The Office of the Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor oversees various institutional and unit-wide surveys, ranging from surveys for students (i.e., Chancellor’s Senior Survey) to surveys for faculty (i.e., Faculty Exit Survey). The Office also serves as the point of contact for 5-year review surveys of deans, directors, and department heads/chairs.
Student Surveys
Primarily two surveys are coordinated by the Office of the Provost for students, including:
- Chancellor’s Senior Survey (CSS): Survey administered to graduating seniors at Illinois, prompting students to reflect on their undergraduate experience.
- National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE): Survey administered to first-year and senior students about their participation in programs and activities at both public and private four-year colleges and universities.
Additional institutional-level student surveys are listed on the Division of Management Information (DMI) website.
Faculty Surveys
- The Faculty Exit Survey is administered throughout the year to Tenure-System and Specialized faculty to learn more about their experience over the course of their career at the University of Illinois. Staff exit surveys are conducted by Illinois Human Resources.
- Faculty Experience Surveys – During Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 surveys were administered to all tenure system and specialized faculty from April 2021 to May 2021 to better understand their experiences given the interruption caused by the pandemic. To find out more about these surveys or to see the reports, please contact: provost@illinois.edu.
Leadership Surveys
Deans, directors, and department chairs/heads engage in a 5-year review, per Communication #24. The Office of the Provost serves as the point of contact for these surveys.
Survey Resources
Institutional Survey Committee
The Institutional Survey Committee is co-charged by the Office of the Provost and the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs to provide vision and guidance for institutional-level student surveys.
Institutional Improvement Student Survey Projects
Campus units that want to conduct student surveys for assessment projects and program evaluation to a sample larger than currently allowed through the Division of Management Information (DMI)/Student Affairs Research Approval (SARA) process (5,000 students, or 60% of a population) may fill out an application to do so. More information about the application process can be found on the Student Affairs website.
Survey Administration
The CITL Data Analytics group provides assistance with survey construction, design, and implementation, including survey questions, sampling methodology, pilot testing, statistical analyses, and report writing. To request more information about the available Survey Research Services and pricing or to schedule an appointment, please use the Request a Consult form.
The Division of Management Information (DMI) provides sampling services for a fee.
University Approved Survey Platforms
Webtools: This University of Illinois platform provides capabilities for creating both anonymous surveys as well as forms that collect identifiable information based on log in credentials (typically used for RSVPs).
Qualtrics: The University of Illinois has a campus-wide license for this survey tool that helps with collecting, distributing, and analyzing survey data.
Research Electronic Data Capture REDCap: This survey tool collects both high-risk and non-high-risk data. Illinois REDCap is provided at no cost to faculty, staff, and students at the University of Illinois who accepts the terms of both the user agreement and the protection of high-risk data agreement.
Conditions for Administering Surveys
Approvals
The University of Illinois Faculty Senate has a Policy Governing Electronic Surveys and Questionnaires that covers all campus-wide surveys and research recruitment that target students, faculty, and staff.
- Students: This policy designates Student Affairs to review and approve campus‐wide surveys that target student groups, which is done through the Student Affairs Research Approval (SARA) process.
- Faculty/Staff: The Senior Associate Chancellor for Human Resources designates a person to be responsible for reviewing and approving campus‐wide surveys that target employee groups (contact Strategic Programs & Partnerships at ihr@illinois.edu), and the Provost designates a person to be responsible for reviewing and approving campus‐ wide surveys that target faculty groups (contact Academic Affairs at provost@illinois.edu).
The process for obtaining approval for a campus‐wide survey is available on the Division of Management Information website. Surveys are allowed no more than three solicitation emails and cannot be distributed during the last two weeks of a semester or during the first week of any institutional survey administration.
Cybersecurity/Privacy
The privacy team in the Office of the Chief Information Officer works with data stewards, governance, and data authorities to inform and advise their data use decisions. The team creates awareness of privacy considerations for units and university stakeholders and connects individuals to appropriate compliance and legal advisers to aid their ability to meet good privacy practices and regulatory compliance. Resources about university privacy policies and privacy regulations are available on this team’s website. The following regulations are most relevant for survey work:
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): Data privacy laws issued by the European Commission that govern data collected from individuals located in the European Union.
- Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA): Whenever a breach of the security of the data collector’s system data occurs, this act requires public universities, such as the University of Illinois, and other data collectors to notify affected individuals.
- Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL): The University of Illinois Supplemental Privacy Notice – Personal Information Protection Law (“Supplemental Notice – PIPL”) supplements the University of Illinois System Privacy Statement for certain individuals in the People’s Republic of China.
Digital Accessibility
The digital accessibility team in the Office of the Chief Information Officer strives to make online content, tools, and platforms usable for everyone in our university community by providing tools, resources, and training to the campus community.