In Spring 2020, colleges across the nation swiftly transitioned their operations--including both classes and student support services--to remote delivery on an emergency basis in response to the crisis posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. While prior research has documented that the transition was associated with decrements in student outcomes, there…

The Utah Board of Higher Education has implemented a strategic plan to increase access to higher education and facilitate students' pathways to meaningful careers. A key initiative of the plan allows students to earn college credit for knowledge and skills acquired outside traditional college settings, such as through rigorous academic study…

As the population of adult learners increases in higher education institutions across the globe, recent studies demonstrate that they face barriers that delay their advanced degree completion. Although K University (pseudonym) had discussed this delay among its adult student population, no studies or interventions had been proposed to address the…

College student retention theorists have suggested that improving students' financial literacy may improve student retention and completion rates. Before this important line of inquiry can be thoroughly examined, it is first important to understand if and how major state universities in the United States currently provide students with financial…

The world's move to a global economy has an impact on the high rate of student academic failure. Higher education, as the affected party, is considered crucial in reducing student academic failure. This study aims to construct a prediction (predictive model) that can forecast students' time to graduation in developing countries such as Indonesia,…

This paper examines the impact of a reform aimed at expediting graduation times in Italian universities by reducing the number of exams students must pass to obtain a fixed number of credits. Using event-study estimates that leverage the reform's staggered implementation, we find that this policy change led to an increase in on-time graduation…

Competency-based education (CBE) is a learner-centric framework that emphasizes what students "know and can show" more than how much time they spend in the classroom. CBE advocates claim that by allowing students to take as little or as much time as they need to demonstrate their mastery of course competencies, students develop higher…

The purpose of this quantitative, non-experimental, correlational study is to compare three variables associated with doctoral degree completion to determine if there is a statistical significance between completion time, financial aid status, and ethnicity for women in STEM programs in the United States. Two research questions are addressed in…

Quantitative research has long shown lagging community college transfer student completion rates, in addition to excess credits earned and lengthened time-to-degree for transfer students that do earn a bachelor's degree (Horn & Skomsvold, 2011; Jenkins & Fink, 2016; Simone, 2014; U.S. GAO, 2017). Scant qualitative studies exist related to…

Reversing the trend of US STEM graduation rates lagging other industrialized nations requires that we look at the entire pipeline of potential STEM students, including the vast number that start their journeys in remedial math classrooms in two-year colleges. Most research to date has focused on either Learning Support (LS) success or STEM…

This qualitative exploratory study investigated the selection and change of majors for nine HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) students. The study included individual structured interviews that provided data that answered the following research questions: 1) what factors influenced the initial selection of major, and 2) what…

This study sought to add to the limited existing literature regarding the experiences and challenges of first-generation doctoral students. Amidst fifteen interviews with first-generation doctoral students, who completed their doctoral degree at an R1 research institution in California, the research provided information about the journey students…

The purpose of this study was to determine how resilience factors impact doctoral degree completion after a significant delay of one year or more. The non-completion of doctoral degrees has been a concern due to its economic, social, and personal consequences. The research questions being examined were: (1) What were the various reasons shared by…

Despite decades of national efforts to increase students' participation and success in STEM, bachelor's degrees in STEM continue to notably lag the labor force demand. Asian students represent one group that disproportionately contributes to the share of STEM degrees. Understanding their experiences can help to illuminate ways of increasing STEM…

For the purposes of this study, criteria for non-traditional students were: adults ages 25 and older, race/ethnicity, gender, entry date or transfer to a community college in Middle Tennessee during fall 2015 through summer 2021, and Pell/Grant eligibility. The problem is that non-traditional students have lower completions than traditional…