Supporting student experience improvement across North America’s Research Universities – a strategic partnership between UC Berkeley and Etio
When the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Consortium sought a survey administration partner to support its growing network of research-intensive universities, it needed more than technical expertise. It needed a partner capable of delivering large-scale survey operations reliably, supporting institutions throughout the process, and understanding the collaborative ethos at the heart of the consortium.
Since becoming SERU's survey administration partner in 2024, Etio has helped support the delivery of undergraduate and graduate student surveys across a consortium that has grown from 17 to 23 member institutions across the United States and Canada. Working alongside the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) at the University of California, Berkeley, Etio plays a key role in helping institutions capture the student voice and use data to drive meaningful change.
About SERU
Based at the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) at UC Berkeley, SERU is a member-run, non-profit research consortium that helps research-intensive universities collect, analyse and benchmark student experience data. Through its Undergraduate SERU and gradSERU surveys, member institutions gain access to robust student feedback, benchmarking capabilities and a collaborative community focused on institutional improvement.
Unlike standalone surveys, SERU enables universities to compare their results against peer institutions and learn from one another's experiences. As Joshua Patterson, Assistant Director at CSHE and SERU's primary liaison with member institutions, explains:
"It's not good enough just to have data. Institutions need context. They need to know how their results compare with similar departments and peer institutions. That's what gives leaders the confidence to act on the findings."
Finding the right administration partner
When SERU's Board of Directors launched a procurement exercise for a new survey administration partner, reliability, expertise and sustainability were key priorities.
The consortium needed a partner capable of managing complex multi-campus survey operations while maintaining the affordability expected within a non-profit model. The chosen provider would need to guide institutions through survey preparation, deliver high-quality data collection processes and provide clean, reliable datasets that members could trust.
Etio stood out for its experience in higher education survey delivery, existing familiarity with the SERU programme, and ability to support the consortium's collaborative way of working.
A partnership built on collaboration
Today, the relationship between CSHE and Etio extends beyond survey administration.
Joshua serves as the primary point of contact between Berkeley, consortium members and Etio, working closely with the Etio team throughout the year. Regular meetings, collaborative planning and participation in the annual SERU symposium help ensure the partnership remains closely aligned with member needs.
Reflecting on the partnership, Joshua highlights both the technical capability and the people behind the service:
"We really like the relationships that we have with the Etio team. There's an understanding of the space, significant familiarity with higher education surveys, strong technical ability and a genuinely collaborative approach."
This strong working relationship has helped support SERU's continued growth, with membership increasing from 17 institutions at launch to 23 institutions today.
Why universities are joining SERU
According to Joshua, benchmarking is one of the consortium's most compelling benefits.
While institutions can collect survey data independently, understanding how their results compare to peer universities provides a far more powerful basis for decision-making. Benchmarking allows university leaders to identify areas of strength, highlight opportunities for improvement and build compelling evidence for institutional change.
The consortium model also enables member institutions to move beyond identifying challenges and towards understanding solutions.
When one university achieves significantly stronger outcomes in areas such as academic advising, wellbeing or student engagement, member institutions can connect directly with their peers to explore the policies and practices behind those results. These conversations take place through annual symposiums, virtual events and ongoing networking opportunities facilitated by SERU.
"You can see where there are differences between yourself and a peer institution, but you can also close the loop by learning about the practices that produced those results."
The value of SERU extends beyond benchmarking. Across the consortium, institutions use SERU data to support strategic planning, accreditation, programme review and institutional accountability. Some universities have embedded SERU measures directly into their KPIs and long-term planning frameworks, while others use the data to evaluate academic programmes or demonstrate that students are receiving the experience institutions intend to deliver. By providing robust, comparable evidence on the student experience, SERU helps universities ensure that decisions are informed not by assumption, but by the voices of their students.
Turning student feedback into action
The impact of SERU extends well beyond data collection. At UC Berkeley, survey findings have directly informed institutional initiatives designed to improve the student experience. One notable example was the creation of a campus food pantry after survey responses highlighted significant levels of food insecurity among students – just one of a myriad of examples of campus-wide policies being driven by SERU findings.
More recently, SERU data has been used to support university-wide discussions about student use of artificial intelligence. Through collaboration between CSHE and Berkeley's Center for Teaching and Learning, survey insights are helping shape conversations around AI policy, guidance and teaching practice.
Across the consortium, institutions use SERU data in a variety of ways, including:
- Strategic planning and performance measurement
- Accreditation activities
- State accountability reporting
- Programme review processes
- Student support and wellbeing initiatives
- Emerging policy areas such as AI adoption and governance
- Supporting evidence-based improvement
A key part of Etio's role is ensuring institutions receive consistent, high-quality datasets that can be transformed into meaningful insight.
Following survey administration, Etio delivers clean institutional datasets while CSHE develops interactive Tableau dashboards that allow institutions to explore both their own results and benchmark comparisons. These dashboards support analysis across colleges, departments, disciplines and demographic groups, enabling universities to uncover actionable findings and communicate them effectively across campus.
For many institutions, particularly graduate schools with smaller analytical teams, these resources become a critical part of their evidence-gathering and decision-making processes.
Looking ahead
As SERU continues to evolve, the focus is on sustainable growth, ongoing survey development and expanding opportunities for collaboration. The consortium is already exploring the potential for a future postdoctoral researcher survey, while annual member working groups continue to refine survey content to ensure it reflects the changing realities of higher education.
For Etio, the partnership demonstrates the value of combining robust survey administration with a collaborative, member-focused approach.
For SERU members, it provides something equally valuable: a trusted framework for understanding the student experience, benchmarking performance and turning insight into action.
