The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the different factors that empower young adults that were in foster care to be successful in a college environment. It has been documented that foster youth have significant challenges during secondary education (Conger & Rebeck, 2001; Geenen & Powers, 2006). Due to these challenges,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between engagement indicators and intent to persist of first-year full-time Hispanic students attending public versus private universities. Design/methodology/approach: Metadata from the Your First College Year survey from the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) were selected…

This study investigates international students' life adjustment in Eastern Taiwan by utilizing a questionnaire design. A total of 104 students participated to complete the Life Adjustment Questionnaire. Several predictors (gender, differences in academic majors, and study levels) were studied in this survey. The results revealed seven important…

The risk and protective variables for Latino students' experience of depression, college adjustment, and drop-out intentions were examined. Perceived bicultural competence emerged as a protective factor, and cultural incongruity, negative perceptions of the university environment, and intragroup marginalization emerged as risk factors associated…

This study focused on the relationship between living arrangement (residential vs. commuter) and the academic performance (grade point average) of first-year, full time undergraduate students at one public, 4-year university in the Southeast. Additionally, we analyzed five educationally effective practices as described by the National Survey of…

The struggle for gender equity in Afghanistan has been a long and difficult one under war conditions. Nonetheless, amazing progress has been made both in transforming higher education and in improving the situation for women students and women faculty members over the last few years. What is particularly striking about this effort is the level of…

This qualitative study investigated academic challenges, supports and the role of readiness in academic adaptation of international students. 20 international students were recruited for data collection employing semi-structured interviews. The results showed that three types including academic challenges, socio-cultural challenges and language…

Peer mentorship at colleges and universities is often thought of in the context of formal programs. This paper examines mentorship from an informal lens as the everyday advice students give their peers. This study utilized focus groups to see how students responded to questions their peers asked about their experiences. Four themes emerged that…

This article describes one Syrian student's experience coming to the United States to study at a private research university. Based on his time in the US, Musbah Shaheen asserts that the current practices of working with international students on college campuses contribute to the erosion of international students' cultural belonging. The ability…

Through analyzing critical life stories with Black alumnae from predominantly White institutions, this article offers a narrative, in-depth approach to explore the ways in which alumnae managed and resisted expectations and stereotypes that were placed upon them by peers, faculty, and staff during college. Findings suggested that participants…

This dissertation examines how Black students and workers engaged in movements for racial justice at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1951 to 2018 challenged the University's dominant cultural landscape of white supremacy -- a landscape in direct conflict with the University's mission to be a public university in service to all…

Sense of belonging contributes to academic success, persistence, and self-efficacy among students, and is especially poignant for first-generation students who are less likely to engage socially, intellectually, and academically. Residential spaces provide the ideal environment to examine belongingness among first-generation students because of…

Given that multiple forms of oppression are endemic to higher education, strategies intended to retain queer and trans college students should mirror the strategies of survival and thriving found within queer and trans communities. Fostering and bolstering connections, community, and kinship among queer and trans college students through a lens of…

The article considers the process of creating quality improvement in higher education institutions from the point of view of current organisational theory and social-science modelling techniques. The author considers the higher education institution as a functioning complex of rules, norms and other organisational features and reviews the social…

The author was able to hear Stanley Fish speak at the annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities in January 2004. Fish, a literary critic, had become dean of arts and sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC)--a position he has now vacated. Fish has published widely, usually upholding the ideals of our…