Graduate Pulse Survey
Our goal is to foster a culture of communication and transparency between the Graduate College, graduate students, and university administration. To achieve this, we will administer these surveys several times each academic year.
2024 - 2025 Academic Year
Survey launched February 21. When asked “Do you use software for your program or research?” 71.2% of respondents answered “yes."
On February 21, 2025, the Graduate College launched a Pulse Survey to identify required or commonly used software for graduate programs. Pulse surveys are one-to-three question surveys embedded in emails to get a quick snapshot of our graduate student population and guide the priorities of the Graduate College.
The Pulse Survey asked, “To better support students, the university is exploring housing software centrally. Do you use software for your program or research?” A total of 222 graduate students took the survey, and 71.2% (n=158) reported that they use software for their program or research. Students who answered “Yes” to using software were asked to share a list of software programs they use. Software names were cleaned and grouped, and a total of 122 distinct software programs were reported. The top five software listed by students were Microsoft Office Suite tools, Adobe Creative Cloud tools, MATLAB, SPSS, and Python.
Previous Pulse Surveys
Survey launched January 27. When asked, "In general, would you say that your mental health is..." 29.6% of respondents answered "fair" or "poor."
Graduate College Pulse: Mental Health Check-In
The Graduate College launched a Mental Health Check-In Pulse Survey on January 27, 2025. Pulse surveys are a one to three question survey embedded in email to get a quick snapshot of our graduate student population to guide priorities of the Graduate College. Due to the timing of the semester and other stressors we asked our students each day: “In general, would you say that your mental health is…” Response options were a five-point Likert scale from “Poor” to “Excellent."
A total of 331 graduate students took the survey (3.3% response rate), and the average response score increased to 3.2 from 2.7 from the fall semester. A total of 29.6% of students reported that their mental health is “Fair” or “Poor”, compared to 48.1% of students who responded in most recent mental health check-in during the fall semester.
Survey launched December 2. When asked, “Do you plan on registering for classes for the spring 2025 semester?” 97.2% of respondents reported registering for spring 2025 classes or graduating fall 2024.
Graduate College Pulse: Retention
The Graduate College launched a Pulse Survey for Retention on December 2, 2024. Pulse surveys are a one to three question survey embedded in email to get a quick snapshot of our graduate student population to guide priorities of the Graduate College.
Students were asked “Do you plan on registering for classes for the spring 2025 semester?” A total of 598 graduate students took the survey, and 84.3% (n=504) reported that they are either registered or plan on registering for spring 2025 classes at UC. The remaining students reported not registering for classes, with 12.9% (n=77) reporting that they were graduating this fall, 1.0% (n=6) reporting taking a break, and 1.8% (n=11) reporting other reasons for not registering for classes. The most common theme for “other” was doctoral students completing course work and working on their dissertation. Upon completion of the survey, graduating students were directed to a congratulations message, and all other responses were directed to the Office of the Registrar’s Registration How to Guide.
Graduate College Pulse: Mental Health Check-in
The Graduate College launched a series of Pulse Surveys on November 4th, 5th, and 6th 2024. Pulse surveys are a one to three question survey embedded in email to get a quick snapshot of our graduate student population to guide priorities of the Graduate College. Due to the timing of the semester and other stressors we asked our students each day: “In general, would you say that your mental health is…” Response options were a five-point Likert scale from “Poor” to “Excellent”.
A total of 894 graduate students took the survey, with 116 students responding to two of the days, and 21 responding to all three days. The average response decreased from 2.9 to 2.7 from day 1 to day 3. As of the third survey launch, just under half of students reported that their mental health is “Fair” or “Poor”. Upon completion of the survey, students were directed to Mental Health resources in the Graduate College Resource guide.
Survey launched November 4. When asked, "In general, would you say that your mental health is..." 37.9% of respondents answered "fair" or "poor."
Survey launched November 5. When asked, "In general, would you say that your mental health is..." 42.3% of respondents answered "fair" or "poor."
Survey launched November 6. When asked, "In general, would you say that your mental health is..." 48.1% of respondents answered "fair" or "poor."
Strengthening Our Graduate Community
The Graduate Pulse Surveys are designed with embedded features from Qualtrics, ensuring a seamless experience for graduate students to share responses directly from their email inboxes. Rest assured, your data is confidential, and group-level pulse reports are shared with the administration to help improve our community.