Engineering Co-op Program at Midwestern Private University offers support for students seeking relevant work experience, yet only a small percentage of racially underrepresented undergraduate engineering students engage with the program. Understanding this inconsistency is important for progressing towards more equitable approaches. Prior research…

Donative revenue to American higher education institutions is essential for their ongoing financial solvency in the existing funding model within the industry. Gifts from alumni comprise a critical portion of this revenue, yet alumni giving participation rates and giving amounts have been in precipitous decline despite ever increasing numbers of…

The faculty composition in U.S. higher education has changed significantly over recent decades (AAUP, 2020; Hurlburt & McGarrah, 2016b; Schuster & Finkelstein, 2006). What was once a faculty model dominated by tenured and tenure-track faculty has shifted to majority contingent. As of 2020, contingent faculty composed nearly 70% of the…

This exploratory study attempted to determine if there were specific precollege or college experiences that female engineering students have had that impacted their perceived social self-confidence. Particularly, the study focused on female engineering students enrolled at private institutions of higher education. The study focused on private…

The purpose of this quantitative correlational-predictive study was to determine to what extent, if any, instructional costs and student services costs together and separately predict retention rates in the state of Texas in private postsecondary institutions. Based on Tinto's theory of institutional departure, the predictor variables were…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive was to explore how dissertation faculty leaders describe the knowledge creation process as a means of developing dissertation chairs at a private university in the southwestern United States. The theoretical model underpinning the study was the knowledge creation process model developed by Ikujiro…

The purpose of this correlational study was to explore if there was a relationship between the amount of tuition reimbursement, partnership benefits, and turnover intention at the partner organizations of a mid-size, private, non-profit university in the Midwest United States. It also examined if other factors, like tenure within an organization,…

As colleges confront challenging circumstances, the prospect of small, private college closures remains pertinent. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of displaced employees due to college closure. For this study, Schlossberg's (1981) transition theory was used as a foundational lens. Although there…

Decades of research indicate that formative assessment promotes achievement (Black & Wiliam, 1998a; Hattie & Timperley, 2007) and that we must learn more about how to implement formative assessment effectively in higher education settings (Bennett, 2011; Kingston & Nash, 2011; Morris et al., 2021) where most instructors deliver…

Business school deans at public and private research universities today face particular fiscal challenges due to declining MBA enrollment, shifting student enrollment choices and changing international student enrollment trends. Social and political forces such as the COVID-19 pandemic and recent social justice movements also impacted college…

This study explores the formation of leaders in Kenyan private Christian chartered universities. The topic of formation has garnered attention in some parts of the world, for example, the United States, but in the majority of the world, issues related to teaching and learning, as well as how the university system functions, continue to dominate…

Adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, have been shown to have an impact on an individual's mental, physical, and academic health. Specific individuals are more vulnerable to experiencing ACEs than others, and recognizing who these individuals are and when these experiences occur is critical in determining what supports were in place for at-risk…

How do people navigate institutional life together amid deep differences? Existing work highlights the mechanisms that drive and challenge exclusion and polarization, but these theories do not account for the moral frameworks, both implicit and explicit, that guide action. My dissertation brings tools from cultural and interactionist sociology to…

In this dissertation, I examined the how honors programs and colleges serve as a tool for public universities to compete with private universities in the rankings game, as well as examining how that contributes to stratification processes. By building on the existing literatures within the organization of higher education, student experiences in…

This study explored how a private, southeastern college of education (COE) supported students in passing the Praxis II examinations. Using Knowles' (1988) adult learning theory and Bandura's (1977) self-efficacy theory, the researchers examined students' experiences with various COE-provided resources and their impact on Praxis II scores. A…