Survey shows high level of satisfaction with WWU Graduate School

Graduate students appear happy with the education they received at Western Washington University, according to Western’s first organized exit survey of these students.

General satisfaction with WWU graduate programs appears high with more than four-fifths of students claiming they were satisfied or very satisfied with the overall quality of their program.

“We’re pleased to have established an initial benchmark with this survey, and are encouraged by the findings. We’re looking forward to working with our graduate programs to build upon their respective strengths and further enhance the graduate student experience at Western,” said Michael Barr, Assistant Dean of the WWU Graduate School.

The survey was done by Western’s Office of Survey Research in coordination with the WWU Graduate School.

The survey, designed to elicit information on program satisfaction, the frequency and scope of academic interaction on and off campus, barriers to success, and plans for the future, was administered to graduate students earning their master’s degrees at the conclusion of either the spring or summer quarters of 2009.

Of the 280 recipients of master’s degrees at Western during those quarters, the Office of Survey Research received 188 valid responses, or 67.1 percent response rate, which is an extraordinarily high response rate compared to similar surveys at other universities.

The survey also found that 74.2 percent of Western graduate students indicated an average debt load under $19,000, whereas a recent National Center for Education Statistics study found the average cumulative debt for master’s students nationally was $29,997.

For more information, please see the entire report online at: http://chss.wwu.edu/sociology.

For information about graduate study at Western see Graduate School.