While all students encounter difficulties in transitioning to college, the experience is more pronounced for first-generation college students (Terenzini, Springer, Yaeger, Pascarella, & Nora, 1996). Definitions of "first-generation college student" differ across scholarly studies. Understanding this population's gains in critical…

In the United States, higher education institutions assess the impact of program- level educational experiences through the process of program-level student learning outcomes assessment. The final step of the assessment cycle is to use assessment interpretations to make changes to educational programming. Nevertheless, few programs can demonstrate…

Using survey data collected from 269 participants in the fall of 2016 and the spring of 2017, this study examines whether any changes might have occurred within the last 20 years regarding the disciplinary affiliation of honors administrators. Additionally, we explored current assessment practices of honors administrators and possible associations…

St. John's University (NY) undertook a process to reevaluate its mission and strategic priorities. This collaborative process resulted in a document, "Repositioning the Strategic Plan," that served as something of a placeholder between St. John's prerecession and post-recession strategic plans. This "Repositioning" document…

At the centre of a student's university experience stands the programme that they follow. Therefore, creating curricula that are fit-for-purpose is at the heart of an institution's teaching mission. These curricula need to be relevant for students during their time at university, as well as serve as suitable preparation for their future…

The linkages between interventions and outcomes of leadership initiatives have been insufficiently studied. To better understand these links, the Virginia agricultural leadership program conducted a pathway mapping session to investigate the program's theory of change. In this novel process, program participants engaged in collaborative…

The aim of the 15 collaborative projects conducted during the new funding phase of the German research program Modeling and Measuring Competencies in Higher Education--Validation and Methodological Innovations (KoKoHs) is to make a significant contribution to advancing the field of modeling and valid measurement of competencies acquired in higher…

Assessment of student learning outcomes (SLOs) has become increasingly important in higher education. Meaningful assessment (i.e., assessment that leads to the improvement of student learning) is impossible without faculty engagement. We argue that one way to elicit genuine faculty engagement is to embrace the disciplinary differences when…

Performance and productivity have become central goals in higher education reforms since the 1970s. The implications are more or less straightforward when it comes to teaching and research; academic staff should teach and publish more, while institutions should produce more graduates at a lower cost, and these graduates should quickly find a…

Expanded and increasingly diversified systems of higher education are generally differentiated vertically and/or horizontally. National quality management systems attempt to identify both kinds of differences in quality and standards across their higher education systems. But different quality management systems and processes can pose different…

The JMC Innovation Project recently released its first report, "The 'New' JMC: Creating Cultures of Innovation in Schools of Journalism, Media and Communication," which assessed the scope and status of innovation in schools and colleges of journalism, media and communication (JMC), based on personal interviews with 70 deans and directors…

Academic outcomes assessment in student affairs is integral for both service improvement and demonstrating the unit's value to the university's academic mission. However, identifying the right measures is challenging. We implemented three common measures (pre-post self-reported academic functioning, retrospective perceptions of service impact, and…

Student learning outcomes (SLO) assessment is often perceived as a burdensome, top-down process driven by institutional requirements. Recent research has thus called for discipline-specific models of SLO assessment to more deeply engage postsecondary faculty in determining what constitutes student learning within their programs. In response, this…

This article provides information about the value of a core course in business law and why it remains essential to business education. It goes on to identify highly ranked undergraduate business programs that require one or more business law courses. Using "Business Week" and "US News and World Report" to identify top…

Assessment is a notorious source of preoccupation for faculty and university governing bodies, especially when an institution initiates curricular reforms which shift the programme learning outcomes for knowledge to competencies. One obstacle to acceptance arises from a culture of quantitative assessment (often represented by a single mark), which…