This page is being updated with the final findings. Please scroll down to see some preliminary findings or check out our "limitations" section below.
Findings
informing midyear
survey
community & belonging
Coming Soon
student services & supports
Students were unaware of the existence of many services & mostly utilized the Library and Career Services (N=41)
Students Unaware of Existing Services
Students mostly utilized the Library Services and the Career Services Office. When asked to reflect on the 'unused' services, students either did not know the service existed, expressed uncertainty around why they would use it, or how to access it.
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FGD as Advertisement for Services
Students mostly expressed their appreciation of the services used and were surprised by the existence of other services. The focus group discussion served as an endorsement or advertisement for many of the services available. Students who learned of these services in the FGD expressed interest in trying them out after hearing about the experience from others in the group.
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Students utilised office hours regularly accross TFs, faculty, and staff (N=41)
"Some of the teaching fellows are not as supportive... I would say.. they need to do a little bit of training, maybe something on that level for the teaching fellows to.. not jump into making judgments about students and just give students the benefit of the doubt that they are human beings during this difficult time."
"(I have used TF office hours) because it's more accessible and easier. So (if) something pops up and I needed clarification or something I want to walk through without like overthinking what I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say it. So (I use the TF office hours) just as a way to think through things... I had good TFs."
The Quality of TFs varied greatly.
Teaching Fellow office hours were the 1:1 support most used by students. However, feedback on the experience varied the most, with TFs identified as 'great,' 'accessible', 'amazing,' or 'not supportive.'
Positive comments about faculty
Feedback was overwhelmingly positive and ranged from the appreciation of academic rigor to flexibility and understanding of the difficulties students are facing.
"..like being able to interact with faculty, get some advice- maybe being able to get your questions clarified... get some support from them with respect to future direction and what you do after HGSE... So, I think just time with faculty and getting that kind of guidance and support was another part of something that was important this year, yeah.."
Students prefered utilising student-led groups over Harvard-led groups
Student-led spaces were more authentic.
Student-led spaces felt more authentic to students.
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International Students utilized affinity spaces the least.
Student Affinity Groups
Student Organisations
Student Council
Affinity Group Communities
Use
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0
4
3
0
*Students regularly using the student council are elected members.
Communications
Slack is the most used platform for Communication (N=41)
Students identified Slack, The Hub, and OSA Weekly as their main sources of communication. Even though many students used the Hub, only three identified it as being used regularly. Most comments about The Hub were complaints about usability.
"I use the Hub, but I definitely have a very big question mark on the hub. I think it's a great idea but the implementation needs improvement. It's not like mobile-friendly.. which actually prevented us to use the Hub effectively."
* Whatsapp & International Student Newsletter
informing midyear survey
The equity caucus team members hold leadership positions on the HGSE student council, Harvard Graduate Council, and the HGSE Student Success Team. In collaboration with Dean Hernandez and Dean Vultaggio, we were able to inform the design of the MYSES by contributing feedback on the survey design.
We were given access to additional aggregate anonymized data from the MYSES survey.
This means, data from small sample groups, such as Indigenous student populations were not included to protect student identities.
Finding from the MYSES reported in this section are not statistically significant, unless reported so by the MYSES.
When comparing averages per demographic groups, sample sizes vary greatly:
Across all demographics (For example, US citizens 528 responses, Multi-ethnic 14 responses)
Within each demographic (For example, Asian and/or Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander had a response range between 31 and 150)
Another thing worth noting is that international students have not been included in ethnicity counts (they could self-identify in the survey, but this data was not selected). They are included three times as a demographic for sorting students by race (one of six categories), citizenship, and additional race (BIPOC, White, International).
Our findings agree with the mid-year student survey findings on several points and provide further context
BIPOC and part-time students were less likely to think that HGSE was responsive to issues such as COVID-19, racial violence, and political strife.
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We took a deeper look at the 38% of respondents from the MYSES who said that HGSE was "moderately" to "not very responsive" to issues such as “COVID-19, racial violence, political strife, and other issues.” (MYSES Report page 21). Looking at the aggregate data per demographic, the lowest average scores reported were (on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being not very responsive, and 5-extremely responsive):
Findings from our Focus Groups expand on these instances as follows:
- language: choice of words
- difference in responsiveness across the school (Teaching Fellows, Faculty, Harvard Offices)
Hispanic and/or Latinx/a/o students had the lowest averages for rating 'contributors to a sense
of community and belonging'
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Findings from the MYSES show that across all degree programs, 'interactions with peers in classes' was the greatest contributor to a sense of community and belonging, with 74% of students saying these interactions contributed 'quite a bit' (4) or 'very much' (5). This was followed by interactions with Faculty and Informal Interactions with Peers outside classes. Hispanic and/ or Latinx/a/o students had the lowest averages across demographics. (MYSES Report, page 22).
Our findings made us wonder how each affinity group defines 'a sense of community and belonging.' The definition turned out to be highly subjective and personal and might extend to what constitutes a '5.' Affinity groups that are more tightly knit, may have a higher bar as to what constitutes a 5 on the scale.
limitations
Limited sample size. Sample selection was based on connections of the research team
Findings of the research that has to do with virtual learning may not be relevant beyond this year if virtual learning does not continue.
The “action” component of the research and policy change will be difficult to follow-up with after graduation (as shown by Beil et al.’s research).