UC launches biennial survey to evaluate campus resources, programs

Data from the 2026 Undergraduate Experience Survey is used to inform decisions on student services

This spring, undergraduates across the University of California (UC) system are being asked to participate in the UC Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES). The survey, conducted every other year, was emailed to UC Davis students on April 7 and is used to help guide administrators’ understanding of the experience of on-campus students and their demographics.

The survey asks questions about student satisfaction, academic engagement and performance, advising, basic needs, affordability and other critical components of campus life. The data, which is publicly available, also includes demographic information of respondents, including race, ethnicity and Pell Grant and first-generation statuses.

Erika Jackson, director of institutional analysis at UC Davis Finance and Business, said the survey provides a valuable benchmark for comparison across UC campuses and other R1 research institutions nationwide.

“I know students receive a lot of surveys, but we try to draw students’ attention to this one only because we have had it for so many years now — over 20 — and we have the ability to compare where we are on things to the other campuses and to other research institutions that aren't UCs,” Jackson said.

With this data, UCUES evaluates the quality and use of existing student services and reports on campus climate and the impact of diversity on students’ educational experiences. UCUES then develops a framework to prioritize certain issues within the UC Annual Accountability reports and the UC Budget for Current Operations.

UC Davis’ Community Resource and Retention Centers (CRRC), including the LGBTQIA Resource Center, use UCUES and other datasets to help plan on-campus programs and resources. Blake Flaugher, director for UC Davis’ LGBTQIA Resource Center, said that they took on an increased focus on basic needs after reviewing data from the 2024 survey cycle.

“UCUES, among other survey instruments, demonstrated lower food security among non-binary students compared to the general student population,” Flaugher said via email. “So, we worked to strengthen our partnership with Aggie Compass and continue working with the ASUCD Pantry to maintain a satellite location in our center.”

In recent cycles, survey response rates have noticeably decreased. From a peak response rate of approximately 41% of undergraduates in 2010, rates have dropped to around 26% and 28% in recent years. The problem is worse for smaller majors, where low response percentages create limitations in forming reliable conclusions.

To address this, the UC Davis Budget and Institutional Analysis team responsible for conducting the survey, has made attempts tto entice students with gift cards and other incentives. But even with fewer responses, the survey seems mostly representative of the larger student population.

Based on 2024 UCUES aggregated data, the survey respondents’ demographics matched closely with UC Davis’ population distribution as a whole. Representativeness — measured by the percentage difference between those invited to complete the survey and those who responded — deviated by 0% to 3% across identifiers including majors, colleges, graduation status, student level and underrepresented minority classification.

“Even though the response rate is lower than it used to be — years and years ago [it] was 40% so there’s been a decline — the students who respond are amazingly representative of the population,” Jackson said.

However, representativeness deviated by 10% across male and female respondents' self-identified genders.

“Where it's off is the gender, with more women being overrepresented in the survey, and that's kind of a common thing across surveys,” Jackson said.

UCUES’ survey methods retain student confidentiality by only reporting results as aggregated data. Any collected personal information, including names and email addresses, is removed from datasets, and student IDs are used exclusively for analysis and reporting purposes — matching survey responses against other data including demographics, enrollment records, graduation data and post-baccalaureate data.

Major-specific evaluations include surveys of student involvement and opportunities, faculty instruction and academic breadth. UCUES also assesses academic preparedness and development in areas such as critical thinking, writing, reading comprehension, quantitative skills, leadership, research skills and artificial intelligence literacy.

Jackson said that the specific survey responses have provided insight on the impacts of mental health and on possible services the university can offer.

“Seeing some of the anxiety and depression on campus, there’s a question about how those feelings are an obstacle to your schoolwork,” Jackson said. “A sizable number of students said that occasionally or more often, it was an obstacle to their academics. That surprised me. That wasn’t unique to Davis, but it’s concerning and shows the need for a greater availability of services if possible.”

Written by: Thomas Wu — campus@theaggie.org