"Deep learning" represents student engagement in approaches to learning that emphasize integration, synthesis, and reflection. Because learning is a shared responsibility between students and faculty, it is important to determine whether faculty members emphasize deep approaches to learning and to assess how much students employ these approaches.…

Affirmative action in college admissions is based on the premise that a diverse student body contributes to interactions among students from different backgrounds, which are in turn positively related to desirable outcomes of college. This study evaluates the merits of this rationale for affirmative action by examining the direct and indirect…

This study examines the relationships between participating in learning communities and student engagement in a range of educationally purposeful activities of first-year and senior students from 365 4-year institutions. The findings indicate that participating in a learning community is positively linked to engagement as well as student…

This study compared the experiences of women attending women's colleges with those of women attending coeducational institutions. Analyses of data from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) from random samples of female first-year and senior students from 26 women's colleges and 264 other four-year institutions were conducted. Women at…

Studies of the relationships between higher education expenditures and student outcomes are relatively rare. The present research examined the relationships between higher education expenditures and students' engagement in educationally purposeful activities. Findings indicate that the relationships between expenditures and student engagement are…

The impact of out-of-class experiences on outcomes of college attendance considered important by students were studied through interviews with 149 seniors at 12 colleges and universities. Fourteen categories of learning and personal development were identified. Results demonstrate the importance of experiences beyond the classroom. (SLD)

The Carnegie classification system has served as a framework for research on colleges and universities for more than 30 years. Today, the system's developers are exploring criteria that more effectively differentiate among institutions. One approach being considered is classifying institutions based on students' educational experiences. This study…

This study compared college seniors' self-evaluation of skills considered important for lifelong learning from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. The study used data from the College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CSEQ), a national database begun in 1983 which includes over 200,000 student records from over 600 colleges and universities. An index…