UIS consistently and explicitly focuses on teaching and learning in its mission and its strategic planning processes. UIS faculty and staff value the quality of student experiences and regularly solicit student participation in a variety of national and campus surveys, focus groups, and other reflective activities to understand student perceptions of their experience.
The UIS mission statement clearly expresses the dedication of the institution to high-quality teaching and learning. A key component of the university’s mission is that “the University of Illinois at Springfield provides an intellectually rich, collaborative, and intimate learning environment.” The mission further states that:
UIS serves its students by building a faculty whose members have a passion for teaching and by creating an environment that nurtures learning. [Its] faculty members engage students in small classes and experiential learning settings. At UIS, the undergraduate and graduate curricula and the professional programs emphasize liberal arts, interdisciplinary approaches, lifelong learning, and engaged citizenship.
UIS provides its students with the knowledge, skills, and experience that lead to productive careers in the private and public sectors.
To measure student perceptions of the UIS experience, UIS provides a number of opportunities for students to provide feedback to faculty and administrators. This process includes a variety of surveys, some of which, such as the National Survey for Student Engagement (NSSE), provide comparisons with other institutions.
Survey efforts include:
- Student Satisfaction Inventory (SSI)
- National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)
- Cooperative Institutional Research Program Freshman and Senior Surveys (CIRP)
- Making Achievement Possible (MAP-Works by EBI)
- Association of College and University Housing Officers-International (ACUHO-I)
- CORE Drug and Alcohol Survey
- Alumni Surveys (one, five, and nine years after graduation)
- Survey of Plans After Graduation
- Campus Climate surveys
