Best questions for college undergraduate student survey about diversity and inclusion

Here are some of the best questions for a college undergraduate student survey about diversity and inclusion, plus hands-on tips for crafting them. With Specific, you can build an AI-powered survey tailored for your campus in seconds.

Best open-ended questions for college undergraduate student survey about diversity and inclusion

Open-ended questions help students express themselves authentically and highlight perspectives you might not anticipate. Use them when you want rich context, personal stories, or in-depth feedback on diversity and inclusion experiences.

1. Can you describe a time when you felt included or excluded on campus? What happened?

2. What does “diversity and inclusion” mean to you, personally, in a college environment?

3. How well do you think your college supports students from different backgrounds?

4. What improvements would help make the campus climate more inclusive?

5. How have diversity programs or events impacted your college experience?

6. What challenges related to diversity have you faced at our college?

7. How comfortable do you feel sharing your background or identity with your peers and professors?

8. Which campus resources have (or haven’t) helped you feel a sense of belonging?

9. What would you like faculty and administrators to understand about diversity and inclusion right now?

10. If you could change one thing to improve inclusion for all students, what would it be and why?

Open-ended questions like these capture stories and surface patterns that choice-based questions often miss. In fact, campus diversity issues are complex—studies show that over 41% of undergraduates in the U.S. are students of color as of fall 2024, amplifying the need for rich, nuanced feedback. [1]

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for college undergraduate student survey about diversity and inclusion

Single-select multiple-choice questions are powerful when you need to measure or quantify something, or if you want to ease respondents into the conversation. They can provide a clear starting point, leading to more detailed follow-ups.

Question: Do you feel your college does enough to promote diversity and inclusion?

• Yes

• No

• Not sure

• Other

Question: How often do you participate in diversity and inclusion activities or events on campus?

• Often

• Sometimes

• Rarely

• Never

Question: Do you feel a sense of belonging at your college?

• Always

• Most of the time

• Rarely

• Never

When to follow up with “why?” Single-select questions give you the “what,” but the “why” reveals the underlying causes. For instance, if a student says they “rarely” feel a sense of belonging, a follow-up like “Can you share why you feel this way?” uncovers actionable details.

When and why to add the “Other” choice? Add “Other” when you want to capture responses that don’t fit predefined options. Let students explain—these open doors to insights you might miss and follow-up questions can reveal new themes for your research.

Should you use an NPS question in student surveys on diversity and inclusion?

NPS (Net Promoter Score) isn’t just for products—it’s a clear, proven way to measure student sentiment about diversity and inclusion. By asking, “On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this college to someone who values diversity and inclusion?”, you quantify advocacy and can instantly see the split between promoters, passives, and detractors. This metric becomes even more actionable when tied to automated follow-up questions that ask, “What’s the main reason for your score?”
Curious how it works? Try our NPS survey template for college diversity & inclusion—configured for you.

The value is clear: A recent survey found that 55% of students would consider transferring if their college abolished diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, underscoring how deeply these experiences impact students’ campus choices. [1]

The power of follow-up questions

Automated follow-up questions are a game-changer for AI-powered surveys. With our automatic follow-up feature, the AI asks smart, targeted questions in real time—digging deeper when answers are vague and surfacing genuine stories that classic surveys miss.

• Student: “I don’t really feel welcome.”

• AI follow-up: “Can you share what made you feel unwelcome? Was it something specific that happened, or a general atmosphere?”

This real-time flow means you never have to chase feedback by email or schedule extra calls, and students feel heard while the insights flow naturally.

How many follow-ups to ask? Generally, 2–3 follow-ups are best—enough to clarify and go deeper, not so many that students feel interrogated. Specific lets you set these limits and allows respondents to skip forward when enough detail is gathered.

This makes it a conversational survey. The experience feels like a chat, not a test—students engage more, and their responses are richer and more authentic.

AI analysis of open-text feedback is no longer hard work. Our AI survey response analysis summarizes, clusters, and interprets answers in seconds—even large volumes of unstructured comments are easy to make sense of. If you want step-by-step guidance, see our how-to article on analyzing DEI survey responses.

These fully automated, dynamic follow-up questions are a breakthrough—give it a try and experience it for yourself the next time you generate a survey.

How to prompt ChatGPT (or any AI) for great student diversity and inclusion survey questions

To tap into AI’s power for writing survey questions, start with a clear prompt. Try:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for college undergraduate student survey about diversity and inclusion.

You’ll get much better results if you add context about your school, goals, or the specific type of inclusion you care about. For example:

Our college has a wide mix of international and first-generation students. Suggest 10 open-ended questions for a survey to understand campus inclusion challenges and create practical improvements.

Once you have a set of questions, let AI help group them for clarity:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Pick the most relevant or interesting categories, and go deeper:

Generate 10 questions about “campus life belonging” and “faculty-student inclusion”. (Replace with real categories you want to focus on.)

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey, like the ones you create with Specific, feels like a natural back-and-forth rather than a generic web form. The key is the AI-powered conversation that guides students, listens actively, and asks relevant follow-ups without being robotic.

Here’s how conversational AI survey generation compares to the manual approach:

Read our guide on how to create a college undergraduate student survey about diversity and inclusion for more hands-on steps and best practices.

Why use AI for college undergraduate student surveys? AI-powered surveys let us ask more thoughtful questions, adapt instantly to responses, and analyze open-ended feedback without wasting precious time. With a high number of students experiencing discrimination and only 43% feeling a true sense of belonging on campus [2], better insight isn’t a bonus—it’s a necessity. An AI survey example is the fastest way to surface challenges and opportunities for real inclusion.

Specific stands out for its seamless conversational survey user experience—making feedback collection accurate, natural, and easy for both survey creators and students responding.

See this diversity and inclusion survey example now

Experience the difference: get real, honest student feedback with a conversational AI survey that adapts in real time and uncovers what truly matters about diversity and inclusion on your campus. Don’t settle for surface-level reports—make every student voice count.