Transitioning from high-school to university can be difficult, and many university teachers feel students are often ill-prepared for the change. To investigate this 233 Humanities and Science students at the University of Adelaide were surveyed 6 months into their first year regarding experiences of teaching and learning at university. 189…

The first year of college presents numerous challenges experienced as overwhelming by some freshmen who may become overly stressed and depressed. This longitudinal study examined perceived academic control (PAC) as a mediator of optimism and social support's buffering effects on freshman students' psychological health. Multiple regressions…

Three women of color--a professor and two students--describe the role that community engagement has played in helping them gain a sense of belonging in a predominately white, liberal arts college environment. They discuss how engagement with one another within these three domains assists in their adjustment and retention, as well as how their…

The assessment-related activities of academic development units (ADU) are driven not only by institutional initiatives and the pursuit of particular research interests but also by less predictable factors including the emerging needs of faculty members and external funding opportunities. When not located within a strong classification framework,…

Creating a college culture that is available to all K-12 public school students helps prepare individuals for postsecondary academic and career endeavors. Establishing and maintaining a college culture requires structural and organizational arrangements that facilitate students' access to critical human and material resources. These arrangements…

This report examines three focal points for understanding incoming first-year students' motivation to complete college: (1) academic motivational barriers and opportunities; (2) social motivational barriers and opportunities; and (3) financial motivational barriers and opportunities. [For "2016 National Freshman Motivation to Complete College…

In 2004, Lumina Foundation for Education launched "Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count," a national initiative aimed at improving success among community college students, particularly low-income students and students of color. Now encompassing more than 130 institutions in 24 states and the District of Columbia, Achieving the…

The purpose of this mixed method study was to explore perceptions of students with disabilities in a predominantly Hispanic serving institution. Factors of transition from high school to college, campus involvement, engagement in student organizations and their perceptions of campus climate were investigated through both a survey with 104…

This research concerns the culture of design education in the context of great change in the social and professional conditions of practice. Findings illuminate interrelationships among pedagogy, professional identity and the design of the instructional setting in programs that teach visual communication and interaction design. Participants'…

As colleges and universities face pressure to expand enrollments and provide access to diverse students, they find it difficult to recruit and retain first-generation college students (FGS). First-generation college students are significantly less likely to graduate due to lack of family support, financial strains, poor academic preparation, and…

This article expands the notion of biracial identity to include bicultural individuals and examines their adaptation of faculty culture in the United States. The cultural context of bicultural faculty described here may be similar enough to the situations in which biracial people often find themselves as they negotiate dominant and nondominant…

University and college counseling services face growing demands for services and self-reported increases in the level of presenting psychopathology, including need for psychiatric hospitalization. However, challenges in communication often occur between the systems of an inpatient psychiatric unit and an outpatient college and/or university…

Students with disabilities are entering colleges and universities across the nation in ever-increasing numbers, with the greatest percentage being students with learning disabilities (LD). Yet, students with disabilities often do not graduate from college at the same rate as students without disabilities. Self-determination is an important skill…

This study tested the negative relationships between organizational cynicism and organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior, and the positive relationship between organizational cynicism and turnover intention within the context of higher education. Going beyond previous research efforts, this study identified how these…

This article reports a case study of academics' perceptions of how the conditions under which they worked, at one campus of a multi-site regional Australian university, influenced their teaching practices. The data comprise transcripts of periodic meetings of a group of seven education academics, as they reflected upon the nature of their teaching…