In the last 40 years in much of the western world dropout rates in higher education have remained almost unchanged. Although student retention seems to be the most studied and discussed aspect, nearly every empirical study on the causes of dropout in higher education and even more the impact of retention actions carried out by universities, in…

The purpose of the current study is to shed a light on institutional internationalization efforts and undergraduate students' global learning outcomes in four-year higher education institutions in the United States exploring the topic at the student, institutional, and academic-major levels. Specifically, three research questions lead the study:…

Quantifying undergraduate participation in institutional research activities is challenging. This article describes an approach for estimating student participation in scholarly activities using a parametric model to follow the inflows and outflows of students in terms of classes (first-, second-, third-, and fourth-year students) and to control…

This dissertation's two primary purposes were to construct an alternative socioeconomic status model and estimate how it predicts student success in higher education. This research filled a gap in knowledge about the widely acknowledged disparities in higher education based on socioeconomic status. Prior research has often relied on parental…

Purpose: This paper aims to develop a model of measuring student engagement in a blended-massive open online course (MOOC) context. MOOCs are those that are delivered, usually by leading universities, with a promise to provide free high-quality education to an unlimited number of learners. They offer an opportunity for "blended" course…

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) draws from student feedback to gauge the level of academic challenge at particular institutions (Kuh 2009). Inspired by attempts to understand the implications of NSSE data on other campuses (Payne et al. 2005), a cross-disciplinary research group at our institution developed a multidimensional…

While the importance of institutional mission is acknowledged within the higher education community, there is a lack of empirical evidence investigating how missions are experienced. Using survey data from students and faculty, this study investigates perceptions of mission engagement at religiously affiliated and independent institutions.…

This qualitative, multisite case study used Dee Fink's taxonomy of significant learning as a lens through which to examine the curricular structure, academic practices, and graduate outcomes for honors programs at Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States. Special attention was given to the distinctive quality of Ignatian pedagogy and…

This paper explores a model for developing student and staff partnerships to enhance the quality of teaching and learning and situates the model in literature on student engagement. The model enables staff and students to step outside their normal roles and the traditional student-teacher relationship into a less pre-defined mode of interaction…

In this study the authors analyze longitudinal student survey data from the 17-institution Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education (WNS) to determine the extent that the influence of overall exposure to clear and organized instruction on four-year growth in two measures of cognitive development is mediated by student use of deep approaches…

Concern over the academic talent development of Division I student-athletes has led to increased research to explain variations in their academic performance. Although a substantial amount of attention has been given to the relationship between student-athletes and their levels of academic success, there remain critical theoretical and analytical…

The student populations in colleges and universities in the United States have become more diverse in the students that they serve. It has been argued that disaggregation of student data would allow researchers to test the saliency of student development models. However, there is only a small body of research available on first-year Black male…

Many colleges and universities have a desire to become more student-centered, yet some struggle with establishing what student-centered means to them. Without a clear definition, it is difficult to determine which areas to strengthen in order to become more student-centered. The purpose of this study was to examine results from the National Survey…

Hierarchical linear models (HLM) solve the problems associated with the unit of analysis problem such as misestimated standard errors, heterogeneity of regression and aggregation bias by modeling all levels of interest simultaneously. Hierarchical linear modeling resolves the problem of misestimated standard errors by incorporating a unique random…

This article describes the Science Research Workshop Program (SRW) and discusses how it provides students a legitimate science experience. SRW, which is funded by the National Science Foundation, is an apprenticeship-style program in which students write proposals requesting resources to research an original question. The program creates a…