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The relevance of student evaluation of teaching (SET) for both development of individual teaching as well as for institutional quality management in higher education (HE) contexts has been investigated in numerous studies. However, how educators incorporate students' feedback into their teaching, especially in the case of negative evaluations, depends on how educators perceive and deal with students' feedback. To address this issue, we conducted an experimental vignette study to document how university teachers (N = 107) respond to negative SET at cognitive, emotional, and behavioral levels. Further, we varied the focus (student- vs. teacher-oriented) and the content (learning outcomes, interest in course, and learning activities) of feedback messages in the vignettes. Our results show that students' negative feedback, especially concerning learning outcomes, evoked predominantly negative emotions of sadness or anxiety in HE teachers. Further, participants perceived the students' negative feedback as moderately unstable and as to some extent limited within their control. Student-oriented negative comments regarding students' interest in course or students' engagement in learning activities were interpreted as more trustworthy and valid than negative feedback on teacher-focused characteristics related to the educators' instructional competences. On average the participants indicated higher approach tendencies than avoidance tendencies after receiving students' negative feedback. Finally, how HE teachers perceived and dealt with negative SET was linked to teachers' perceived value of students' feedback. Our findings underline the importance of incorporating more student-focused elements into SET and introducing activities that assist HE teachers in handling negative feedback within the SET process.

Evidence-based and student-centered instructional methods hold the promise of transforming undergraduate STEM education and simultaneously solving the dual challenge of STEM workforce needs and inequities within STEM. The Learning Assistant (LA) Model was created to reform curriculum, recruit teachers, and inform discipline-based education research. Numerous studies have shown positive impacts on students and Learning Assistants (LAs) in terms of retention and pass rates, learning outcomes, attitudinal shifts, and emotional support. Several studies have explored demographic differences and found that LAs help close the gap in retention rates for women and first-generation students. While short-term effects have been well documented, the long-term effects on students' college retention and completion rates have not been widely studied. We gathered information about LA-adopting institutions identified on the Learning Assistant Alliance website and from individual higher education institutions' websites. Combining this information with the College Scorecard Database for four-year U.S. institutions allows us to examine student retention and graduation rates after these institutions have adopted the LA model and look for differences in both the student and university characteristics included in the dataset. We are interested in determining if there is a difference between LA-adopting and non-LA-adopting institutions in terms of their student outcomes. These LA-adopting institutions have larger enrollments and are more likely to award graduate degrees. Students in LA-adopting institutions are more likely to be younger with lower percentages of females, first generation, and Black students. No significant differences in the percentages of Hispanic students or in the average costs per student were observed in our study. Using regression analysis, we find LA-adopting institutions have significantly higher retention and completion rates. Since LA-adopting institutions have different characteristics than non-LA institutions, these differences should be considered in future studies examining the impact of the LA model. After controlling for these differences in our study, we find that institutions with the LA model have 4 to 15 percentage points higher college completion rate and they have better outcomes for Hispanic and Black students. These findings suggest that increasing the adoption of the LA model may contribute to reducing inequity in STEM.

Study abroad comes with challenges, yet it is not clear how language proficiency may longitudinally predict students' social engagement and well-being. Recent changes in international student demographics, including age decreases and increased international school backgrounds, may also affect students' well-being. This study views language as a culturally specific symbolic tool that serves cognitive, social, and emotional interactions, both interpersonal and intrapersonal. By surveying 387 international students from 14 U.S. universities over 1.5 years, this study explored the role of English proficiency in facilitating students' adaptability to psychosocial challenges and well-being. The findings suggested that both English proficiency and prior-to-admission second language educational experience predict well-being, while the latter may have afforded more nonacademic adjustment to international students' continuous social engagement. In addition, the onset of social engagement and sense of belonging showed a likely importance which highlights the value of pre-study-abroad programming for facilitating international students' continuous social engagement.

In Spring 2020, colleges across the nation swiftly transitioned their operations--including both classes and student support services--to remote delivery on an emergency basis in response to the crisis posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. While prior research has documented that the transition was associated with decrements in student outcomes, there remains limited understanding of the organizational factors that might have mitigated these negative associations during the pandemic. Drawing on administrative data from the California Community College system, along with a novel survey conducted among distance education leaders, our study reveals that the degree of declines in course completion and course passing rates varied based on pre-COVID online education resources (such as the ratio of distance education personnel to students and the availability of pre-COVID professional development programs in online learning): Colleges with greater pre-COVID online resources experienced more modest declines in student performance. To a lesser extent, we also found that declines in student performance during the onset of the pandemic varied depending on the responses implemented in reaction to the pandemic, such as the extent of technology delivery to students. The implications of our findings extend to the realm of planning for the continuity of operations in potential future crises.

Many students who enter college do not finish, reflecting numerous academic, financial, and social barriers to postsecondary completion. Success Boston Coaching (SBC) provides students in the Greater Boston area with coaching during their first 2 years of college to help them overcome barriers to postsecondary completion and connect them to supports at their campuses and in their communities. We estimate the differences between SBC and comparison students with respect to students' postsecondary completion rates 4, 5, and 6 years after they initially enroll in postsecondary education. Using administrative outcome data from the National Student Clearinghouse and 11 institutions of higher education in the Greater Boston area, we follow coached students and a matched group of similar noncoached students up to 6 years after their initial enrollment. Relative to noncoached students, SBC students had associate's degree completion rates that were 85 percent higher after 4 years, 44 percent higher after 5 years, and 63 percent higher after 6 years. SBC students also completed bachelor's degrees within 5 years at a 12 percent higher rate than their noncoached peers. Results suggest that coaching that offers comprehensive, personalized, and regularly occurring support to students is associated with higher completion rates, especially for students pursuing associate's degrees. Additional efforts to directly remove barriers that students face may help more students graduate.

As college tuition rises nationwide, policy efforts to reduce these costs are increasingly focused at the 2-year level. However, it is not fully known whether increased access to college increases degree attainment. Compared to observationally equivalent peers who enroll in 4-year institutions, 2-year enrollees may face a decreased likelihood of BA receipt. Using data from the Education Longitudinal Study, this paper examines the long-term academic outcomes for full-time, bachelor's degree intending students who initially enroll at public 2-year institutions. I examine the impact of initial community college enrollment on degree attainment, credit accumulation, and student loan debt using multiple identification strategies. I utilize a series of linear probability models (LPM) and an instrumental variable (IV) approach that exploits variation in the cost of and proximity to 2- and 4-year institutions. These strategies estimate the impact of initial community college enrollment by comparing identical students regarding demographics and academic ability, in which one student enrolls in a 2-year school and another in a 4-year institution. I find that initial 2-year enrollment reduces the likelihood of bachelor's degree attainment by 14 (LPM) to 35 (IV) percentage points but reduces student loan accrual by nearly $7500. Understanding the impact of initial 2-year enrollment is especially important as there is increased pressure on community colleges to play a role in providing pathways to BA receipt. Understanding the effect of community college enrollment can help secondary and postsecondary institutions and policymakers better provide pathways to baccalaureate attainment.

Given a myriad of recent contemporary challenges graduate students are facing as well as long-standing issues with student attrition, there is a pressing need to reexamine models of doctoral student progress. While existing research commonly examines departure or failure to meet milestones as the outcome of interest, by the time students leave their programs, it is too late for faculty or departments to offer meaningful interventions. Drawing from Girves and Wemmerus's conceptual framework for doctoral student degree progress, we leverage more recent literature to propose and test an adapted conceptual framework among a recent nationwide sample of computing doctoral students in the United States. Findings illuminate the importance of psychosocial factors (e.g., sense of belonging, researcher self-efficacy), positive perceptions of departmental community, and the role of faculty advisors in reducing doctoral students' consideration of departure. Implications for departmental efforts and faculty advising practices that can honor students' agency and identity in the computing Ph.D. process and that may affect change in doctoral education are discussed.

The progressive robotisation and the introduction of artificial intelligence imply economic and social changes. In this paper, we investigate their impact on the occupations of recent Spanish graduates and examine how graduates with different skills can expect their occupations to be transformed by the digital era. To this end --using a three-step approach--we first map occupations in terms of the level of the transformative and destructive effects of digitalization, and determine which groups are most threatened. Second, we characterize the technological occupational groups according to dimensions related to worker and job requirements, such as abilities, skills and tasks performed. Finally, we explore the influence of educational background on the probability of belonging to each group. The analysis relies on three data sources--the main one being microdata from the Survey on Labour Market Insertion of University Graduates (EILU-2019)--which provide exhaustive information about students' education and training during and after their degree. Results show that only about 15% of graduates hold jobs that have a high probability of being replaced by machines over the next 10--20 years, although a significant number will still face changes in their occupations that will affect skill requirements. Graduates working in these occupations will need a high level of flexibility if they are to adjust to rapid changes and not be displaced. Moreover, certain features of students' academic background --such as the field of study or more formal education-- play a key role and offer some tips to mitigate possible disruptions in graduate employability.

Gender disparities persist in postsecondary computing fields, despite improvements in postsecondary equity overall and STEM fields as an aggregate. The entrenchment of this issue requires a comprehensive, longitudinal lens. Building on expectancy-value theory, the present study examines the relationships among students' gender-ability stereotypes, attainment values, course-taking, and major choices. Using data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS: 2009), we applied weighted t-tests and multiple-group structural equation modeling to investigate how motivational beliefs (i.e., gender-ability stereotypes, attainment values) and course-taking patterns in math and science may predict major choice in computing. Overall, we find gender differences in identity-based mathematics and science motivational beliefs have long-term effects. Gender-ability stereotypes in math and science shape attainment values in each domain, whereby stereotypes suppress girls' attainment values and enhance boys? attainment values (p < 0.001), in turn shaping course-taking and major decisions. Math- and science-related motivational and curricular factors affect "other" STEM more than computing major outcomes. Specifically, computer science course-taking is completed more by boys (d = 0.21), but girls' chances of declaring computing majors are especially enhanced by completing these courses in high school. Advanced science course-taking and science attainment value positively predict boys' but not girls' likelihood of declaring computing majors. We discuss the implications of these findings for research, policy, and practice.

While girls have better grades than boys in high school, this does not translate into better performance of young women, as compared to young men, in university. Due to the high signalling value of university grades for subsequent income and employment outcomes, this has important consequences for gender inequalities at labour market entry. However, previous studies have not yet examined the potential barriers that might limit women's ability to maintain their previous academic achievement at the university level. Drawing on the nation-wide Student Survey, this study addresses this shortcoming by investigating perceived discrimination against women and perceived competition among students as two potential correlates. Our findings first confirm that while girls have better grades in high school than boys, this has reversed at the university level. Further, high school grades are less strongly correlated with university grades for girls compared to boys. Our results highlight that young women perceive there to be more discrimination against women as well as higher levels of competition within their field of study, than do their male peers. The study further demonstrates that an increased level of perceived discrimination is strongly associated with lower university performance for young women, thereby plausibly hindering their ability to reach their full academic potential.

The COVID-19 pandemic initially placed college and university instruction into an emergency remote mode. The subsequent periods of the pandemic presented new challenges. This paper examines changes in faculty work lives in the immediate aftermath of the onset of the pandemic and reports on results from surveys of faculty at three selective liberal arts colleges in 2020 and again in 2021. Specifically, we investigate faculty experiences with work strain. Drawing on job demands-resources theory, we develop an analytic framework that examines the effects of status resources (gender, race, and tenure), work domain demands and resources (teaching and research resources, student demands, emotional labor demands, and scholarship demands), and home and family demands (caregiving). Our findings suggest that work strain was elevated in both periods and that only tenure among the status resources predicted less strain. We show that the sources of elevated strain shifted from teaching and research demands in the initial phase of the pandemic to emotional labor demands during the first full academic year of it.

Undergraduate research, recognized as one of the High-Impact Practices (HIPs), has demonstrated a positive association with diverse student learning outcomes. Understanding the pivotal quality factors essential for its efficacy is important for enhancing student success. This study evaluates the psychometric properties of survey items employed to gauge the quality of undergraduate research, including alignment with Kuh and O'Donnell's (2013) eight HIP characteristics, alongside assessments of reliability, validity, and generalizability across demographic groups. The study assesses the validity and reliability of these measures at both the scale and item levels using data from the National Survey of Student Engagement's (NSSE) HIP Quality Topical Module. The methodological approaches employed include Exploratory Factor Analysis, Parallel Analysis, Item Response Theory, and Differential Item Functioning (DIF). Our findings uncover a misalignment between NSSE's HIP Quality module items and HIP characteristics, leading to the identification of seven subscales instead of eight. Nevertheless, four subscales--Reflective and Integrative Learning, Real-World Applications, Interactions with Others, and High-Performance Expectations--emerge as valid indicators of undergraduate research experiences. While specific items yield valuable insights at the item level, refinement is recommended for others. Despite the identification of two items exhibiting DIF, their negligible effect sizes suggest that major revisions are unwarranted solely on DIF grounds. This study offers recommendations for item refinement, including the incorporation of new items, wording updates, and tailored utilization of assessment tools within educational institutions. These recommendations are intended to empower educators and researchers to effectively capture the quality dimensions of students' undergraduate research experiences, thereby fostering their academic success.

This paper compares the employment outcomes of liberal arts graduates from Dutch university colleges with those of their peers who pursued conventional, subject-specific bachelor's degrees. Using data from the Dutch National Alumni Survey, the analysis includes 14,933 respondents who completed a master's programme at a research university, with 210 of them holding a university college degree. Logistic, multinomial, and OLS regression analyses were performed on six labour market outcomes: employment status, time to first paid job, vertical match, horizontal match, vertical and horizontal match combination, and hourly wage from regular work. Propensity score matching was used as a robustness check. The results show that holding a university college degree is not associated with any distinct advantages or disadvantages in the job market. While a liberal arts bachelor's degree has a negative effect on obtaining employment in STEM professions, no statistically significant differences, neither negative nor positive, were found in other outcomes. This suggests that university colleges do not lack the capacity to prepare students for the labour market.

Recent reports show that low-income students make up a significant share of those participating in higher education, and their well-being constitutes a key factor that influences their college success. This mixed-methods study examined first-year, low-income students' time use and its relationship to well-being framed by an equity-oriented lens that recognizes the time constraints low-income students navigate. Our mixed methods findings identified the link between time use and well-being and--critically--empirical explanations for these links. First, leveraging a unique experience sampling survey design and multilevel analyses, we found that attending class, studying or doing homework, and working for pay were consistently and adversely related to low-income students' well-being. Low-income students who were also first-generation in college fared worse than continuing-generation students when engaging in these experiences. On the other hand, socializing was positively related to low-income students' well-being. Second, an exploration of longitudinal data from hundreds of student interviews illuminated two primary factors that shaped the relationship between low-income students' time use and well-being: (a) structuring time and developing a routine, and (b) the power of reflection and meaning-making. These findings provide important novel insights about low-income students' college experiences and the relationship between their time use and well-being, and offer crucial guidance for educators on how to support low-income students' well-being as they navigate college.

Do older community college students build momentum toward graduation differently than their younger peers? One-third of students in community colleges are 25 years of age or older, and these students tend to have lower rates of graduation than their younger peers. Yet, we know little about how the factors that influence college graduation differ across the wide range of ages found among community college students. Using multilevel statistical models to analyze data for Ohio's community colleges, we investigate how the relationships between early academic momentum and the likelihood of completing a postsecondary credential vary by age. We disaggregate results by gender in light of prior evidence of differences in the educational experiences and outcomes of adult men and women. The measures of momentum, all observed in the first year in community college, include credits earned, credit success rate, enrollment continuity, passing college-level math, and passing college-level English. The college graduation outcomes, observed over six years, include earning a postsecondary certificate, earning an associate degree from a community college, and earning a baccalaureate degree from a four-year institution. We find some differences and some similarities in how older and younger students build momentum toward a postsecondary credential, and how these patterns differ for men and women, revealing fruitful opportunities to strengthen the outcomes of older students.

Administrative burden, or the frictions individuals experience in accessing public programs, has implications for whether and which eligible individuals receive aid. While prior research documents barriers to accessing federal financial aid, less is known about the extent to which state aid programs impose administrative burden, how administrative burden varies across aid programs, or how administrative burden relates to target populations. This study examines administrative burden in 23 state aid programs in Tennessee. We find programs targeting less-advantaged students (technical and community college students) had lower burdens than programs where aid could be used in the four-year sector or across sectors. The state's only program explicitly targeting racially minoritized students had a significantly higher burden than other aid programs. Programs targeting more-advantaged students (merit-aid programs, students at four-year colleges and universities) had similar burdens relative to other programs. We discuss implications for designing more equitable and effective state aid programs.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought abrupt changes to teaching that caused increased stress amid an already difficult time. Whether teaching remote, hybrid, or in-person, university faculty were expected to continue teaching throughout the pandemic, despite personal challenges at home. In addition, there were expectations that faculty show greater levels of compassion towards their students. Multiple articles brought attention to these struggles and questioned whether university faculty might be experiencing compassion fatigue--a state of emotional exhaustion brought on by secondary traumatic stress and characterized by a reduced capacity for empathy. Using data from a larger, longitudinal qualitative study of faculty members' experiences during the pandemic, the present study aims to understand faculty experiences of emotional labor and compassion fatigue during this time. Unsurprisingly, most participants reported an increase in emotional labor during the early pandemic; however, roughly one in four described their emotional labor loads as unchanged or even decreased. In those cases, participants often described active disengagement practices in the workplace, or methods of "guarding one's time." Overall, compassion fatigue was less evident than anticipated, but there were identifiable signs of burnout among participants. This finding alone suggests a need for additional research to better conceptualize and operationalize the two terms.

Despite decades of national efforts to increase students' participation and success in STEM, bachelor's degrees in STEM continue to notably lag the labor force demand. Asian students represent one group that disproportionately contributes to the share of STEM degrees. Understanding their experiences can help to illuminate ways of increasing STEM success overall. This study focuses on two research questions: (1) How do Asian women and men fare compared to their White counterparts regarding two outcomes: STEM major preference and STEM degree attainment? (2) How do a host of academic and psycho-social factors contribute to the observed gender-race differences in the two outcomes? Analyses from Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 indicate that compared to White men, Asian men are more likely to prefer a STEM major, whereas Asian women are less likely to do so. However, Asian women are more likely to prefer a STEM major than White women. The Asian-White differences within each gender group are fully explained, albeit through distinct mechanisms for men and women. When it comes to STEM degree attainment, there are no differences between Asians of both genders and White men. However, White women have a lower likelihood of pursuing STEM degrees compared to White men, even after considering a host of mediators. The findings reveal different mechanisms that contribute to the observed differences and highlight the importance of simultaneously considering race and gender for understanding inequalities in STEM education.

A little less than half of the students of higher Ed institutions in the US graduate in four years, and only around 60% finish in six years. Retention rates are also less than ideal. Colleges have been experimenting with a variety of programs and policies to address this issue, especially less selective institutions whose rates are significantly lower. In this paper, we evaluate a student success and retention program called Early Alert that was implemented at a public state university in the US with a medium-to-large student body. Our dataset contains several years' worth of information on students' socio-demographic characteristics, class standing and average grades (GPAs), as well as their midterm and final grades in undergraduate courses. We employ several causal inference techniques developed for observational studies and elicit negative average treatment effects on the treated (ATT). Since it is conceivable that unobserved confounders are the real drivers of our empirical results, not the treatment, we carry out two different types of sensitivity analyses. Together with our treatment effect estimations, they lead us to the main conclusion that Early Alert does not improve student performance, at least not in the short run (as measured by course performance), and likely has a negligible impact.

Existing qualitative research in higher education on students' work and family commitments already suggests that time as a resource for college is likely not distributed equitably by race/ethnicity or gender. However, the relationship between race/ethnicity, gender, and time as a resource for college has yet to be quantitatively measured in large-scale higher education research. This study explored whether gender or race/ethnicity correlated with differences in time as a resource for college; and further, the extent to which differences in time as a resource for college may be explained by other factors such as age, number of children, and access to childcare. Retrospective survey responses (n = 41,579) on self-reported time use were merged with institutional data records from students at the City University of New York (CUNY), a large diverse public university in the U.S. Women, Black, and Hispanic students were all significantly more time poor than male, White, or Asian students. Age accounted for significant portions of these differences, perhaps because it correlates with increased work and family responsibilities. Having children as well as a student's access to childcare also explained a significant portion of inequitable distributions of time as a resource for college.

U.S. higher education institutions are adjusting their faculty hiring to respond to the demands of an increasingly diverse racial and ethnic student population. However, it is not always clear whether specific faculty policies are intended to address the matter of diversity or representation--two similar but qualitatively different concepts. Essentially, the policy choices that institutions make result in different implementation approaches and long-term outcomes. Using data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from 2001 to 2021, this study measures and compares the changes in faculty diversity and student-faculty representation in U.S. higher education institutions over the past two decades. It then develops several simulated scenarios to project the future racial and ethnic landscape of American campuses, depending on the different policy choices that institutions make through their hiring and retention policies. Our recommendation calls for balanced efforts in the retention and hiring of minoritized and underrepresented faculty, adapted to the individual circumstances of institutions.

Longstanding disparities in four-year transfer rates for Black/African American and Latinx/Hispanic community college students, relative to their Asian and white peers, raise important equity questions about the vertical transfer function in the U.S. higher education system. Using data from one of the nation's largest and most racially and ethnically diverse community college systems, we examined whether differences in early academic momentum (e.g., first-year cumulative GPA, summer enrollment, number of first-year credits attempted and earned) were a root cause of gaps in transfer outcomes between different racial and ethnic groups. Multi-group structural equation modeling (SEM) results revealed a strong relationship between early academic momentum and vertical transfer success for community college students. However, the results showed academic momentum did not operate in the same manner for all racial and ethnic groups and some indicators were particularly important for improving transfer outcomes for Black/African American and Latinx/Hispanic students. These results have important implications for community college research and practice pertinent to vertical transfer outcomes.

Gendered field-of-study choice is a lively topic of discussion. The explanation usually given for the fact that women are still an exception in typically 'male' fields--particularly STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)--employs domain-specific stereotypes regarding men's and women's 'natural' abilities in different fields. The central argument of our study is that domain-specific gender stereotypes help explain why few women "enter" such fields; however, they are not necessarily the driving forces behind the finding that female students who "chose" typically male subjects have weaker academic self-concepts than their male peers. If it were only domain-specific gender stereotypes that influence students' perceptions of their abilities, we should find the opposite result in typically female fields of study and no differences in gender-mixed fields. Because existing studies often focus on the male-dominated STEM domain alone, research may have drawn the wrong conclusions. By comparing students in male-dominated, female-dominated, and gender-mixed fields of study, we ask: Does gender composition in the field of study matter for gender disparities in college (university) students' academic self-concepts? Using data from 10,425 students in the German National Educational Panel Study, our results suggest that it is not only in male-dominated fields of study that women rate their own abilities to be poorer than men rate theirs; the same is true in female-dominated and gender-mixed fields. Therefore, domain-specific gender stereotypes regarding students' abilities do not (alone) seem to drive gender disparities in STEM students' perception of their own abilities. No matter what academic field we consider, female students generally exhibit weaker academic self-concepts; however, the gap is most pronounced in male-dominated fields.

This study aimed to demonstrate how one university worked to overcome some of the measurement problems associated with legacy student rating instruments through the creation and investigation of a new student rating instrument based on the most current scholarship on teaching and learning. Measurement problems with legacy instruments include asking about consumer satisfaction (including the use of global ratings) rather than directly assessing the quality of teaching, asking students for self-reports of learning, and asking students to make judgments about the internal state of their instructors. A new instrument was created to intentionally reduce these problems. The new instrument and its predecessor were both administered by 54 instructors in 81 classes and completed by 2,013 students. The following semester, the new instrument was administered university-wide including 1,450 instructors, 3,669 classes, and 58,320 students. The findings indicate that the new instrument created by this process is both reliable and valid but does not reflect multidimensionality. There is also no compelling evidence of bias according to gender or race. This work illustrates the process by which new and better instruments might be created and tested in order to replace flawed legacy instruments in higher education.

This study focuses on the potential academic benefit of virtual international exchange for community colleges and the students they enroll through a comparison of virtual exchange and study abroad. Using data from two community colleges in the US Southeast, this study draws upon the notion of socioacademic integration. Specifically, this study theorizes that both virtual exchange and study abroad have a positive relationship with students' academic outcomes given their potential to foster socioacademic integrative moments. However, given the scalability of virtual international exchange, it was expected that these programs are associated with a greater relationship to students' academic outcomes in the aggregate. This study's results generally confirm these expectations, although findings for virtual exchange are less positive compared to study abroad. Results have implications for the establishment and success of both approaches to international education programming at community colleges. The potential for virtual international exchange to reach a larger group of students compared to study abroad, thus having a greater aggregate impact on students' success and outcomes, has key policy implications particularly for community colleges, for which service to the community is an integral component of institutional mission.

Given their lower socioeconomic background and achievement, immigrants and their descendants have been shown to make more ambitious decisions regarding educational transitions. While previous research has extensively analysed transitions within and after compulsory education, research on late transitions is scarce. This study focuses on the secondary effect of ethnic origin in the transition after upper secondary education in Germany, where school leavers decide between vocational education and training and higher education. Based on longitudinal data from the National Educational Panel Study, we first analyse differences by ethnic origin (Turkey, former Soviet Union, Poland, other countries) and immigrant generation (first, second, third generation) net of socioeconomic background and achievement. Compared to those of the ethnic majority, we find increased probabilities of enrolment in higher education for most ethnic groups of the first and second immigrant generation, net of differences in socioeconomic background and achievement. Second, we test four explanatory approaches for secondary ethnic effects (immigrant optimism, relative status maintenance, anticipated discrimination, and information deficits). By employing decomposition analyses for nonlinear regression models, we find that, taken together, the four explanations account for up to half of the ethnic differences in educational choice after upper secondary education. Specifically, increased levels of immigrant optimism and information deficits regarding vocational education explain a substantial share of the ethnic differences among all origin groups. For Turkish immigrants, the motive to maintain relative status in the origin country also contributes to increased enrolment rates in higher education.

Numerous scholars have investigated the determinants of university innovation efficiency. However, the internal governance aspects of universities and their interactions with the external environment are frequently neglected. Therefore, this study, grounded in the framework of embeddedness theory, employed the Stochastic Frontier Analysis method to empirically analyze innovation efficiency in Chinese universities. The results indicated that competitive threats significantly improved university innovation efficiency, whereas bureaucracy and international openness exhibited adverse effects, which were alleviated in regions with greater marketization.

One issue that has received little attention is how students factor distance from home into their decisions about college. In this study, we used data from the Education Longitudinal Survey of 2002 (ELS:02) to examine the distances between a student's home and the colleges to which they applied, and how far from home they enrolled. We focused on how demand- and supply-side factors were related to the distances applied and enrolled. We tested the sensitivity of our findings to alternative ways of measuring the supply of postsecondary education within commuting distance, and identified factors associated with differences between a student's application and enrollment distances. Finally, we used quantile regression analysis to determine if the associations between demand- and supply-side factors and distances applied and enrolled varied along the distance distributions.

Football teams draw the largest crowds of any American collegiate sport, and with them, both positive and negative attention for colleges and universities. Nearly 50 colleges have added the sport recently, but little research has examined the institutional effects of adding a team. Some of these institutions are regional research universities adding the sport as part of broad plans to transform campus identities, while at smaller public and private institutions, adding a football team (with approximately 100 members) appears to be an attempt to boost racial diversity and the number of male students. This study uses difference-in-difference models to find that adding a football team appears to have a significant, but short-term, effect on enrollment and tuition revenue. The long-term effects of adding the sport do not appear to be statistically significant. This raises questions about the costs and benefits of adding football at a time when higher education faces significant challenges attracting students.

Legal education scholars have argued that law schools strategically use Students of Color for enrollment management purposes; they can admit more to meet admission targets, but they should not enroll so many that they need to open new course sections. As law school applications decline, we analyze enrollment panel data reported to the American Bar Association. We find that examining the intersection of race and gender matters for understanding the ways that law schools are strategic about diversity in enrollment management. For each group (e.g., Black women, White men), law schools balance higher enrollment in one year with lower incoming enrollment of that same group in the subsequent year, thereby working against the racial diversification of legal education and the legal profession. In some instances, higher enrollment in one group (e.g., Hispanic women) also leads to higher enrollment in the subsequent year among incoming students with the same race but different gender (e.g., Hispanic men). This analytical approach -- informed by intersectionality -- reveals that differential race x gender patterns would be overlooked in analyses that solely focused on race while not considering gender. Moreover, the results are generally robust across models examining both the number and percentage representation of incoming students. Finally, we find evidence that these balancing dynamics are sometimes more pronounced at law schools with higher median LSAT scores, which are typically most selective. We discuss implications for equity in legal education and future research directions for graduate and professional education.

This study investigates the effect of offering multiple means of representing content, one aspect of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Students across the full range of the dis/ability spectrum all too often struggle to achieve course success. UDL-based course design promises to help students with disabilities (whether disclosed or not) as well as help all students, but research is needed to verify UDL's specific benefits for student learning outcomes. This study aims to better understand the efficacy of representing course content using multiple means, which is one aspect of UDL pertaining to perception. Data were gathered from over 50 online courses in 14 subjects across the undergraduate curriculum taught with an adaptive learning system at a women's institution. A panel data analysis with almost 200,000 cases of student learning activities investigated the effect of representing content in multiple ways (i.e., text, video, audio, interactive, or mixed content presentation format). When students used multiple modalities, a positive effect was found on student learning measures of knowledge gained within the adaptive system. The results have implications for future UDL-related research, as well as faculty development and curricular design.

This investigation explores gender differences in faculty research productivity in Chinese research-oriented universities. Based on human capital theory and a work-family conflict research framework, this investigation identifies potential variables that influence faculty research productivity. These variables include academic experience, family responsibility, and work-family conflict. Drawing on a representative sample of faculty at the early academic career stage (N = 1013) from China's research universities, this investigation finds a significant gender gap in faculty research productivity. Male faculty have significantly higher research productivity than female faculty. Compared to family-related variables, academic experience-related variables such as research time investment, hosting of national-level research projects, and research collaboration within and outside of a university can positively predict research productivity. Work-family conflict negatively influences faculty research productivity and plays a mediating role in the effects of academic experience variables on research productivity. The findings of this investigation advocate for gender equality policies in Chinese research universities in aid of female faculty. This investigation offers recommendations from the perspective of both female faculty and academic institutions.

Recent research on curricular analytics suggests that the structure of a college major may impact major persistence and degree completion. Contributing to this line of research, we propose and test a new measure of the "lived curriculum" that captures the extent to which cohorts within a major take the same exact course-taking path as they advance from matriculation to graduation (or institutional exit). First, we describe variation in path homogeneity across both STEM and non-STEM majors at one public research-intensive institution. Second, we show that a major's level of path homogeneity is correlated with the percentage of "locked" requirements in its stated curriculum, but that the stated curriculum cannot account for all observed differences in path homogeneity. Third, we conduct a correlational analysis of early exposure to path homogeneity and graduation likelihood. Findings show that students with average levels of academic preparation are less likely to graduate if enrolled in path-homogeneous majors compared to more path-heterogeneous (i.e., flexible) majors, and that negative outcomes associated with a path-homogeneous major are exacerbated for students with below-average preparation. Supplemental analyses show that this relationship holds for STEM and non-STEM majors, cannot be explained away by the competitiveness of a major, and that students generally switched from more to less path-homogeneous majors over the course of their college careers. Taken together, these findings urge re-examination of the ways college majors can promote retention.

Scholarship on nonresident enrollment by public research universities has developed in isolation from scholarship on linkages between private high schools and selective private universities. We argue that these literatures are part of a broader story about the competition for students from affluent schools and communities. This manuscript analyzes off-campus recruiting visits to private high schools made by a convenience sample of 15 public research universities and 14 selective private universities. An off-campus recruiting visit indicates a social relationship between a school and a university. Therefore, we utilize social network methods to examine the recruiting networks of public and private universities. With respect to scale (research question 1), universities in our sample made a disproportionate number of visits to private high schools. With respect to overlap (RQ2), simple network analyses and community detection methods reveal substantial overlap in the recruiting networks of public and private universities. RQ3 assesses the characteristics of visited schools. Both public and private universities tended to visit private schools in their home geographic region and also in the South, where private school enrollment growth has been strongest. Visited private schools enroll a much larger share of white students than visited public schools. Surprisingly, several public research universities visited sectarian private high schools at a rate similar to sectarian private universities.

This article explores the interplay between perceived employability (PE), mental health, and equity group membership amongst students at a large public urban university in Australia. The article reports from a study conducted between 2017 and 2022, during which students self-assessed their PE. Differences in PE by equity group membership were assessed using responses to structured fields in the questionnaire (n = 24,329). Custom measures were constructed using student responses to open-ended fields to proxy student wellbeing based on sentiment analysis and mention of mental health or synonymous terms (n = 12,819). Analyses included two-way tests of differences between groups and multivariate analyses considering the effect of equity group membership and mental health concerns on employability beliefs. Results indicate that students with a disability, with English as a second language, or with wellbeing concerns report lower perceived employability. Of all the PE dimensions, academic self-efficacy is most consistently affected by equity group membership and wellbeing concerns. Further, wellbeing concerns are more prevalent for students with disabilities. The findings strengthen support for policy and institutional initiatives focusing on student wellbeing in general but also specifically for equity groups that are already associated with poorer employability beliefs. In particular, students with disabilities appear to have poorer self-esteem and academic self-efficacy and are more likely to have mental health concerns.

This study examines how performance-based funding (PBF) for public four-year institutions in the U.S. is associated with the production of short-term certificates. Results indicate that high-dosage PBF is associated with increases in both the number of short-term certificate programs offered and the number of short-term certificates awarded, even though PBF's incentives for the four-year sector typically focus on bachelor's degree attainment. Given the challenges of improving performance on bachelor's degrees, particularly in the midst of insufficient resources and support, institutions may be turning to certificates as alternative sources of revenue to address the financial uncertainty induced by PBF. The findings shed light on the broader impact of PBF on institutional behavior, beyond those directly relating to formalized performance metrics.

Regional Public Universities (RPUs) advance public good missions to foster postsecondary access, student-centeredness, and regional wellbeing. Despite the important contributions that RPUs make to their regions and students, scholars and the media often view the sector as amorphous and undistinguished, or they define RPUs by what they are not (e.g., elite, selective, community colleges, etc.). This sequential mixed methods research study grounded in organizational ecology theory and involving content analysis and cluster analysis proposes a typology of RPUs. Specifically, five RPU types are proposed: accessible, midsized master's-degree granting RPUs; regionally focused Historically Black Colleges and Universities; rural-serving and CUNY RPUs; large, urban regional-serving RPUs; and Puerto Rican Hispanic-serving RPUs. This study significantly advances conceptual understanding about RPUs by disrupting deficit-based understandings about the sector being shapeless and amorphous by showing that the sector contains distinct institutional types that represent unique approaches to fulfilling the RPU public good mission. This typology is also among the first to document the institutional diversity of RPUs.

College education plays a crucial role in upward social mobility. However, despite applying to and being accepted by colleges, students often fail to matriculate -- a phenomenon known as "summer melt". The summer after high school graduation is a vulnerable period for these students due to limited counseling support from both high schools and accepted colleges. While summer counseling has been studied as an intervention to address summer melt, little research exists on programs using "near-peer" counselors, despite evidence from smaller-scale interventions suggesting their positive impact and cost-effectiveness. This study utilizes administrative data for 54,000 New York City high school seniors who graduated in June 2020 at the peak of the COVID-19 Pandemic. It aims to examine the impact of a remote near-peer college matriculation support program on students' enrollment in Fall 2020 using propensity score matching. The results indicate that the program increased matriculation by seven percentage points. Notably, it proved particularly effective for Black and Hispanic students, as well as students residing in low-income neighborhoods -- groups that are typically underserved in higher education. These findings, drawn from the largest public school system in the nation, offer evidence supporting the efficacy of near-peer mentoring programs in promoting college matriculation.

Several studies have demonstrated the relevance of job demands-resources theory in examining the subjective well-being of Chinese university teachers. Nevertheless, the specific impact and mechanisms of various dimensions of job demands and resources on faculty members' subjective well-being are not well understood. This study seeks to identify the primary predictors of subjective well-being and to explore the connection between specific job demands-resources and subjective well-being through an examination of the sequential mediation of work stress and work-life balance. Questionnaires were completed by a total of 2302 faculty members from 302 universities in China. Correlation analysis and path analysis were employed to examine the relationships between job demands-resources and subjective well-being, as well as their influencing mechanisms. Job demands measured by work hours have a significant negative impact on the subjective well-being of university faculty, with teaching hours emerging as the primary negative predictor. Conversely, job resources have a significantly positive effect on faculty's subjective well-being, particularly decision participation, job security and extensive training, which serve as positive predictors. The relationship between job demands and faculty's subjective well-being is mediated by their work stress, and is further serially mediated by their work stress and work-life balance. Similar patterns are observed in the influence mechanism of job resources on subjective well-being.

The worldwide adoption of holistic admissions in higher education is a recent phenomenon, inspired by elements originally present in the U.S. system. While holistic admissions have been rooted in the Korean higher education system since its adoption, now it is also faced with burgeoning debates over their fairness and impact on student access. This study, therefore, examines the effect of holistic admissions on the enrollment patterns of students from diverse backgrounds. Using data obtained from the Higher Education Statistics Survey, and employing heterogeneity-robust difference-in-differences estimation strategies, this study examines whether the introduction of this new admissions program effectively promoted student access. The results illustrate that the adoption of holistic admissions has dynamic treatment effects that vary based on the timeline relative to adoption and government subsidy status. Subsidized adopters show a statistically significant increase in all outcomes a few years post-policy adoption, while unsubsidized adopters demonstrate a more delayed effect. Moreover, although holistic admissions increased the share of disadvantaged students, it resulted in a higher surge in international student enrollment. The results from this study reflected that the consistent implementation of holistic admissions over a sustained period can bring about intended outcomes from the institutions adopting holistic admissions.

Community colleges provide broad access to a college degree due to their less expensive tuition, greater course time offerings, and more open admission policies compared to four-year universities as reported (Juszkiewicz, 2015). These institutions have great potential to diversify who chooses STEM, such as engineering. Such diverse representation is important, because students from different backgrounds can contribute new perspectives that foster creative and innovative approaches to solving problems. However, approximately 40% of the students who enter community college in the U.S. leave before graduation (Xu & Jaggars, 2011). Harnessing the power of social media to reduce attrition, we tested a pilot intervention in which community college students in engineering courses completed a reflection exercise after watching YouTube videos of former engineering students from similar backgrounds who successfully transferred to a four-year college. Quasi-experimental analyses (N = 537) show that students in the intervention received higher engineering course grades and had greater odds of enrolling in an engineering course in the subsequent term compared to those who were not in the intervention. Additionally, we find support for the hypothesis that the intervention has larger benefits for women. Results suggest that hearing from other students about their engineering experience can be a useful tool for improving community college students' choices and performance.

Participation in student peer leader roles, roles in which more senior students serve as mentors and educators to their peers, have continued to grow in their application and importance to institutions of higher education around the globe. Using a theoretical approach based in Legitimate Peripheral Participation and drawing from the International Survey of Peer Leaders, our paper explored the role of the quality and quantity of participation in important outcomes of the college experience: leadership development, skill development, and academic success. The results showed that the number of hours per week spent on peer leadership activities and the total number of peer leadership positions contributed to positive quality of engagement and enhanced students' academic outcomes, overall leadership skills, and career readiness. Moreover, findings showed that the quality of engagement moderated the influences of the quantity of participation particularly for measures of academic success. As students develop relationships with faculty, staff, and peers throughout their time in peer leader roles and feel a deepening sense of connection and belonging to the college or university, students in peer leader roles become fuller participants in the academic community and, as a result, develop the knowledge, skills, and ways of doing, thinking, knowing, and being that are critical for student success.

As colleges and universities grapple with uncertainty around current and future enrollment as well as increasingly vocal questions about the value of postsecondary education, it is critically important that institutions ascertain and invest in the elements of campus learning and engagement that add value to the undergraduate experience. This study examines the relationship between cumulative participation in high-impact practices (HIPs) and the perceived importance of postsecondary experience in preparation for adult life using the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS) dataset. Employing a methodology proposed and tested by Leite et al. (Struct Equ Model Multidiscip J 26(3):448-469, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705511.2018.1522591), this analysis incorporated the ability to account for self-selection into HIPs using propensity score (PS) analysis with a multiple-group structural equation model (SEM) design to examine differences between students who participated in two or more HIPs and those who did not (n = 3105). Results offered evidence of benefit to participation in two or more HIP experiences with positive and statistically significant differences in the perceived importance of postsecondary education in preparation for adult life across the analytic sample with doubly robust estimation techniques. Interaction effects for female students, students from low SES backgrounds, and students who are members of minoritized racial/ethnic populations were also identified. The findings offered evidence of post-graduation impact of cumulative participation in HIPs that can inform program development and student decision-making as well as the future use of analytic techniques such as PS analysis, doubly robust estimation, and sensitivity analysis to enhance measurement precision.

Studies indicate that racial disparities in STEM achievement or equity grade gaps are associated with faculty fixed mindset beliefs; however, whether specific instructional beliefs are linked to student academic achievement remains unclear. We surveyed 216 STEM faculty to assess their mindset and instructional beliefs and linked these to detailed student transcript data (n = 31,361). Results reveal that faculty with fixed mindset beliefs also endorsed more traditional instructional beliefs regarding assessment, grading, and diversity. Further, the endorsement of these beliefs was associated with larger equity grade gaps. Analysis of faculty characteristics indicate that male faculty, full professors, and instructors in Physical Sciences tended to hold instructional beliefs that are linked to larger equity grade gaps.

Graduate education is among the fastest growing segments of the U.S. higher educational system. This paper estimates the returns to Master's degrees and examines heterogeneity in the returns by field area, student demographics and initial labor market conditions. We use rich administrative data from Ohio and an individual fixed effects model that compares students' earnings trajectories before and after earning a Master's degree. Findings show that obtaining a Master's degree increased quarterly earnings by about 14% on average, but the returns vary largely across graduate fields. We also find gender and racial disparities in the returns, with higher average returns for women than for men, and for White than for Black graduates. In addition, by comparing returns among students who graduated before and under the Great Recession, we show that economic downturns appear to reduce but not eliminate the positive returns to Master's degrees. There are important variations in the returns to Master's degrees during the recession across field area and race/ethnicity.

The devaluation of women of Color (WoC) by way of gender discrimination and systemic racism is well documented. For WoC in engineering a chief cause is the observable wage gap. Women who identify as Asian, Black/African American, Latina/Chicana, Indigenous/Native American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Native Alaskan, and/or multiracial have reported stark wage disparities. In this paper, we offer a phenomenological study of how WoC engineering faculty across U.S. academic institutions describe the challenges and practices associated with wage disparities and how they navigate these disparities. This study, which is based on participant interviews, is guided by three research questions: (1) What do WoC engineering tenure-track faculty perceive about wage disparities based on their race and gender? (2) How do WoC faculty understand the institutional practices that contribute to wage disparities? and (3) How do WoC engineering faculty respond to and address wage disparities? Using structural racism and intersectionality as our guiding conceptual framework, we interviewed 32 self-identified WoC who identified structures and systems of institutional racism related to the maintenance of wage disparities. In terms of findings, we note that WoC have two primary strategies to respond to wage disparity: advocacy and agency. The experiences of WoC engineering faculty in our study highlight unsatisfying institutional responses, and thus WoC often rely on their own agency to advocate for themselves and to advocate for and mentor other WoC faculty. We found a few notable cases where men advocated for women to help close the wage gap. Our work reveals that pay inequity for WoC is often coupled with other forms of exclusion and marginalization. Reducing wage disparities in academia is critical to advancing diversity efforts and ensuring equitable support for WoC faculty. Our findings suggest that institutions can work diligently to rectify wage inequality, including making sustainable structural and salary modifications and sharing the burden of combatting wage inequities. Finally, our findings also highlight the importance of making policy changes to reduce pay inequalities, such as providing transparent pay information and more opportunities to earn merit raises.

Educational research has emphasized the importance of help-seeking in learning and engagement. However, little is known about the impact that help-giving may potentially have on student engagement and academic achievement. There is also a lack of knowledge about the environmental factors that might facilitate help-giving. This study investigated how help-giving is associated with student engagement and academic achievement by drawing on the Chinese College Student Survey (CCSS), which involved data from 67,182 Chinese college students. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. Results showed that students who experienced a positive social climate, particularly those who had positive social interactions with their peers, teachers, and university staff members were more likely to help their peers with schoolwork. In turn, these students who helped their peers were more cognitively, emotionally, and behaviorally engaged. They also had higher levels of academic achievement themselves. The results applied to students of different demographic characteristics and different school types. Theoretical and practical implications of the research are discussed.

Increasing numbers of students require internet access to pursue their undergraduate degrees, yet broadband access remains inequitable across student populations. Furthermore, surveys that currently show differences in access by student demographics or location typically do so at high levels of aggregation, thereby obscuring important variation between subpopulations within larger groups. Through the dual lenses of quantitative intersectionality and critical race spatial analysis alongside a QuantCrit approach, we use Bayesian multilevel regression and Census microdata to model variation in broadband access among undergraduate populations at deeper interactions of identity. We find substantive heterogeneity in student broadband access by gender, race, and place, including between typically aggregated subpopulations. Our findings speak to inequities in students' geographies of opportunity and suggest a range of policy prescriptions at both the institutional and federal level.

It is potentially beneficial for all college students to have perspectives on identity and future connections to develop and maintain academic motivation. However, researchers have yet to examine probationary students' identity-based motivation (IBM) and perceived instrumentality (PI), and how those motivational constructs relate to their academic performance. This longitudinal survey study (N = 225) investigated the distinct structure of IBM and PI, as well as their different relationships with positive self-beliefs and self-regulation toward academic performance. The results demonstrate that (a) probationary students' IBM (i.e., important mindset and impossible mindset) and PI are related yet distinct constructs; (b) IBM and PI are associated with positive self-beliefs and self-regulation differently at the "present" (self-concept and self-efficacy for self-regulated learning) and "for the future" (persistent academic possible selves); (c) the data support an integrative model including IBM and PI (antecedents), positive self-beliefs and self-regulation (mediums), and expected grades and retention (outcomes). Based on this empirical study, it is vital to understand probationary students' IBM and PI along with positive self-beliefs and self-regulation to promote their academic achievement and retention.

This study assesses the technical efficiency of higher education institutions in terms of labor market outcomes for recent graduates, employing a comparative analysis of three distinct methodological approaches. Using a sample of recent graduates of Colombian universities who earned their degrees between 2007 and 2011, we estimated the institutions' efficiency scores through Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), the Free Disposal Hull (FDH) model, and Cazals et al. (Journal of Econometrics 106:1-25, 2002) order-m estimator. Our results reveal that the estimation technique affects the results when super-efficient decision-making units are present, with the order-m technique demonstrating superiority over DEA and FDH. However, in the absence of super-efficient institutions, the efficiency rankings obtained from all three methodologies exhibit consistency. This paper contributes to the literature by highlighting the importance of methodological selection in evaluating the labor market performance efficiency of higher education institutions when recent graduates' perspective is adopted.