The Maine Center for Workforce Research and Information's website reports a 36% loss of jobs in the manufacturing sector from 2000 to 2010 (over 28,500 jobs). Increasingly, employers are requiring a more educated workforce. With only 25% of Maine's population holding a bachelor's degree, Maine lags behind the rest of New England (at 35%),…

Drawing on our experience of working in Sweden and seeking to help colleagues enter the prestigious culture of Anglophone academic text production, this article explores the landscape of academic writing and publishing. We first provide an account of the birth of academic writing and the gradual emergence of its present forms. We then explore…

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), launched in 2000 and updated in 2013, documents dimensions of quality in undergraduate education and provides information and assistance to colleges, universities, and other organizations to improve student learning. Its primary activity is annually surveying college students to assess the extent…

This article describes a study about a service learning project at a small undergraduate university. We examined how professors and students became involved in service learning through course work and related activities. This study sought to find out why participation in service learning is low in post-secondary education science and mathematics…

A group of pre-tenured female faculty members is shown to advance from professionally isolated individuals to a collaborative group of writers through the peer mentoring process. The autoethnographically based approach to the analysis of self-narratives exploring this transformation revealed experiential, emotional and developmental commonalities…

In this article, we distinguish between 2 types of students who intend to transfer and graduate from another institution. During the fall of 2006, 507 first-semester students attending a state university completed a survey. Seventy-six percent of the students indicated that they planned on graduating from the University (intent-to-persist), 16%…

This article analyzes the current trend towards online education. It examines some of the reasons for the trend and the ramifications it may have on students, faculty and institutions of higher learning. The success and profitability of online programs and institutions such as the University of Phoenix has helped to make the move towards online…

The former president of Morehouse College, Dr Benjamin E. Mays, once said, "Higher education for Blacks has always been in a precarious position. These institutions were founded on short grass financially, and they live today on short grass." Today, many public and private historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have found success in…

This chapter begins with an overview of the community college culture and the community college's challenges and complexities. Next, the authors discuss the concept of ethical acculturation and the tension that exists when individual ethics and values conflict with those of the institution. Finally, they propose ways for leaders and constituents…

Since Summerskill's study on college attrition forty years ago, the interest in this topic has never waned. This study was particularly interested in the relationship of race to retention. Various theoretical frames of references have been proposed: Price's organization theory, Durkheim's Suicide, and Marx's Alienation have been used to guide…

In this paper the author investigates the developments that took place at the University of Prishtina since the end of the conflict in 1999. It starts with a historical background on the University of Prishtina, and continues with the major changes during the past five years including the Declaration of Bologna. Included in this discussion are…

This longitudinal study investigated to what extent noncognitive variables (e.g., expectations for college) and the college environment (i.e., academically based living-learning communities) influence students' college experience. This research goes beyond grouping all living-learning students into one category, which has dominated much of the…

This paper examines the ways in which academically vulnerable students benefit from non-academic support. By reviewing theories of student persistence as well as program evaluation literature, the author identifies four mechanisms by which non-academic supports can improve student outcomes, including persistence and degree attainment. Programs…

In a survey conducted across eleven universities in the north of England, attendance figures for manual grade staff attending internal university training programmes was found to be significantly below that of other employee groups. This is unsatisfactory from an equal opportunity perspective since the ethos of a university should encompass all…

This article describes the investigation of four first-year faculty at a comprehensive state university. We each explored and evaluated our teaching philosophies, strategies, and roles as educators and researchers, using Bain's definition of authentic teaching and learning, the "natural critical learning environment." We identified four…