The Center for Community College Student Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin

What The Center for Community College Student Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin does

The Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCCSE) is a university research center within the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at The University of Texas at Austin, founded in 2001. CCCSE designs and administers proprietary survey instruments — CCSSE (Community College Survey of Student Engagement), SENSE (Survey of Entering Student Engagement), CCFSSE (Community College Faculty Survey of Student Engagement), and DESSE (Dual Enrollment Survey of Student Engagement) — that benchmark student engagement, early-momentum behaviors, faculty practices, and dual enrollment experiences for U.S. community and technical colleges. Surveys are delivered through the Qualtrics platform with in-class and online modalities, supported by real-time response dashboards, crosswalk tools linking SENSE/CCSSE/DESSE data to the Community College Research Center's Next Frontiers reform priorities, and a rolling three-year cohort design for longitudinal benchmarking.

CCCSE generates revenue primarily through subscription-based survey administration fees charged to participating colleges, with pricing tiered by IPEDS enrollment size ($4,100 base for fewer than 1,500 students to $21,950 for 22,000+ students). The 2025 SENSE cohort served 142 institutions across 34 states, and the CCSSE cohort drew data from 127 colleges. Bundled discounts (up to 40% for SENSE+CCSSE commitments in the same year), new-college incentives (25% off first administration), and statewide consortium pricing (15% discount) structure customer acquisition. The organization complements fee revenue with foundation grants — notably a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant funding DESSE development and historical support from MetLife Foundation for the Making Ends Meet special report — and distributes through direct website registration, dedicated college liaisons, free statewide consortia, and a national conference circuit anchored by NISOD. CCCSE is governed by a National Advisory Board and operates with a roughly 20-person staff led by Executive Director Dr. Linda García.

Name

The Center for Community College Student Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin

Legal name

The Center for Community College Student Engagement at The University of Texas at Austin

Website

https://cccse.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2001

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

CCCSE is a UT Austin research center that designs and administers proprietary student engagement surveys (CCSSE, SENSE, DESSE, CCFSSE) for U.S. community and technical colleges, generating revenue through enrollment-tiered administration fees and foundation grants.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Higher Education Research and Assessment Services

NAICS

Junior Colleges (61121), Educational Support Services (611710)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Comprehensive Community Colleges (Transfer + Workforce) (EDAHADAE)

akta.pro secondary industry

Remote & Live Online Proctoring Platforms (EDAFADAB)

Keywords

• Student engagement surveys
• Community college assessment
• Survey administration services
• Higher education research
• Institutional benchmarking data

Headquarters

HQ city

Austin

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Survey Administration Fees: CCCSE generates revenue primarily through survey administration membership fees charged to participating community and technical colleges. Fees are based on fall IPEDS enrollment for students 18 and older (or under 18 for DESSE). Pricing is tiered by enrollment size, with base fees ranging from $4,100 (fewer than 1,500 students) to $21,950 (22,000+ students). Additional fees apply for custom survey modules ($1,000 per college), CCFSSE faculty survey ($1,535 per college), oversampling services, and specialized data analysis.
2. Additional Survey Items and Custom Modules: Colleges may add custom survey items or select from standard additional item sets for additional fees. Custom modules cost $1,000 per college. Special customized reports or data analysis start at $500.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

CCCSE designs, administers, and reports on proprietary student engagement surveys—CCSSE, SENSE, DESSE, and CCFSSE—for community and technical colleges nationwide. The center delivers standardized benchmarking data, real-time response dashboards, downloadable institutional reports, and supporting focus-area modules covering onboarding, basic needs, mental health, holistic advising, civic learning, and AI. Membership-based services are offered to colleges of all enrollment sizes, with companion national research publications and special grant-funded projects.

Product overview

The Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCCSE) offers a suite of survey instruments for community and technical colleges: CCSSE (Community College Survey of Student Engagement) for returning students during spring semester; SENSE (Survey of Entering Student Engagement) for entering students during fall term; DESSE (Dual Enrollment Survey of Student Engagement) for dual enrollment students; and CCFSSE (Community College Faculty Survey of Student Engagement) as a companion faculty survey. The core survey products are supplemented with optional add-on modules including Holistic Advising, Basic Needs, Mental Health & Well-Being, Culture of Caring, and Civic Learning modules for SENSE and CCSSE, and AI special-focus items for CCFSSE. All surveys provide data analysis, benchmarking, and institutional reporting services to help colleges improve student engagement and success.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• CCSSE (Community College Survey of Student Engagement): A survey instrument administered during spring to mostly returning students, asking about institutional practices and student behaviors correlated with learning and retention. Established in 2001.
• SENSE (Survey of Entering Student Engagement)
• DESSE (Dual Enrollment Survey of Student Engagement)
• CCFSSE (Community College Faculty Survey of Student Engagement)

Products and services

• CCSSE (Community College Survey of Student Engagement) A survey instrument administered during the spring semester to mostly returning students that asks about institutional practices and student behaviors highly correlated with student learning and retention. Serves as a benchmarking, diagnostic, and monitoring tool for accredited associate degree-granting community and technical colleges nationwide.
• SENSE (Survey of Entering Student Engagement) A diagnostic survey administered during the fall academic term that helps community and technical colleges understand students' earliest experiences from point of entry through the first weeks of enrollment, focusing on onboarding, advising, basic needs, mental health, career/transfer exploration, and early momentum indicators. Redesigned for 2026 with expanded focus areas.
• DESSE (Dual Enrollment Survey of Student Engagement) An online survey designed to collect information about the dual enrollment student experience from concurrently enrolled high school students, helping colleges evaluate programs serving their dually enrolled population. Covers 15 focus areas including academic advising, barriers to persistence, career counseling, course taking, getting started, goals, instructor expectations, motivation and preparedness, sense of belonging, stigma, and support services.
• CCFSSE (Community College Faculty Survey of Student Engagement) An online companion survey to CCSSE that elicits information from faculty about their perceptions regarding students' educational experiences, teaching practices, and professional time allocation. Available as an add-on to CCSSE for $1,535 per college.
• Aligning SENSE, CCSSE, and DESSE to the Next Frontiers of Community College Reform (Crosswalk Tool) A crosswalk tool that connects SENSE, CCSSE, and DESSE data to the reform priorities described in the Community College Research Center's 'More Essential Than Ever' report. Supports campus teams in using student engagement data to examine the student experience, identify gaps, and guide improvement.
• Online Survey Reporting System with Real-Time Response Dashboards A members-only online reporting system that provides colleges with real-time access to all survey responses during administration, along with benchmark reports, means and frequency distributions, and downloadable data files. Includes real-time dashboards that enable leaders and campus teams to monitor patterns and respond while the term is underway.
• National Research Reports and Special Reports National research publications drawing on CCCSE survey data, including 'Essential Conditions for Community College Student Success' (October 2025), 'Multiple Responsibilities, Single Mission: Understanding the Experiences of Community College Parenting Students' (September 2025), and 'Making Ends Meet: The Role of Community Colleges in Student Financial Health' (2017). These reports generate field recognition and provide member colleges with contextualized national benchmarking.

Named customers18 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• QualtricscoreTechnology or IntegrationCCCSE has a Partnership With Qualtrics for survey delivery and experience management. The Qualtrics platform is used to distribute surveys and collect responses. CCCSE's survey infrastructure includes Qualtrics-powered survey forms for college registration and survey administration.
• National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNSSE works in partnership with CCCSE's CCSSE. NSSE, established in 1998 and headquartered at Indiana University, focuses on four-year colleges and universities. CCSSE was created specifically for community and technical colleges, complementing NSSE's work. The NSSE Board includes representation from community college leaders. The partnership enables comparative benchmarking between community colleges and four-year institutions.
• National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCCCSE partners with NISOD to provide professional development opportunities that help educators turn survey insight into action. NISOD offers professional development opportunities based on CCCSE research, and NISOD's fall virtual conference featured CCCSE data and leadership in a keynote on culture of caring. NISOD is a membership organization serving community colleges.
• Advising Success NetworkcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAdvising Success Network co-developed with CCCSE a 12-item Holistic Advising module for SENSE 2026. This module explores students' experiences with holistic advising—a model of working with the 'whole' student on academic, career, financial, social, and basic need issues. The module is provided free to all SENSE 2026 participating colleges.
• National Disability Center for Student SuccesssupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerCCCSE partnered with the National Disability Center for Student Success to develop a Campus Accessibility item set for CCSSE, exploring issues of accessibility, student supports, and institutional culture around disability.
• Financial Health NetworksupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnered with CCCSE on the Making Ends Meet special report project, contributing expertise on student financial health research and practice.
• Achieving the DreamsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerAchieving the Dream partnered with CCCSE on the Making Ends Meet special report, supporting research and dissemination of findings on student financial health in community colleges.
• MDRCsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerMDRC contributed to the Making Ends Meet special report project as a research partner, supporting analysis and policy implications for student financial health.
• Mathematica Policy ResearchsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerMathematica Policy Research partnered with CCCSE on the Making Ends Meet special report, providing research methodology and analytical expertise.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Direct peers

• Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium: HEDS is a consortium that administers comparative surveys and benchmarks for higher education institutions, including the HEDS Research and Campus Climate Surveys. It serves a similar institutional buyer (chief academic officers, institutional researchers) and competes for the same community college research and engagement survey budgets.
• National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE): NSSE is the most direct comparable — it administers a national student engagement survey at Indiana University, originally established in 1998. NSSE and CCCSE have a formal mutual partnership and complementary segmentation: NSSE focuses on four-year institutions while CCSSE is built specifically for community colleges. Both share the engagement-assessment model, benchmarking methodology, and similar institutional buyer profile.
• Ruffalo Noel Levitz (now part of Anthology): Ruffalo Noel Levitz, now part of Anthology, has long administered the Student Satisfaction Inventory (SSI) and related retention/engagement surveys to higher education institutions. It competes with CCCSE for the same institutional research budgets at colleges, offering similar student-survey products alongside broader enrollment-management and student-success software.

Broad incumbents

• Educational Testing Service (ETS): ETS is a broad incumbent in educational assessment, offering institutional, student, and credentialing assessments across K-12 and higher education. While ETS does not focus narrowly on community college engagement, its institutional research and student success products overlap with CCCSE's positioning and buyer base.
• ACT, Inc. ACT is a broad incumbent in educational assessment, providing testing, research, and policy analysis across secondary and postsecondary education. ACT's higher-education research and engagement-related products overlap with CCCSE's offerings at a broader portfolio level.

Others

• Achieving the Dream: Achieving the Dream is a national nonprofit focused on community college student success and reform. It is a CCCSE partner (contributing to the Making Ends Meet report) and an ecosystem peer — both organizations influence community college improvement practice, though ATD operates via coaching and grants rather than survey administration.
• Community College Research Center (CCRC): CCRC at Columbia University's Teachers College is a leading research center studying community college student outcomes, with reports such as 'More Essential Than Ever' that CCCSE's crosswalk tools align to. CCRC is an adjacent research peer rather than a direct competitor, but its research frameworks heavily shape CCCSE's product positioning.
• National Student Clearinghouse Research Center: The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center publishes national data on enrollment, completion, and student persistence in higher education. It serves the same community college decision-maker (institutional researchers, presidents, state systems) and is referenced alongside CCCSE data in student success policy discussions.

Emerging players

• Anthology (Campus Labs): Anthology's Campus Labs suite (formerly Campus Labs) provides student engagement, retention, and outcomes assessment platforms for higher education. It competes in adjacent functional areas to CCCSE surveys and could be bundled into enterprise student-success contracts at community colleges.
• Watermark: Watermark provides student success and assessment software for higher education, including course evaluation, faculty activity reporting, and outcomes assessment. It is an emerging player that competes with CCCSE for institutional effectiveness budgets, especially as colleges consolidate vendors onto integrated platforms.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/CCCSEVideo
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-center-for-community-college-student-engagement-at-the-university-of-texas-at-austin

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about The Center for Community College Student Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin