Perspectives concerning the current disenchantment about undergraduate curricula and the bachelors degree are offered in this keynote address. It is suggested that rising expectations and unfulfilled hopes for higher education from the 1960s may be a factor. In the 1960s a sense of reform and rediscovery later created an expectation among students…

The successes of Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) programs since their inception in 1953 have been extensive. They include the training of 310,000 nurses, nearly one-quarter of the licensed nurses in the U.S., and the provision of competent, caring, and responsible service in hospitals, clinics, and other settings. The role of an Associate Degree…

Two new scoring methods for the Nurses' Professional Orientation Scale (NPOS) were developed and tested to advance the assessment of professional socialization. These methods were based on: traditional versus nontraditional view of nursing (internal consistency of .81); and practicing nurses' view of nursing (internal consistency of .88). A total…

This paper focuses on the discussion of community colleges as baccalaureate-degree granting institutions. The discussion is based on research projects undertaken in both the U.S. and Canada that investigate the institutionalization of degree programs at community colleges. Colleges in British Columbia and Alberta are baccalaureate as well as…

This study examined the relationship between the time taken to obtain a baccalaureate degree and the type of financial aid received and/or student employment. Institutional data were analyzed for 4,403 nontransfer students attending a large urban public university. Data sets analyzed included: a longitudinal student master file, the undergraduate…

Criticisms have been directed at the quality of professionals entering the teaching field, with the implication that higher quality students pursue degrees other than education and that the academically less talented gravitate toward the teaching profession. To test this idea, a study was conducted to determine if significant differences exist in…

The five year teacher education program at the University of Tennessee Knoxville requires students to major in an arts or science field and to minor in either elementary or secondary education. Following the acquisition of a bachelor's degree, students may enroll in fifth-year education courses and a year-long internship. Teaching licenses are…

Virginia Tech has had an undergraduate bachelor of sciences degree program in vocational industrial education (also known as trade and industrial or T&I) since 1957. It was among the first institutions in the nation to establish such a program. Virginia Tech's program was renamed vocational industrial/health occupations education in 1978. The…

A committee at Luther College (Iowa) was appointed to explore the 3-year option for a bachelors degree with regard to curriculum, finances, admissions, and student life. The committee, composed of administrators and faculty from Luther, examined 3-year programs that operate now or are being discussed at several other colleges. They found that…

The long-term effects of undergraduate involvement on advanced degree attainment and career choice were studied. The longitudinal study involved 299 freshmen who entered college between 1973 and 1976 and participated in the institutional research program's followup questionnaire 17-20 years later. Astin's Input-Environment Outcomes model and…

In statistical terms, transfer rates require two components: a numerator that represents community college students who transfer and a denominator that approximates the pool of potential transfer students. The California Task Force adopted a set of criteria to judge the appropriateness of prospective pairs of numerators and denominators. Its form…

The education and reeducation of health care professionals remain essential, if somewhat neglected, elements in reforming the nation's health care system. The Pew Health Professions Commission (PHPC) has made the reform of health care contingent upon the reform of education, urging educational institutions to design core curricula with…

This paper analyzed time to degree and enrollment intensity (number of hours earned each quarter) for Ohio State University baccalaureate recipients. Using an investment theory framework based on an organizational behavior model, the study sought to determine whether commitment propensity variables were important in explaining degree commitment,…

Research investigations on teacher training effects have focused almost exclusively on differences between group means. The present paper suggests that several interesting and important research questions might be answered by examining student variability both within and between classrooms. Student variability might be considered as an outcome to…

One hundred freshmen students at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) School of Medicine were surveyed using the Lancaster Approaches to Studying Inventory to determine if the success of students at a highly selective combined baccalaureate/MD degree program is affected by their different approaches to learning. Analysis of the survey…