Engaging Undergraduate Students in Research Activities: Are Research Universities Doing a Better Job?

Engaging undergraduate students in research activities has been advocated as an innovative strategy to improve American higher education (Boyer Commission, Reinventing undergraduate education: A blueprint for America’s research universities. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Stony Brook, NY, 1998). This study compared the frequency of undergraduate student research experiences at different types of colleges and universities from the early 1990s through 2004. The results indicate that the frequency of student research experiences increased since 1998 at all types of institutions and that students at research universities were not more likely than their counterparts elsewhere to have such experiences. The findings were consistent across major fields. To live up to their claims, research universities must find additional ways to involve undergraduates in research with faculty members. Shouping Hu is Associate Professor of Higher Education at Florida State University. He received his M.S. degree in Economics and Ph.D. in Higher Education from Indiana University. His research and scholarship focuses on postsecondary access and persistence, college student experience, and higher education finance. George D. Kuh is Chancellor’s Professor of Higher Education and Director of the Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University Bloomington. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Iowa. His research focuses on the quality of undergraduate education. Joy Gaston Gayles is Associate Professor in Adult and Higher Education at North Carolina State University. She received her Bachelor’s degree from Shaw University, Master’s degree from Auburn University, and Ph.D. in Higher Education from The Ohio State University. Her research focuses on college student learning and development.     

Multiculturalism Incorporated: Student Perceptions

Multicultural education has transformed higher education both in terms of research and in terms of student experiences. Given the complexity of our institutions, the overall effects of these transformations are mixed. Building on the successes and strengths of multicultural education as it is currently incorporated in institutions and programs will involve better understanding how it is perceived, positively and negatively, by those who are experiencing it first hand. In this article we seek to contribute to this reflection through a discussion of a survey of students’ perceptions of multiculturalism in a large first-year program in a research university. Patrick Bruch is Associate Professor of Writing Studies in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He received a B.A. in English from Western Michigan University and a Ph.D. in English from Wayne State University. His teaching and research focus on struggles for equality within and through higher education. Jeanne L. Higbee received her B.S. in Sociology from Iowa State University and earned both her M.S. in Counseling and Guidance and Ph.D. in Educational Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She currently serves as Professor and Senior Advisor to the Center for Research on Developmental Education and Urban Literacy, College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota. Her research interests are related to student development and the access and retention of student populations that traditionally have been underserved in postsecondary educational institutions. Kwabena Siaka is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Educational Policy and Administration at the University of Minnesota.     

Transfer Student Graduation Efficiency and University Administrators: New Bedfellows

Accountability is an important focus for nearly all-public higher education institutions. In 1997 the Washington State Legislature mandated an accountability measure designed to encourage public universities to increase student efficiency toward graduation. This accountability measure is assessed by a formula called the Graduation Efficiency Index. This qualitative study details the Graduation Efficiency Index's conception and ramifications for public higher education institutions. It further examines university administrators' perceptions of the Graduation Efficiency Index and transfer students' impact on the ability of three public institutions to meet mandated accountability goals. We include implications for practice. Susan Poch is the Director of the Student Advising and Learning Center at Washington State University. She holds a Ph.D. in Education Leadership, Higher Education from Washington StateUniversity. Her research focuses on the policy and practice of student transition. Mimi Wolverton is Professor of Higher Education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her areas of research include leadership, organizational change and organizational effectiveness. She holds an M.B.A. and Ph.D. in Education Leadership from Arizona State University.     

Swirling Students: Articulation Between A Major Community College District and a State-Supported Research University

As the country experiences a recession and institutions of higher education increase tuition to compensate for diminishing state support, the transferability of credits among and between institutions is essential to students seeking to earn a baccalaureate degree. Students, parents, and taxpayers cannot afford to pay twice for the same courses or for additional courses. In this environment, articulation becomes a very important issue, particularly when research has shown that a significant number of students enroll in more than one institution on their path to a degree. The focus of this article is the swirling students between the Maricopa Community Colleges and Arizona State University. Swirling students, also a national phenomenon, encounter a number of challenges that institutions need to address. The history of articulation agreements in Arizona was explored to provide insight into the transfer model available to students enrolled at the Maricopa Community Colleges and Arizona State University. The data revealed that the extent of student swirl is greater than initially anticipated and transcends beyond lower division coursework into the senior year. After considering the findings and conclusions based on the data, this article concludes that transparent institutional intentionality is imperative to effective articulation agreements that accommodate student swirl.     

Facing financial distress: a case study of the University of Washington

This paper describes the processes used by the University of Washington to meet severe budget reductions mandated by the State in the 1980s. A planning philosophy of smaller size and higher quality was adopted, and program elimination was identified as the only way to achieve permanent cost reductions. Program elimination occurred consensually, with faculty and student participation. While a substantial number of programs were eliminated, faith was kept with faculty by retaining all tenured professors in eliminated programs, and with students by allowing them ample time to complete degrees. The strategies the University has developed as a result of its experience of fiscal distress emphasizes increasing university autonomy. The University is striving to acquire authority over its income, is comparing itself with peer institutions to demonstrate underfunding to the legislature, and stressing to the legislature the benefits that come to the state from having a strong research institution.     

Enhancing student engagement in one institution

Student engagement is important to further and higher education institutions: it is understood to be a proxy for quality teaching and governments attach a proportion of funding to student retention and completion. Many institutions are taking part in student engagement surveys, using the data generated to initiate changes to policies and practice. This article presents an overview of literature on student engagement and quality teaching. It then briefly describes three projects in one institution in New Zealand that were designed to improve teaching and student engagement, and outlines key findings from them. The projects are then related to four of Chalmers’ five levels of quality teaching and Leach and Zepke’s six perspectives on engagement, enabling some conclusions about what Massey University is doing successfully and what more it could do to enhance student engagement. It is suggested that other institutions could use this different approach to review their current pedagogy and student engagement strategies.     

Institution-wide use of undergraduate teaching assistants

In 1973 Illinois State University initiated a campus-wide program in which junior and senior undergraduates were selected to assist faculty teaching freshman-sophomore courses. One or more Undergraduate Teaching Assistant (UTA) positions were assigned to all but three departments in the university. Although similar in purpose to smaller programs at other institutions, the sheer size of the program at Illinois State posed a variety of unique questions about administrative procedures, acceptance, and effectiveness, which are answered in this report. In general, the program was deemed highly successful by the faculty and student assistants and has been continued and expanded.     

The Influences of Faculty on Undergraduate Student Participation in Research and Creative Activities

Using data collected from surveys of college juniors and seniors and faculty members in related academic departments, this study examined whether faculty teaching and research orientations, as well as faculty external funding, had any impact on undergraduate student participation in research and creative activities. The results of the study indicated that faculty research orientation and external funding were indeed positively related to student participation in research activities. However, faculty members’ teaching orientation was not significant. Further analyses indicated that faculty teaching and research orientations had different impacts on a range of research and creative activities by undergraduate students. The findings from this study provide insight on ways of improving college teaching and learning as well as informing the development of institutional academic policies related to faculty and undergraduate education. Shouping Hu is Associate Professor of Higher Education at Florida State University. He received his M.S. degree in Economics and Ph.D. in Higher Education from Indiana University. His research and scholarship focus on college access and success, student engagement, and higher education policy. Kathyrine Scheuch is the Deputy Director of Research and Evaluation in the Division of Community Colleges, Florida Department of Education. She received her Ed.D. in Higher Education from Florida State University. Her research interests include undergraduate research activities and minority student issues. Joy Gaston Gayles is Associate Professor of Higher Education at North Carolina State University. She received her Ph.D. in Higher Education from Ohio State University. Her research interests include the college student experience and its impact on student development and learning.     

The introduction of Total Quality Management at Oregon State University

Oregon State University became one of the first research universities in the United States to introduce the Total Quality Management methodology into its administrative structure in 1989. Beginning with finance and administration, quality improvement teams were introduced and achieved significant improvement in process effectiveness and efficiency. Improved quality was also achieved and measured by customer satisfaction.TQM was expanded to all administrative areas — including student affairs, research, and faculty administration — over the next four years. TQM has also been used in curriculum development, teaching improvement, and research proposal development.This paper describes the implementation strategy used by Oregon State University and presents some of the results achieved. Particular attention is paid to implementation barriers found in university settings.Today, Oregon State University has over 85 process improvement teams working in both administrative and academic areas and has received many awards for its work in Total Quality Management.     

Developing Student Collaborations across Disciplines,Distances, and Institutions

Because quantitative biology requires skills and concepts from a disparate collection of different disciplines, the scientists of the near future will increasingly need to rely on collaborations to produce results. Correspondingly, students in disciplines impacted by quantitative biology will need to be taught how to create and engage in such collaborations. In response to this important curricular need, East Tennessee State University and Georgia Technological University/Emory University cooperated in an unprecedented curricular experiment in which theoretically oriented students at East Tennessee State designed biophysical models that were implemented and tested experimentally by biomedical engineers at the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Technological University and Emory University. Implementing the collaborations between two institutions allowed an assessment of the student collaborations from before the groups of students had met for the first time until after they had finished their projects, thus providing insight about the formation and conduct of such collaborations that could not have been obtained otherwise.     

Distance and intrastate college student migration

Most studies of student migration focus on interstate migration of college students, largely because the aggregate data typically used are limited in geographic specificity to states. However, interstate migration is only a small part of the total student migration. Public institutions generally get most of their students from within their state; for example, 88 percent of first-time freshmen who enrolled in University System of Georgia institutions in 2002 graduated from Georgia schools. Such intrastate migration is seldom considered. This paper examines intrastate college student migration, using data for Georgia. Aside from such traditional measures of benefits and costs like tuition, financial aid, and school quality, a crucial explanatory variable in our analysis is the distance from a student's home to the different Georgia state institutions. Our empirical results indicate that student intrastate migration is strongly discouraged by greater distance, but with effects that differ across types of higher education institutions.     

Twenty years of productivity in ETR&;D by institutions and authors

This study was conducted to identify the most productive institutions and the most productive ETR&D authors from 1989 to 2008. Productivity scores were calculated using the number of first, second and third authorships in the journal. Arizona State University had both the highest institutional productivity score and the most authorships overall, while Florida State University had the most first authorships. Michael Hannafin of the University of Georgia ranked first in author productivity score and tied for first with Howard Sullivan of Arizona State for total authorships. David Jonassen of the University of Missouri had the most first authorships. Productivity patterns among top-ranked institutions and top-ranked authors are discussed.     

"纵横双向"网格化博士生培养质量保障体系探究与实施——以天津大学药物科学与技术学院为例

天津大学药学院积极响应学校作为教育部博士生教育综合改革试点历史性要求,建立"纵向+横向"系统网格化质量保障体系.学生入校始,即"纵向"为每位博士生建立个人培养学术档案,将入学至毕业的各个环节进行跟踪;此外"横向"将所有博士生培养过程进行汇总,掌握整体情况,同时也可将某位博士生的进展情况在院内进行较为精准的定位,以确定继续扶持以取得更好的成绩,或者启动预警机制.该方法既实现了博士生培养过程的个性化管理,又能帮助导师和学院及时掌握每位学生的学业动态,为院级单位博士生培养质量管理提供有力支持.     

对新时期高校学生社团建设的几点思考

随着高等教育改革的不断深入,日益蓬勃发展的大学生社团在校园文化建设、素质教育以及学生自我教育、自我管理、自我服务中发挥着越来越重要的作用。但学生社团建设也存在一些有待解决的问题。     

Strategic technology planning in higher education

Higher education institutions struggle with planning for future needs, growth, and, sometimes, contraction. As student populations expand and as faculty members adopt new technologies, universities struggle to support these needs. To the casual observer, it may seem that the technology planning process is haphazard. This article details a process that organizations can use to develop a strategic plan to satisfy near‐ and long‐term technology needs. A case study of how this process was used to develop a technology roadmap at San Diego State University will be discussed.     

Fitting the Mold of Graduate School: A Qualitative Study of Socialization in Doctoral Education

Doctoral student attrition in the United States has reached alarming proportions, with reported rates of approximately 50% across disciplines (Nettles and Millett 2006). Attrition rates of underrepresented populations have been reported at higher rates across disciplines (Council of Graduate Schools 2004), pointing to a disparate experience for these students. Socialization has been shown to be a determining factor in doctoral student success and retention (Turner and Thompson 1993) while not necessarily reflecting how the socialization experience differs by disciplinary and institutional contexts. Through this qualitative study I sought to understand the effects of the socialization process upon doctoral student success and retention in the disciplines of chemistry and history at two institutions. Results highlighted a disparate experience for women, students of color, students with families, part-time students, and older students. Suggestions for policy, practice, and further research are included. Susan K. Gardner  received her Ph.D. in Higher Education from Washington State University and is currently Assistant Professor of Higher Education at the University of Maine in Orono. Her research interests include doctoral education, student development, and issues of social justice in higher education. She can be reached at susan.k.gardner@maine.edu.     

Measurement of instructional effectiveness

The problem of measuring instructional effectiveness was examined, and a rationale was offered for employing “student progress on relevant objectives” for this purpose. To assess such progress, it was suggested that instructor ratings of the importance of objectives be combined with student ratings of progress on these objectives. On the basis of this suggestion, data were collected from 708 undergraduate classes at Kansas State University. An analysis of these data resulted in the following conclusions:

1. Faculty members appeared to make reliable judgments of the relative importance of these objectives.
2. Student progress ratings were made with acceptable reliability when there were 20–25 raters. Reliability of the overall progress measure was satisfactory when only 10 raters were used.
3. Students used some discrimination in rating progress on various objectives, but their ratings were also noticeably subject to the halo effect.
4. An indirect test of the validity of class progress ratings yielded positive results.

The proposed method of evaluating instruction appears generally feasible and useful. Its application would provide a practical approach to judging teaching success. Such an approach is essential before investigations can be undertaken of how teaching might be improved.     

Matching between students and universities: What are the sources of inequalities of access to higher education?

It is assumed that a perfect balance between student academic achievement and the quality of the university they attend is beneficial both for students and higher education institutions (HEIs). Matching theory predicts the existence of perfect match between the two groups in the absence of transaction costs associated with university enrolment. However, in this study we show cases of mismatch situations in Russia under the Unified State Exam—the standardised student admission mechanism. The reasons for minimal transaction costs and the emergence of unequal access to HEIs were studied. Based on data on Moscow high school graduates who entered university, the determinants of the mismatch between the quality of universities and applicant abilities were assessed. Whilst overall favourable matching results are established, we show that individual student achievement results are subject to the influence of school and family characteristics. Thus, inequality of access can be formed at stages preceding higher education enrolment.     

A Model for Creating Engaged Land-Grant Universities: Penn State’s Engagement Ladder Model

The original mission of the state and land-grant university was to engage with communities to solve problems and improve the quality of life for the citizenry. Today most state and land-grant universities have moved far away from their original mission and are struggling to become engaged with the communities they serve. In this case study, we highlight some of the steady progress toward engagement that has recently occurred at The Pennsylvania State University. We catalogue how strong vision and leadership; infrastructure reorganization; and the active involvement of faculty, students, and community partners have revitalized the land-grant mission at Penn State. Keith R. Aronson is the Assistant Director of the Social Science Research Institute and the Children, Youth, and Families Consortium, The Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Aronson received his B.A. from Rutgers University, M.A. from Ball State University, and Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University. He is a clinical psychologist with a specialization in biobehavioral health and is interested in understanding how research conducted at universities and colleges can better impact communities. Nicole Webster is Assistant Professor of Agricultural and Extension Education, The Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Webster received her B.A. from the University of Florida and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Michigan State University. Her special interest is in service-learning research, particularly among minority youth.     

Organizational planning and policy analysis: Combining theory with experiential learning

Planning is vital to the continued effectiveness of educational institutions. The course described in this paper succeeds in combining two crucial elements of a student's comprehension of the planning process: first, an overview of the strategic planning literature provides a theoretical underpinning; then, an experiential planning exercise reinforces and extends the student's appreciation for this complex process. This course focuses on the alternative futures approach to planning. This approach has the added benefits of linking a study of relevant developments in the real world, through the planning process, with strategy formulation for the simulated institution.He obtained his Ph.D. at the Florida State University in 1969. His research, writing, and teaching activities focus on using futures research methods in planning and policy analysis. David M. Brock is a doctoral student in higher education and a lecturer in business at North Carolina State University. His teaching and research activities focus on the areas of business strategy, consumer behavior, and applications of corporate strategic principles to colleges and universities.