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Thriving Quotient vs. NSSE
The National Survey of Student Engagement measures engagement: how much time and effort students put into educationally purposeful activities, and how the institution organizes those activities. The survey assesses “how undergraduates spend their time and what they gain from attending college” (NSSE website). It surveys first-year students and seniors, with additional modules an institution can purchase to assess a wide variety of campus experiences from academic advising and career and workforce preparation to civic engagement, mental health and well-being, and generative AI.
The Thriving Quotient (TQ) measures thriving: the degree to which students are vitally engaged and optimally functioning not just behaviorally, but academically, psychologically, and interpersonally. These are psychosocial factors that are amenable to change. The TQ also measures the pathways to thriving: the statistically significant predictors of the variation in students’ thriving levels that represent areas an institution can target for intervention. These pathways include a wide variety of campus experiences, including levels of campus involvement, perceptions of faculty and classroom experiences, perceptions of institutional integrity, inclusion of diverse perspectives, and satisfaction levels with various campus programs and services. Items about mental health, generative AI, family support, and financial difficulty round out the instruments. In addition, institutions can add a limited number of their own items to the survey.
What each instrument measures
The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), administered from Indiana University's Center for Postsecondary Research, asks first-year and senior students how they spend their time and what the institution asks of them: the behaviors and practices associated with learning. Its unit is engagement.
The Thriving Quotient, from Dr. Laurie A. Schreiner, asks students about their own condition: how engaged they are in learning, how determined, how positive their outlook, how connected to others and to the wider community. Its unit is thriving, measured on five malleable factors: Engaged Learning, Academic Determination, Positive Perspective, Diverse Citizenship and Social Connectedness.
Side by side
| Thriving Quotient | NSSE | |
|---|---|---|
| Measures | Student thriving: academic, interpersonal and psychological wellbeing on five malleable factors | Student engagement: participation in educationally purposeful activities and institutional practices |
| Populations | Undergraduate, sophomore, adult learner, graduate, community college, faculty, adjunct faculty, staff | First-year and senior undergraduates |
| Reporting | Raw data; national-norms comparison; interactive dashboard; campus-specific predictive model (Expanded and Campus packages, >300 responses) | Institutional report with Engagement Indicators and comparison groups |
| Pricing | Per survey and population, from $750; report packages $1,500 and $2,500; campus package $10,000 | Set by NSSE; not published here |
| Buying | Online by card or bank debit, or purchase order on a Net-30 invoice | Registration with NSSE |
| Research use | Licensed to researchers for dissertations and studies, proposal first | Data available to participating institutions and through NSSE's own arrangements |
Which one, or both?
Use NSSE when the question is what are our students doing, and what are we asking of them? Use the Thriving Quotient when the question is how are our students, and what can we change? Because thriving is measured on malleable factors, its results are built to be acted on; because it has instruments for every population, it can be repeated across a whole campus in a year. Campuses that already run NSSE add the Thriving Quotient for the populations and the dimensions NSSE does not reach.
Questions about the comparison
What is the difference between the Thriving Quotient and NSSE?
NSSE measures student engagement — the time and effort students give to educationally purposeful activities and how the institution supports them. The Thriving Quotient measures student thriving — academic engagement, interpersonal connection and psychological wellbeing — on scales that are malleable, so results point to action. They are complementary rather than competing.
Is the Thriving Quotient an alternative to NSSE?
It can be used instead of NSSE where a campus wants to measure the psychological condition of its students rather than their engagement behaviors, and it covers populations NSSE does not: sophomores, adult learners, graduate students, community college students, faculty and staff. Many campuses run both.
What does the Thriving Quotient cost compared with NSSE?
The Thriving Quotient is priced per survey and per population: survey administration $750, a basic report $1,500, the expanded report $2,500, and the Thriving Campus package with a one-hour webinar $10,000. NSSE's pricing is set by its own administering center and is not published here.