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Survey Instrument

Survey Instrument

The College + University Teaching Environment (CUTE) survey was designed to measure instructional staff (faculty, instructors, graduate students who teach, etc.) perceptions of institutional support for instruction and meeting instructor needs. More specifically, these items collect data about faculty practice, support, needs, and motivations in order to help institutions looking to improve the ways in which they support their faculty as well as promote discussion between higher education scholars working to improve inequities within the professoriate.

Grounded in the College + University Teaching Environment Framework, the CUTE survey focuses on five elements of a faculty environment that impact faculty success and retention:

Processes and Policies
Professional Relationships
Support and Resources
Faculty Emotions
Climate for Diversity

Beginning in 2026, institutions can customize their survey. After a brief core survey, institutions may choose to include any or all of the available content modules. See all available item sets in the table below.

Core Survey Content
Content Name	Core Survey Topics	Classic CUTE25 Item #s	Link to Content Module Items
Core Survey	The core content examines instructional staff's basic psychological teaching needs, the time instructional staff spend on core scholarly activities, and instructional staff's intentions to persist. The core survey also includes social identity demographics and employment characteristics.	#1, #3, #25, #30, #33-#47	Items Codebook

Content Modules for the College + University Teaching Environment Project
Content Module Name	Content Module Topic(s)	Classic CUTE25 Item #s	Link to Content Module Items
Processes + Policies: Balance	This module examines important aspects of instructional staff environments that relate to important outcomes such as persistence and motivation to do their best work. Considerations of balance, whether work-related or related to life outside of work, can be critical for the success of diverse instructional staff.	#2 and #4	Items Codebook
Processes + Policies: Hiring, Tenure, + Promotion	This module examines policies and processes that focus on the evaluation, performance, and hiring of instructional staff. Items explore instructional staff perceptions of review processes (merit, tenure, promotion) and the hiring process including awareness of inappropriate discrimination in either of these processes.	#26-#29	Items Codebook
Professional Relationships: Networks + Mentoring	This module examines the people that shape what aspects of instructional staff work are valued and how professional relationships, mentors, and networks can encourage and support instructional staff. Collegial relationships and support networks are important for the success of diverse instructional staff.	#5, #7, #18, #21	Items Codebook
Professional Relationships: Teaching Culture	This modules examines instructional staff perceptions of the values and commitment that their colleagues, department, and institution have for teaching as well as concerns about difficult situations in their courses.	#6, #9, #12, #32	Items Codebook
Support + Resources: Teaching	This module explores the extent to which instructional staff have the resources they need to do their job well, participation in professional development, and the time they spend on teaching activities.	#10, #11, #31	Items Codebook
Instructional Staff Wellbeing	This module examines aspects of wellbeing such as how much the work of instructional staff reflects their identity and core values as a person, how much mental health has interfered with their ability to succeed in their work, sources of stress, and whether they have a sense of belonging in their department and at their institution.	#8, #22-#24	Items Codebook
Climate for Diversity: Personal	This module examines instructional staff values for creating a positive climate for diversity within their courses. Items additionally explore instructional staff perceptions of their institution’s support for diversity personal experiences with offensive behavior, discrimination, isolation, or harassment.	#13, #14, #17	Items Codebook
Climate for Diversity: Institutional	This module examines instructional staff perceptions of how committed institutional actors are to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Items explore perceptions of structural diversity and institutional commitment to creating a positive climate for diversity.	#15-#16, #19-#20	Items Codebook

Past instruments and codebooks are posted here. View the founding iteration of the framework here.

For information about licensing CUTE items, send a message to cpritems@iu.edu. Use of CUTE items without permission is prohibited.

CUTE 2020

The inaugural 2020 launch of CUTE took on a very different form. As coronavirus cases mounted in the U.S., and colleges and universities started to move their teaching online, the CUTE survey focused on practices in these very specific times. See a facsimile of the 2020 pilot CUTE items as they appeared to instructional staff. The focus of the 2020 CUTE administration examined shifts in teaching practices, what went well, what continued to be a challenge, how faculty chose to adapt, and how that impacted faculty work overall.