Higher education in the U.S. has been undergoing a digital transformation for over a decade. During this time, institutions have increased the proportions of their instruction delivered in online and blended formats. They have also made greater use of digital technologies in the classroom and increased the adoption of digital materials, replacing…

Since the Tennessee Promise's 2014 launch, "free college" or "Promise" programs have proliferated rapidly and converged on design features: a "last-dollar" award and community college applicability. Researchers who study these programs' effects generally presume they are tuition-reducing endeavors. In contrast, we…

Mountain View College is a rural 2-year and 4-year degree granting school in the state of West Virginia that is plagued by declining enrollment, unstable financial assets, and minimum resources. In addition, the college exists in a community plagued by high rates of poverty and minimal racial diversity. Such traits mirror the challenges other…

Recruiting undergraduate students is a significant challenge for undergraduate geography programs. Few students have robust exposure to geography in secondary school and the major has low name recognition for entering first year students. In fact, geography is often a "found" major on many campuses with students coming to the major after…

Retention and student success are priorities for many universities. At Midwest Public University (MPU), a pseudonym for four-year, urban, public, first-time, first-year students have been retained at lower rates than the national average for four-year public institutions. However, MPU students with declared majors have been retained at higher…

Community colleges serve as the primary entry point for many nontraditional student populations. Over 3.8 million students in higher education are student parents (e.g., college students with dependents), and 42% of student parents are enrolled in community colleges across the country. In this report, we center the voices and experiences of…

The 2010 and 2020 U.S. Census confirmed the overall U.S. population is growing and diversifying. These trends, however, are not matched in higher education enrollment. The disparities are even more pronounced for STEM doctoral education. In response to these inequalities, higher education institutions have responded with a variety of solutions,…

There is an undeniable fact that enrollment management efforts on academic campuses have become an integral part of campus finance and the backbone of accreditation. Many Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are on the verge of collapsing and even losing their accreditations due to low enrollment, a decline that has been observed…

This qualitative study captured the stories of African-American male students, who participated in the African-American Male Initiative (AAMI) program at a predominantly White institution (PWI) in the south, to better understand how racial climate effected their college experiences and retention decisions. The data collected from this PWI revealed…

College enrollment is on the decline, Gen Z is questioning the cost and value of higher education, and employers face an ongoing struggle to fill jobs with talented candidates. The traditional message that college is the only path to a fulfilling career is outdated. It's time to examine what it really means to be employable--and reimagine the…

Over the last five years, Puerto Rico has faced fiscal and economic disruptions, demographic shifts, hurricanes and earthquakes, governance challenges, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. While most of these conditions are not new to Puerto Rico, the intersection of all these challenges created a nexus for institutional resilience and efforts. This…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how doctoral students describe their pre-enrollment experiences in an interactive technology-based webinar with senior leaders, and how the webinar experiences influenced their selection of an online doctoral program at a Christian university in the southwestern United States. The…

Although overall access to higher education has improved for underrepresented minority students (Engstrom & Tinto, 2008), there remains a persistent equity gap in college educational attainment for men of color from low socioeconomic backgrounds. In particular, Southeast Asian male students demonstrate higher attrition rates (Museus &…

There is a high demand among employers for college graduates with an understanding of international knowledge, yet very few students of color (American students of color and non-White international students) neither choose global careers nor do they pursue graduate international affairs graduate programs at the same rate as White students…

Since 2006, The James Irvine Foundation has invested more than $100 million in Linked Learning, a promising approach to transforming education in California. In 2009, the Foundation launched the California Linked Learning District Initiative ("the initiative") to demonstrate this approach in nine school districts. The multiyear…