Student Interactions on Campus: Does Diversity Matter?

In a recently released research study, Does Diversity Matter in the Education Process? An Exploration of Student Interactions by Wealth, Religion, Politics, Race, Ethnicity and Immigrant Status at the University of California, Steve Chapman, senior researcher at the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California-Berkeley, concludes that students on University of California campuses overwhelmingly report a feeling of “belonging” at their school and report having regular discussions and interactions with students different from themselves.

The study drew data from surveys of 58,000 undergraduate students at eight University of California campuses. Students were asked about the frequency of interactions “resulting in improved understanding of another’s viewpoint,” and the “sense that they belonged at a UC campus.” These measures were then compared across group characteristics such as socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race, religion, political leanings, and immigrant status. The desired outcome was that students participate frequently in this type of interaction without losing the sense that they belong at their school, and the findings bore out this conclusion. Limitations to the study include the fact that the variables—frequency of interaction and sense of belonging—are difficult to operationalize and are incomplete measures of the full impact of diversity on student learning and campus life.

FINDINGS

Frequency of Interactions

• Forty-one percent of students reported that they “often” increased their understanding of different viewpoints from interactions with students of a different socioeconomic class.
• Frequency of diversity interactions was highest (64 percent) for students who were foreign born, followed by students with at least one foreign-born parent (56 percent.)
• About 41 percent of students regularly interacted with those of a different political group. Republicans were much more likely to have these interactions. However, this could be because Republicans were the smallest political group on the UC campuses, representing only 9 percent of students.
• Among different racial groups, African Americans reported the highest levels of interactions resulting in increased understanding of others’ viewpoints—73 percent.
• Students who classified themselves as “religious” (61 percent of the sample) were significantly more likely to have diversity interactions than those who classified themselves as “not religious” (39 percent). It is unclear whether the religious students interacted with students of another religion than themselves, or simply with nonreligious students.
• Overall, politics and socioeconomic status were the least likely diversity topics to be discussed (41 percent of students reported discussing each), while religion (44 percent), nationality (56 percent), and race/ethnicity (59 percent) were more common topics for interaction.

Sense of Belonging

• Students who self-identified as upper-middle or professional-middle class reported the highest sense of belonging (85 percent), compared to low-income or poor students who had the lowest sense of belonging (78 percent).
• There was very little difference in sense of belonging by immigrant status—scores clustered between 81 and 84 percent for all students surveyed.
• Students of all political affiliations had belonging scores clustered between 81 and 85 percent. However, campuses with greater diversity had slightly higher belonging scores.
• Among students of different races, African American students had the lowest belonging scores (74 percent), while white students had the highest (84 percent). Students of all other races/ethnicities reported belonging scores in the range of 79 to 82 percent.
• Among students of different religious backgrounds, Muslim students had the highest sense of belonging—90 percent. Religious students reported higher belonging scores than their nonreligious peers—84 percent versus 81 percent.

The entire study may be downloaded as a PDF at the Center for Studies in Higher Education Web site.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Low-income and very wealthy students were more likely than other socioeconomic groups to have interactions that increased their understanding of others’ viewpoints.
• Most UC students are Democrat or independent; only 18 percent of students identified as either Republican or leaning toward Republican.
• Campuses whose composition most closely mirrored the composition of the UC system as a whole had the highest levels of diversity interactions.