Getting and keeping accreditation is critical for almost all colleges in the United States. Accreditation is third-party validation that a college meets minimum standards. Not only is institutional accreditation required for participation in federal student loan programs, but without accreditation, it is hard (if not impossible) to be authorized…

The associate degree nursing program offered at a privately owned, regionally accredited career college in central Virginia was placed under conditional approval by the Virginia Board of Nursing (VBON) due to low NCLEX[R]-RN pass rates and nine other violations of regulation. The lack of VBON approval for the nursing program resulted in the…

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenology study was to understand the experiences of non-traditional undergraduate students taking online courses at a public or a private university in Virginia. The self-determination theory, which guided this study, explained the motivated behaviors of intrinsic and extrinsic needs that affect the…

By many accounts--on August 11th and 12th, 2017--a "Unite the Right" rally organized by white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia, catalyzed a series of violent events culminating in the injury of dozens of people and the death of three people (Alvarez, 2017; Astor, Caron, & Victor, 2017; Heim, 2017; McKelway, 2017).…

A conservatively-minded campus, Liberty University's administrators have, like many college campuses, struggled with creating an appropriate weapons policy. The policies in existence prior to 2011 were more traditionally anti-weapon, while those created after 2011 have been more forgiving. This article examines the background, both national and…

We study the effects of homeschool background and time use on academic performance among students at Patrick Henry College, a private religious institution with a 63-credit core classical liberal arts curriculum. Using ordinary least squares regression analysis, we examine four research questions: (1) Does time use influence academic performance?…

America's diverse higher education landscape includes more than 700 four-year nonprofit colleges and universities that focus on baccalaureate education. These private nondoctoral (PND) institutions are located in almost every state and collectively enroll about 1.6 million students and award nearly 150,000 degrees annually, with the majority of…

This paper reports results from a mixed-methods study about how college students engage with news when questions of credibility and "fake news" abound in the U.S. Findings are based on 5,844 online survey responses, one open-ended survey question (N=1,252),and 37 follow-up telephone interviews with students enrolled at 11 U.S. colleges…

"Public education is in crisis--and it has been for some time. The problem is, no one can agree on the problem, and when there is no agreement on the problem, developing solutions is nearly impossible." Thus writes Matthew T. Lambert in this study of present-day public higher education, which is currently plagued by momentous challenges.…

The 2020 General Assembly adjourned its regular session by providing over $390 million in additional general fund support for Virginia higher education institutions in the 2020-22 biennium. However, in March, the nation experienced the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to address the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic on state revenues, Governor…

This brief report uses data collected under the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Fall Enrollment survey to highlight distance education data in the state of Virginia. The sample for this analysis is comprised of all active, degree-granting…

§ 23.1-909 requires the Secretary of Education and the Director of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) to report, by October 1, 2016, their progress toward development of a plan for a "combined cooperative degree program" whereby any enrolled undergraduate student at any public or private nonprofit institution of…

Independent colleges and universities are cautious adopters of online education for undergraduate students. These institutions seek to balance a tradition of student-focused pedagogy in face-to-face settings and faculty wariness of online courses against the promise of lower instructional costs, changing student expectations, and the potential for…

The information presented in this report details degree completions by in-state undergraduates (ISUs) at Virginia public and private non-profit institutions in 2013-14. Presented are summaries of degree-award totals in the public and private sectors, comparisons to past years and to current estimates, and analyses of progress toward the degree…

What are the enduring, value-added features of small, private liberal arts colleges? Certain distinctions come to mind: broad exposure to the disciplines, focused study in the majors, and close campus interactions--all enhanced by the residential experience. However, what is (and has historically been) the value of small, private residential…