This study assesses the impacts of the Science program at Piedmont Virginia Community College and its flagship capstone research experience, Supervised Study, through psychosocial perceptions associated with persistence in science and through a comparative analysis of subsequent science bachelor's degree attainment. Supervised Study involves…

Generally, some courses in a degree program, but not all, have a hurdle, threshold or minimum pass requirement, which is often described as a condition that must be met by a student in order to pass a course. As assessment drives learning for most university learners, and first year experience is critical for retention and success, understanding…

Female adult learners are an expanding population in higher education, even at the postbaccalaureate level. This group of learners has a unique set of needs as they encounter a variety of challenges due to the opposing nature of their life roles. For female adult learners with children, complexities with seeking degree attainment are heightened…

Excess hours laws are among credit-based accountability measures implemented by several state legislatures in the United States since 1993 to incentivize students to complete their baccalaureate degree programs with fewer excess credit hours. An analysis of the nature and scope of similar educational policies in the national context is provided in…

Definitions of disability are changing, shifting from a narrow medical diagnosis to a biopsychosocial model of disability, where disability is conceptualised as a series of relational conditions that can potentially disadvantage individuals within environments. Implications of this new understanding of disability will have significant effects in…

This is the third brief summarizing results from the longitudinal analysis of the Transfer Opportunity Project (TOP). TOP, funded by a grant from the Institute for Education Sciences (IES), explores the possible factors contributing to the low percentage of community college students who go on to earn bachelor's degrees. The project uses a…

The COVID-19 pandemic caused an abrupt change in educational programs worldwide, including workforce development education in community colleges. Given the hands-on requirements of these programs, considerations for changes included if and how instructors and students could maintain academic continuity during the pandemic. This article focuses on…

This paper reports on a three-year initiative to enhance the undergraduate Extension Education minor at a state land-grant university. Specific initiatives to improve the undergraduate Extension Education minor curriculum involved (a) revising the Extension Education minor due to varied curriculum and faculty changes and (b) aligning eight…

Undergraduate art therapy programs outnumber graduate programs in the United States, yet they lack a parallel set of educational standards. An online survey collected data from 38 out of 54 undergraduate art therapy programs. Similarities among programs included: curricular requirements, credential-holder provided advising and fieldwork…

Despite the viva being an essential component of all PhD and other doctoral qualifications in UK universities, there is little research into their accessibility for autistic students, or the process of adjusting them to individual students' needs. Autistic student voices about the viva are almost completely absent from the literature. This paper…

The purpose of our mixed-methods study was to examine the motivations and obstacles associated with curricular revisions in music education degree programs. During Phase I, we surveyed a nationwide sample (N = 533) of music education program coordinators. Participants who had engaged in the curriculum revision process within the previous decade…

In this study, dormitory room and social group assignment data from a college are used to investigate peer effects on college students' decisions to switch majors. Results reveal strong evidence of such peer effects at both the room and the social group level. Most notably, at the room level, the dense concentration of same-major roommates deters…

This qualitative, phenomenological study explored how transition challenges affect Chinese international undergraduate students' persistence in U.S. higher education institutions and identified the types of support schools should provide to improve students' persistence. This study conducted semistructured, open-ended interviews via telephone with…

There are longstanding concerns regarding whether remedial coursework at the college or university level is the most effective and efficient way to increase student success for students deemed not "college ready" upon entry to college. Requiring students to complete these courses (often non-credit-bearing) prior to becoming eligible for…

The Doctorate of Philosophy in Visual Arts has been a subject of debate in the United States, where the currently accepted terminal degree in visual and fine arts is the Master of Fine Arts. In the United Kingdom, as in much of Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Asia the PhD in visual arts has been well developed and accepted. In a global…