International students' enrollment has continuously increased over the past decade. According to the Open Doors Annual Report, published and distributed by Institute for International Education (IIE, 2016), more than one million international students studied in the United States from 2015--2016; according to the same report, international…

Faculty diversity has benefits for all students; however, increasing faculty diversity may be particularly helpful in reducing academic disparities for students of color. This study examines the impact of having a professor of the same race/ethnicity on student performance. A longitudinal model was tested to examine how campus racial/ethnic…

This study investigated the correlates of two measures that capture students' perception of the religious and spiritual campus climate. It focuses on how the factors, religious identity and attending a religiously affiliated institution, influence students' perception of the respect for their beliefs and comfort in expressing their views on…

Research has found that learning communities contribute to positive educational outcomes by promoting positive peer relationships. New commentary has suggested that some benefits of niche programs may be due to the "protective segregation" of members from negative influences on campus. This mixed-methods study used social network…

As individuals with disabilities attend postsecondary education in greater numbers, mentoring programs are being implemented more frequently. The research objective of our exploratory study was to examine outcomes for students with disabilities participating in a Student to Student Mentoring Program using a mixed methods approach. Mentors followed…

How students perceive their campus environment is affected by a multitude of factors. Some of these include interactions between students and faculty, faculty teaching practices, demographic characteristics of students and students living arrangements. While some research has contributed meaningful findings related to which students see their…

A common problem for people with disabilities, particularly those who rely on mobility devices, is learning to navigate a new environment. This is especially troublesome for students who are attending a new university and need to figure out how to get from one place to another. All Together Now is a mobile multi-player cooperative game developed…

Previous research that evaluated first year students' transition into university found that the values of 'being, belonging and becoming' were important in particular within the first few months and within the first year of university. From our previous work, we reported that three things matter to students: the academic staff they work with, the…

The goal of this study was to examine differences in university success between first-year students by analyzing three domains simultaneously: students' academic achievement, critical thinking disposition, and social-emotional adjustment to university life. Participants were 307 students who completed an online questionnaire. Latent class cluster…

Students with multiple oppressed identities, such as LGBQ+ students with disabilities, face a multitude of barriers on college campuses due to heterosexism and ableism, sometimes even from those in-group. This large-scale, multi-institution comparative quantitative study of LGBQ+ students with disabilities living on campus examines these students'…

Using a feminist geography framework, this qualitative study explores the first-year postsecondary experiences of Appalachian women through an interrogation of the ways in which they construct place and gender through their transition between two distinct geographic places: the home community and the university. A diversity of gender and place…

As increasing numbers of colleges establish inclusive postsecondary education programs, it is important to explore how students with intellectual disability are supported in all aspects of campus life. The present study focused on inclusive first-year orientation programs from the vantage point of 16 student group leaders, faculty group leaders,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between engagement indicators and intent to persist of first-year full-time Hispanic students attending public versus private universities. Design/methodology/approach: Metadata from the Your First College Year survey from the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) were selected…

This study focused on the relationship between living arrangement (residential vs. commuter) and the academic performance (grade point average) of first-year, full time undergraduate students at one public, 4-year university in the Southeast. Additionally, we analyzed five educationally effective practices as described by the National Survey of…

College choice, the decision-making process for students of whether and where to attend college, is complex. The college choice process also affects a range of stakeholders: high school students, parents, public policymakers, high schools, admission professionals, and institutions of higher education. Understanding the influences of college choice…