"A World of Private Higher Education" is the definitive treatment of a sector accounting for a third of the world's 200 million higher education enrolment--yet remaining largely unknown even to scholars of higher education and widely mis-characterized when it is considered by stakeholders or the general public. Beyond the eye-popping…

This paper examines the mechanisms through which higher education institutions (HEIs) explore, focusing on organizational status and institutional logic. We hypothesize that the exploration mechanisms differ depending on the public and private sectors. Revisiting middle-status conformity, we assert that the U-shaped relationship is stronger for…

In the United States, accreditation was a mandatory requirement that placed stress, financial burden, and alignment to various standards on universities. The changes that had occurred in educator preparation over the past decade left many institutions confused and untrusting in the process (Burnett, 2020). Due to these changes, the relationship…

Colleges and universities play an important role in training a skilled workforce and generating knowledge for society, but we know little about exactly how universities choose the skills and knowledge they provide to students. In my dissertation, I introduce novel data that allow me to document new facts about the supply of courses at a large…

Although vaccination requirements have been a mainstay of university admissions, the recent shift in vaccination and other preventative measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19 has been met with resistance. Reviewing the vaccination literature, there has been an apparent shift in support for university vaccinations, which is largely a result of…

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 quantitative study investigated the relationship between institutional control and NCLEX first-time pass rates during 2017-2021 for BSN, ADN, and LVN programs in the United States while controlling for school and program level characteristics. The study included five years of data gathered from nursing regulatory agencies and the Integrated…

The purpose of this dissertation was to determine the differences, if any, are observed in the mean "Assessment Culture Scale" scores in faculty at postsecondary institutions in the United States according to "Institution Type," "Accreditation Region," and "Control Type" through a national survey:…

Existential worldview diversity infrastructure has emerged across public and private higher education institutions in the interest of advancing religious pluralism, yet receives little attention from current literature, graduate preparation programs, and student affairs practitioners from a critical religious pluralism theoretical and social…

The purpose of this study is to examine the level of social media addiction among university students. The research was conducted during the spring semester of the 2022-2023 academic year with 386 students from both public and private/foundation universities. In this descriptive research, the "Social Media Addiction Scale" developed by…

Purpose: This study examines the impact of ethics education interventions (EEI) on attaining ethical education goals in higher institutions. Design/methodology/approach: The study utilizes a survey method, with questionnaires distributed to accounting instructors from universities and professional accountants in Ghana. The empirical analysis is…

No studies have analyzed the presence of mentoring programs on Canadian postsecondary websites. Filling this crucial gap, this study examined the official websites of 96 Canadian postsecondary institutions -- which accounts for every university in Canada -- to assess the presence of mentoring programs. Results suggest that public institutions (n =…

Long-standing criteria for Common Reads (CR) programs recognize the value of diversity in the book selection process. This study, examining 1,801 books chosen over a four-year period (2017-20), explored the extent to which these programs have embodied this spirit. In particular, this work focused on the diversity of the books (through genre and…

Despite efforts to improve student retention and graduation success outcomes, many U.S. four-year postsecondary institutions have experienced limited growth in student retention and graduation rates over the past decade. The purpose of this causal-comparative quantitative study was to determine the mean differences in retention and graduation…