Four students kneeling by therapy dog

Assessment Process

Assessment is vital to ensure students are acquiring knowledge and skills to support healthy behaviors, determine program effectiveness, and to monitor progress and outcomes.

National College Health Assessment

The American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment (NCHA) is a national research survey created to assist institutions of higher education collect data about their students’ habits, behaviors, and perceptions of prevalent health topics.

HERO has collected NCHA data since 2003; furthermore, data collection occurs every two years. HERO surveys a random sample of student participants as identified by Analytics, Institutional Research, and Effectiveness. KU’s survey results can be compared with the national dataset, which includes over 100,000 students at over 150 institutions of higher education.

HERO uses the data collected to establish goals and objectives in the areas of Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs; Mental Health and Self-Management; Nutrition and Food Security; and Sexual Health and Healthy Relationships. By establishing goals and objectives, HERO can assess programming efforts and modify as needed as well as trend students’ behaviors over time.

86% of KU students describe themselves as being in good, very good, or excellent
37% of KU students report stress as an academic impediment within the last 12 months