Survey reports on new generation of students

There's a new generation of UC students sitting in classrooms at UCLA and eight of its undergraduate sister campuses.

These undergraduates are making UC increasingly racially and ethnically diverse in complex ways that reflect major demographic changes in the state. After Caucasians, Chinese students now represent the second largest identifiable racial group in the UC system, followed by Chicano/Latino and then Korean and Vietnamese students. (See related story, "Asian Americans better prepared for college but struggle to pay.")

To portray them more clearly, a new report has just been released that's based on the University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES), which offers an indepth examination of the undergraduate experience overall as well as an assessment of students' experiences at each UC campus.

UCUES data provide UCLA administrators and faculty with a closeup view of campus life and a way to compare it to other UC campuses.

The report, "A New Generation," is based on data from the spring 2006 survey, the most current available, taken by more than 57,000 students out of population sample of approximately 151,000 undergraduates for a response rate of 38%. The report was produced by the Student Experience in the Research University Project based at the Center for Studies in Higher Education at UC Berkeley.

Here are some other interesting findings:

* With the exception of UC Santa Cruz and UC Santa Barbara, the majority of students at UCLA and the other UC campuses identified themselves as either foreign-born or as having at least one foreign-born parent.

* Approximately 95% of Asian and 88% of Latino students who responded to the survey reported that either they or one of their parents or grandparents were born outside the United States.

* UC students come from both ends of the economic ladder, and from all the steps inbetween. While 24% said their parents' income was under $35,000, 36% reported their parents earned $100,000 or more.

* Compared to students who came to UC directly from high school, transfer students reported spending more time studying, more time working and fulfilling family obligations, but less time in co-curricular activities. On average, undergrads spent 16 hours per week in class and 13 hours studying and preparing for class.

* About 83% of students reported never or rarely submitting a late assignment. But 29% reported often or very often coming to class without having finished their reading assignments.

* 80% of students reported gains in understanding a specific field of study.

* Just 26% of students reported that they intended their bachelor's degree to be their terminal degree.

* Transfer students reported greater overall satisfaction with their UC experience than did freshman-entry students.

* First-generation students reported spending more time on academic pursuits than did other students; and immigrant students were more likely to declare math-based and biological science majors than other students.

See the results of the UCUES spring 2006 survey of UCLA undergraduates. "A full set of data is available under various thematic areas," said Jennifer Keup, director of the Student Affairs Information and Research Office at UCLA. A new survey will be launched, beginning spring of 2008. See the systemwide report.

See related story: "Asian Americans better prepared for college, but still struggle to pay for it".