Factors that predict students' educational experience at a Midwestern research university: A comparative study of STEM and non-STEM majors

Abstract

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) is an annual, nationwide survey used to assess the level of engagement of four-year college and university students. Only randomly sampled freshman and seniors participate in the self-reporting of their college experience. Annually, the survey results are organized into five benchmarks or clusters of survey questions as a common language/framework for institutions to compare themselves to similar institutions. However, the NSSE benchmarks do not account individual institutional characteristics. Therefore, the purpose of this quantitative study was to use secondary NSSE

Measuring Career Adaptability in a Sample of Italian University Students: Psychometric Properties and Relations with the Age, Gender, and STEM/No STEM Courses

“…Finally, different authors have taken into consideration the differences between STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths) and NON STEM degree courses in reference to the development of soft skills, which can help facilitate the transition from university to the labor market (Dika and D'Amico 2016;Whalen and Shelley 2010;Wilson 2010;Xu 2012). Some research highlights that in STEM courses, employability skills are often underestimated and undertrained in educational paths (Rayner and Papakonstantinou 2016).…”