The Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Consortium is supporting research universities worldwide during the pandemic. The Consortium has developed a special short survey on the impact of COVID-19 on the student experience at research-intensive universities in the US and internationally. The survey was designed to take no longer than 15 minutes to complete. Other SERU member universities (including Big 10 and AAU peers) are also administering the survey this summer to graduate and graduate professional students.

SERU COVID-19 Survey assesses 5 areas of the student experience impacted by the pandemic and campus closures: (1) the transition to remote instruction, research, comps, dissertation defenses, and advising and mentoring (2) mentoring support, (2) the financial impact of COVID-19 on students, (3) student health and wellbeing, (4) belonging and engagement, and (5) future degree and career plans. The findings from the survey will inform our evolving responses to the COVID-19 pandemic on campus and contribute to national research on inequalities in higher education.

An e-mail inviting students to participate in the survey was sent on June 23, 2020 to those who were registered in a graduate or graduate professional program in spring 2020. The survey e-mail went out under Dean Thomas Jeitschko's name, but the email address is linked to the University of Minnesota, where the SERU Consortium surveying is housed; the subject line of the e-mail is “MSU SERU COVID Survey from the Graduate School.”  All responses will be de-identified to ensure the anonymity of the respondents. Please help to make your students aware of the surveys, and we appreciate your assistance in supporting the their response so that we can continue to monitor and adjust our campus response to COVID-19.