The results of the first-ever AMS Student Engagement Survey (SES) have been released.
The online survey — which gathered over 2,700 responses between November 21 to December 9, 2021 — found that students were very satisfied with the Nest and the majority agree that the AMS is doing a good job overall, especially with regards to students’ equity and inclusion interests, mental health and academic interests. However, the biggest takeaways from the survey questions are students’ desire for lower food options and more seating — for both studying and eating — in the Nest.
AMS President Cole Evans described the launch of the SES as incredibly successful, and the data collected as extremely valuable.
“It allows us to make sure that what we're doing aligns with what students want, and at the end of the day, they certainly have a big part of what we do at the AMS as a student union,” he said.
Among one of the more surprising statistics was that a very low number of students were aware of the AMS executives. Only 12 per cent of respondents recognized the VP Finance, Administration and Academic & University Affairs by name, while 13 per cent recognized the VP External — the only male-presenting VP.
Evans was recognized by 46 per cent of respondents.
“Moving forward, we're really going to have to focus a little bit more on introducing student leaders, both executives and councillors, to the UBC community so students know who's representing them,” said Evans.
Still, Evans was positively surprised about the number of students who trust AMS-created communications among other forms of communication such as non-AMS social media accounts. “This means we can continue to pour resources into making sure that we are getting as much information as possible communicated through those methods.”
Evans said the AMS will use the responses from the SES to make recommendations to relevant execs and offices within the student society. This includes adding more allergen information to items at food outlets in the Nest — students with allergies said their needs were not being met — and increasing promotion for AMS Services that incoming first-years may be unaware of.
In the long-term, Evans hopes the AMS will continue crafting questions that will extract student’s views about the organization — which will allow it to observe trends to see whether perception of the AMS is improving or not.
At the February 16 AMS Council meeting — where Evans presented the SES’s results to councillors — the president said he would amend existing policies on student surveys to include procedures for the development of the SES so it remains consistent from year to year.
“The intention is for the SES to be an annual survey. We will be putting into AMS policy that it happens every year,” said Evans.
“The reason why we want this survey to become a mainstay as far as the work that we do here at the AMS is because it really allows us to get good quantitative data about how we are doing in all of our operations and allows us to make changes and make improvements based on that data.”