To this day, Columbia College maintains one of the most robust liberal arts curricula among the tertiary education landscape, an institutional decision that has been both lauded and denounced by students, professors, and cultural critics alike. As this dissertation examines, high tensions from all angles largely stem from the Core Curriculum's…

Despite legislation being consistently passed to support post-secondary outcomes for students with disabilities, year after year since the completion of "The National Longitudinal Transition Studies," national employment statistics continually demonstrate that implementation of intentions is wanting. A large percentage --50-60%-- of…

Within the context of higher education, HBCUs are more specifically known, due to their controversial origin, for having mission and vision statements that broadly imply attending this particular institutional type will aid its students in their civic development. However, despite the vast literature on civic engagement and college students,…

The gap between skilled workers needed and skilled workers available increased since the start of the fourth industrial revolution. Employees now need different knowledge, skills, and abilities to enter the workforce and stay current with new technologies than they did in the past. One way this knowledge gap and skilled worker shortage could be…

This study was guided by Astin's Student Involvement theory which explored student's needs in a demanding program amongst 12 pre-pharmacy students at the University of the Pacific. This qualitative study looked to uncover the engagement, experiences, and support of pre-pharmacy students in order to learn what students want from their learning…

The purpose of the study was to examine the required core curriculum and mission statements from the top 50 graduate schools of five different professional healthcare programs [occupational therapy (OT), physical therapy (PT), nursing, speech-language pathology, and audiology programs]. The research questions were: 1) Do healthcare program…

The State of Texas started an educational endeavour called the Texas Common Curriculum in 1987 which was structured to ascertain and require that all graduates from Texas institutions of higher learning, who received a baccalaureate degree from a public college or university, would be required to successfully finish the state's general education…

In response to the rising cost of higher education, as well as the average time of six years to obtain a 4-year bachelor's degree, lawmakers, educators, and students have turned to credit-based collegiate programs as a potential solution. Dual credit is the most popular means to accumulate college credits at a lower cost. The body of research is…

Study abroad has been a part of the curricular and co-curricular programming of higher education since 1875. Yet, despite the long history, a literature search revealed that study abroad is the least examined of the high impact practices (HIPs) related to engagement theory. Further, despite its promise as a retention strategy, study abroad has…

In the early years of the 21st century, general education programs in U.S. postsecondary institutions stand at the center of multiple competing pressures, from demands for accountability to calls for increasing assurances of articulation across institutions. Complicating potential responses to these normative pressures is the challenge inherent in…

In the last two decades, technology use has escalated and educators grapple with its advances and integration into the classroom. Issues surrounding what constitutes a literate society, the clarion calls for educational reform emanating from US presidents to parent teacher organizations, and educators' ability to cope with advances in technology…

Many universities have instituted global education programs to prepare their students for the demands of living in a global society; yet, little information exists about the effectiveness of these programs from the participants' perspectives. At the local level, a liberal arts university has not undertaken an assessment of its global learning…

Articulation agreements were created to make transferring from a state-supported community college to a state-supported university a smoother process while reducing the higher education costs for the state. This ex-post facto study examined the relationship between the pathway North Carolina community college students used to complete the general…

The purpose of this study was to describe the structure of general education curricula at baccalaureate colleges of health science in relationship to Bergquist's Career-Based Model of curriculum. Using an explanatory sequential mixed methods approach, the model was tested by examining whether the curricula were both prescriptive and specific.…

Online learning environments have been embraced by many institutions, faculty, and students as a viable adult learning option to the traditional face-to-face learning environment. As this mode of delivery for instruction continues to grow in acceptance, it is important to understand the characteristics of adult learners, the historical progression…