Considering the ubiquity, large volume of similar courses, and the huge cost of a course, it becomes imperative to understand factors affecting MOOCs course enrolments. This paper aims to investigate how the home page elements of a MOOC influence students' enrolments. The elements in the home page include course category, course description, team…

Private master's comprehensive institutions (PMCIs) in the United States navigate pressures to expand college access and equity while striving for prestige in the academic hierarchy. To strive for prestige entails competing for world-class status of greater selectivity, research intensity and resources, but such a pathway to excellence may,…

Meeting today's prospective college students where they are is key to staying ahead of current enrollment challenges. Understanding which messages resonate with which students and at certain parts of the enrollment funnel helps to ensure institutions are getting the right message, to the right student, at the right time in their journey. By…

Understanding students' college enrollment decisions is critical because the admission outcome can affect the school's quality and its reputation. In this paper, we study how students consider their relative academic ability compared to their potential peers. Drawing from social comparison theory, we posit that there are asymmetric effects due to…

The Chancellor of the Oklahoma state system of higher education has focused on two overarching objectives: expanding workforce development efforts and creating paths to a better life for Oklahomans. Oklahoma public institutions and elected officials are partners in developing an educated, engaged workforce prepared to meet the state's current and…

This annual report contains the following sections: (1) Role of the State Regents; (2) Higher Education Update; (3) State System Fast Facts; (4) Affordability; (5) Key Initiatives; (6) Enrollment; (7) Outcomes; (8) Workforce Development; and (9) Institutional Highlights. The strength of Oklahoma's public higher education system shows in enrollment…

Accreditation can serve as an accountability mechanism for higher education, ensuring institutions meet specific standards, which can be impacted by various factors including the regulatory environment of each country or local jurisdiction as well as an institution's mission, enrollment, and student success trends. In addition, higher education…

Colleges and universities face pressure to maintain enrollments in a time of demographic shifts in the college-going population and reductions in state funding. One indicator of successfully maintaining enrollments is the percentage of accepted students who matriculate--the enrollment yield. Factors known to contribute to yield include school…

This narrative inquiry qualitative study analyzed eleven community cultural wealth (CCW) capitals (cultural strength and assets) to determine whether they were utilized by first generation Mexican American students to thrive in their trajectories from high school to elite universities. The 11 explored capitals--"academic,"…

Scholars have shown that low socioeconomic status (SES) students are less likely to study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects and to attend prestigious universities. However, they have overlooked the intersection between subject choice (STEM or non-STEM) and institutional prestige. Analyzing data from the Longitudinal…

Many regional public universities (RPUs) provide college access to diverse groups of undergraduate students and face pressures to pursue prestige in the academic hierarchy. Prior research posits that RPUs will strive for prestige because of status- and resource-based rewards that flow from increasing their admissions selectivity,…

Studies on the cyclicality of higher education examine the relationship between variations in labor market conditions and changes in enrollment. While the majority of the existing literature implicitly assumes an elastic supply of enrollment, this study identifies institutions with supply constraints and investigates how those constraints have…

Social media platforms provide prospective international students with ready access and exposure to information relevant to international higher education institutions and their respective brand images. We examined the extent to which social media engagement and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) activities shape prospective students' perceived brand…

Despite occupying a central position in contemporary U.S. higher education discourse, empirical research on administrative costs is limited. The purpose of this study was to extend existing research on administrative spending in higher education by empirically examining whether recently shifting to research university status in the Carnegie…

In this article, I draw on interviews with teachers and administrators at a secondary neighborhood public school in Washington, DC about their perceptions of how the school is viewed by external stakeholders and the impact of those perceptions within an urban education market. Extant empirical research on market forces and effects has not…