The Nonresponder Outreach Service (NOS) is a post-survey recruitment strategy available to all NSSE-participating institutions. Its goal is to supplement student responses by engaging hard-to-reach nonresponders through:

• Shorter follow-up surveys
• Additional recruitment messages
• A refreshed branding of NSSE as The College Student Report

All NOS respondents are seamlessly integrated into your institution’s standard data files and reports.

Administration Protocol

The nonresponder service is governed by a distinct IRB-approved protocol to minimize student burden while maximizing response.

Survey Design

Each nonresponder is randomly assigned one of five short versions of the core NSSE. Each version includes 14–21 questions, covering

• NSSE’s 10 Engagement Indicators
• Sense of Belonging scale
• Student background and demographics*

* See the IRB protocol for specific item details

Recruitment Messaging

Institutions can customize up to three follow-up message delivery dates, starting about two weeks after their final standard NSSE message. Institutions may also customize:

• Message signatory (name and title)
• Campus contact for student inquiries
• Use of incentives

Messages are sent via NSSE’s standard email platform. Institutions may need to make minor adjustments to their campus email systems to ensure NOS email delivery. Like the standard NSSE, unique survey links are provided for additional campus outreach efforts.

Results From Prior Administration

In 2025, 57 institutions used NOS with many seeing meaningful increases in student participation. On average, institutions saw a 10% and 13% increase in the number of first-year and senior respondents, respectively (with a range of 0% to 30%). Relatedly, institutions boosted their response rates on average by 2.8 and 3.5 percentage points for each class level (with a range of 0 to 8 percentage points).

Based on these results, by participating in NOS, a hypothetical “average” institution would see their NSSE senior respondent count increase by 13%, from 100 to 113 respondents, and boost their response rate by 3.5 percentage points, from 24% to 27.5%. Figure 1 shows the range of response rate percentage point increases for both first-year and senior class levels at each participating institution.

Figure 1. NSSE 2025 NOS Response Rate Increase for First-Year and Senior Class Levels (n = 57)

Registration & Fees

Institutions can opt into NOS during NSSE’s survey customization period via the Institution Interface. Required information includes:

• Campus contact name, email, and phone
• Recruitment message signatory name and title
• Incentive usage status and wording (if applicable)
• Three preferred message delivery dates

Fee Structure