New this year, seniors will be required to complete and turn in an exit survey to graduate. Some seniors will also be required to participate in an exit interview. Each department assigns their own exit survey to the seniors; it is not a general survey administered to the entire senior student body.

Director of Academic Assessment Robert Flaherty explained the reasoning behind the surveys.

“[These] surveys are used by individual departments to gain information about student learning and student experiences that they can use to improve their programs,” he said.

It is new to mandate that each department assign a survey, but the idea itself is not completely untried, according the Flaherty. Some departments have been a history of carrying out exit surveys.

“Many programs have had an exit survey or senior interview program for some time,” said Flaherty.
Departments trying to gain a more in-depth look into the experiences of the students have resorted to more personal one-on-one interviews with the student.

“For smaller departments, I think that an interview process provides more in-depth information, and I would recommend that process,” said Flaherty.

Flaherty also commented on why he felt there was a renaissance of these surveys now.

“One reason why there may be a growing number of departments with senior surveys is that they are a measurement tool that can be used as one aspect of the assessment of student learning process,” he said.

DU is not the only institution interested in how the students feel about their college experience.

“Assessment of student learning is a process that is required by accreditation agencies,” said Flaherty.

“The idea is that all academic programs should be able to determine whether the students who graduate from a program have actually achieved the knowledge and skills that the program is supposed to have delivered.”

Although not a direct requirement for walking during graduation, most senior students will end up having to fill the survey out at one time or another to complete their course work.

“Some programs require students to complete various assessment-related tasks prior to graduation,” said Flaherty. “Sometimes these are part of a senior course [and constitute part of the grade in that course], and sometimes they are administered outside of a regular course.”

Although the regular administration of these surveys and interviews is fairly recent, this process has been recommended for over 20 years.

“It has been roughly 25 years or so since the accrediting bodies started recommending that all institutions develop comprehensive processes for assessment of student learning,” said Flaherty. “At some institutions, measures have been in place for much more than a decade.”