Introduction

Over the last decade, The Hope Center has partnered with colleges and universities to raise awareness about the types and prevalence of student basic needs insecurities on college campuses and to provide actionable data that our partners can use to advocate for students and improve services. More than 500 colleges and universities and over 500,000 students have participated, representing the nation’s largest, most well-established basic needs survey. The most recent iteration of the survey, known as The Hope Center’s Student Basic Needs Survey, launched in Spring 2023 and continues today. It builds upon its predecessors with expanded content.

Survey topics include:

• Basic needs insecurity (e.g., food, housing, homelessness, mental health, childcare, technology, transportation)
• Utilization of campus and public supports, barriers to utilization of supports
• Additional aspects of the student experience (affordability, employment, enrollment patterns, belonging)
• Expanded, more inclusive demographics section

Read our most recent survey report here.

Hope Impact Partnerships

Colleges and universities can participate in the Student Basic Needs Survey as well as collaborate with Hope Center staff and other higher education partners to not only identify students’ basic needs, but develop strategies and actions to address them through the Hope Center’s Hope Impact Partnerships (HIP) program. HIP partnership levels range from a one-year program to collect survey data and engage in guided action planning to two-year bundled data collection, training, and coaching options to expand programs and services to address student basic needs. We work closely with cohorts of individual institutions, systems, or entire states to provide customized supports for not only documenting students’ needs but engaging in institutional transformation to better address those needs. Information about enrolling in HIP can be found here.

Collaborate With Us

We would be thrilled to share our Student Basic Needs Survey with you!

The Hope Center has worked with states, systems of higher education, and individual colleges and universities to implement the survey in their unique contexts. These surveys have provided invaluable data and information about student experiences that informs policy, practice, and research—and motivate systemic change. If you are interested in learning more about, administering, implementing, or expanding on our survey, please contact us through this Survey Interest Form.