Public higher education leaders enter the 2023 legislative sessions with cautious optimism stemming from sizable budget surpluses in many states, economic growth, and mostly familiar political environments. Many states have built up budget surpluses due to a strong economic recovery, an infusion of federal stimulus dollars, and careful budgeting…

The purpose of this study was to examine ways foreign-born graduates of West African descent (WAD) at a midsize community college achieve college education and what lessons we learned about their motivation, success, and barriers to success. The researcher used qualitative research methodology for this study, which was designed to measure this…

In the first chapter titled "Cognitive Ability, Education, and Fertility Risk", I explore the role of cognitive ability in fertility timing. Women in the bottom quartile of the cognitive ability distribution are nine times more likely to have their first child as a teenager. First, I document the differences in age at childbirth by…

This exploratory, phenomenological study explored how rural community college students perceived barriers from the transfer process and the support services they had needed for their successful transfers to 4-year universities in rural Texas. Transfer shock and transfer student capital were the two frameworks employed to model sampled students'…

This paper explores trends in summer and intermittent teaching practices among African American students in the post-Civil War South, focusing on student activities in the field, the institutions they attended, and the communities they served. Transitioning out of the restrictions and impoverishment of slavery while simultaneously seeking to…

Promise programs, or place-based tuition-free college policies, have become increasingly popular among policymakers looking to expand postsecondary attainment. In this article, we examine Tulsa Achieves, a widespread, albeit understudied type of promise program that covers the balance of students' tuition and fees after other aid is exhausted at a…

A January 2021 executive order requires Utah executive agencies to identify occupational regulations that are no longer necessary or can be reined in to reduce barriers to entry. One regulation that should be on the table is cosmetology licensing. This policy brief draws on a national study to explore the experiences of people pursuing cosmetology…

The skyrocketing cost of college has forced more students to borrow money to obtain a degree. Women take on greater debt than men to start, but when women graduate, loan payments collide with the gender pay gap. The compounding effect puts a tight squeeze on women's budgets. This growing crisis requires two responses: helping those who have…

The intended purpose of this study is to add new perspectives to the existing body of knowledge on the experiences and perspectives of Kenyan women in pursuit of university education. The purposes of this research study are to (a) gain a deeper understanding of the challenges Kenyan women must overcome to access university education, (b) the…

Each year, more than a million young people in the United States experience homelessness; some of these young people, known as unaccompanied homeless youth, will face the challenges of homelessness while living on their own without the support of a caring adult. Unaccompanied homeless youth face the same struggles as other young people: trying to…

This playbook provides ways in which students and their families can blur the lines between high school, postsecondary education, and the workforce. Students are the most important stakeholders to Raise the Bar for student success and can play an active role in shaping the "education-to-workforce" system to focus on Unlocking Career…

U.S. legislators recently brought back thirty-four tax programs from legislative limbo, extending them for three years. This includes the tuition and fee deduction, used by taxpayers to save on college expenses. This regressive tax policy flows heavily towards higher-income levels, with almost a third of the deduction going to those with incomes…

Higher Education institutions in Korea are undergoing restructuring in response to the government reform policy. As one aspect of the restructuring, many colleges are reducing or abolishing the athletic programmes. This study investigated the value of athletic programmes for college students by using the contingent valuation method. The results of…

This study examines the impact of online core courses on students' academic and financial outcomes of postsecondary students. To do so, we analyzed data from a large sample of students in the University System of Georgia (USG), governing agency of Georgia's 26 public universities and colleges. Since 2001, USG has offered "eCore" courses:…

This paper studies the impact of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 that amended employer-sponsored education assistance (ESEA) fringe benefits from taxable to nontaxable for graduate studies. ESEA is an integral part of graduate education finance and is the dominant non-loan source of student aid. Using…