1 residential universities with high retention and graduation rates (ranging from 82 to 94 percent).
Overall declines: Researchers used the engagement indicators from 2018–19 as the reference point to mark the distinction between pre- and post-pandemic testing. All charts are focused on change, so they do not signify a decline in units (such as hours spent studying) but they do present an opportunity for comparison between indicators, Chirikov said.
Most indicators of campus involvement have declined since the onset of COVID-19, with few recovering to pre-pandemic levels as of 2023.
Academically, students reported significant differences in the amount of time studying in and outside of class, as well as in interacting with faculty members. Studying with peers also took a dip during the pandemic, but a relatively small one, which researchers said could be due to the shift to online and hybrid formats that created virtual study groups and other digital interactions.
During the 2020–21 academic year, the share of students who indicated that their professor knew or had learned their name declined, as did their confidence that they knew a professor well enough to ask for a letter of recommendation for a job or graduate school. Both factors made slight improvement during the 2022–23 academic year, but they remain below pre-pandemic levels.
The question about recommendation letters is one that interests Chirikov, particularly as universities are growing their enrollment and the student-faculty ratio increases. “I think that shows to what extent students have a person on campus, like a faculty member that knows them, that knows their work and can put in a good word for them,” he said.
Participation in faculty-led research also dropped, from 25 percent of students in 2018–19 to 20 percent in 2022–23. Wealthy students were 50 percent more likely to assist in faculty research, compared to their low-income peers.
“These are research universities, so part of their mission is to engage students in research and work in the lab, and we see, again, both declines and equity gaps in all this,” Chirikov said. “A lot of these opportunities are unpaid, and students coming from low-income families, they just cannot afford it. It’s becoming a luxury for rich kids.”
Involvement in extracurricular activities, interestingly, increased during the 2020–21 academic year, which researchers theorize could be due to students seeking new ways to connect with their peers amid social distancing measures.
“This indicator relies less on university infrastructure and opportunities; students worked themselves to restore that, to extend and create a different environment and spaces for communication and development friendship,” Chirikov said.
The following year, extracurricular involvement declined to below pre-pandemic levels. Students committed fewer hours to student groups and were less likely to hold a leadership role.
Since the pandemic, students have spent less time performing community service or volunteering and are less likely to have academic service-learning or community-based learning experiences.
On-campus employment also took a hit—fewer students indicated they worked on campus during 2022–23 compared to 2018–19, and employed students reported working one fewer hour per week. In addition, a smaller number of students said they completed an internship, practicum or field experience, which aligns with national trends that show that students are having more difficulty securing internships. Conversely, off-campus employment rates increased after the pandemic, though the number of hours students work has dropped.
Sowing Success
Noting barriers to access or confusion among students over how to get plugged in on campus, some colleges and universities have created new programming to address participation gaps.
Goucher College created micro-experiences in service learning to allow learners to participate in small-scale or one-day projects, opening doors for students who are engaged in other spaces on campus.
The University of Miami offers a precollege webinar series to support incoming students who receive Federal Work-Study dollars in identifying and securing on-campus employment opportunities.
San Francisco State University, part of the California State University system, established an online hub for students to identify research and creative activities that may interest them, removing informational barriers to participation.
Virginia Commonwealth University encourages faculty members to hold open office hours that meet across disciplines to facilitate greater interaction between learners and professors.
Across various engagement opportunities, college juniors and seniors were more likely to report participation, which could be tied to previous involvement before the COVID-19 pandemic, or an increased personal investment in achieving postgraduate success.
All demographic factors were controlled, so a changing student population has no effect on the overall trends, Chirikov said.
So what? Based on their findings, researchers recommend higher education revitalize engagement opportunities for students, particularly in the fields of research, community connections, student organization and career development programs.
Federal cuts to research may further disrupt this trend, which Chirikov hypothesizes will differ according to discipline and funding losses.
