Four years after the onset of COVID-19, enrollment and persistence at community colleges is rebounding, although still not to prepandemic levels. Community college leaders report that a key strategy in encouraging enrollment and persistence is a drive toward more flexibility in course formats, including modes of delivery modality, materials, and…

This dissertation aims to explore the relationships of diversity and internationalization in Higher Education from an institutional level. The project focuses on how colleges and universities construct diversity projects through international students. The project seeks to address three core questions: (1) How are international students included…

Globally, one in three students are now enrolled in private higher education institutions (PHEIs), with the total reaching almost 70 million enrolments. This pattern is similar across a highly diverse Asia: more than 35% of students are enrolled in the private sector, and around 60% of higher education institutions (usually much smaller than their…

Does a school district that expands school choice provide better outcomes for students than a neighborhood-based assignment system? This paper studies the Zones of Choice (ZOC) program, a school choice initiative of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) that created small high school markets in some neighborhoods but left attendance-zone…

Care leavers, one of the most vulnerable groups in society, are underrepresented in higher education (HE). This study follows 16 entire birth cohorts of alumni of youth villages in Israel (born 1982-1997, N = 44,164) and is based on national administrative data. Using Propensity Score Matching we created a double sized comparison group from the…

This report contains college enrollment, persistence, and completion outcomes of high school graduating students based on the data submitted to the National Student Clearinghouse on graduating classes of 2016, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. High school diploma data are submitted to the Clearinghouse by schools and districts that participate in the…

In the 21st century, the exponential growth of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education and the corresponding critical need for STEM graduates in the profession have both outpaced the number of STEM graduates joining the workforce. This is a global problem, one to which the U.S. can relate. A literature review of research…

This study examined the impact of academic momentum (enrollment intensity, summer enrollment) and loss of momentum (developmental education incidence, excess credit accumulation) points on associate degree attainment among students in the fall 2014 cohort at a California Community College (CCC) in the Central Valley. Completers had a significantly…

This study analyzed data from 674 institutions collected through an AACRAO 60 Second Survey to investigate the levels of institutionalization of SEM in U.S. postsecondary institutions. Both Resource Dependency Theory (Pfeffer and Salancik 2003) and Institutional Isomorphism (DiMaggio and Powell 1983) were used to frame the study. The researchers…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the dynamic relationship between unemployment and higher education participation. By using panel data covering 40 sub-Saharan African countries from 2000 to 2020, we opt to use a well-developed dynamic panel generalized method of moments estimator. The findings show that the youth unemployment rate has…

This guest perspective argues that converting in-person summer pre-college program participants into matriculated, degree-seeking undergraduate students at that same institution is a multi-step process that involves: 1) strategic pre-college program recruitment, 2) a curated and well-rounded summer pre-college experience that is both academically…

As marketization and privatization strategies become commonplace in higher education, it is essential for institutions to understand how students make decisions about college choice. Students as consumers engage in complex college choice decision-making that is often impacted by institutional and personal characteristics, such as cost, location,…

This study utilized performance improvement theories, models, tools, and techniques to investigate why a new Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) Bachelor of Science program at a comprehensive university was experiencing low enrollment. The program was recently launched based on thorough research in the job market that indicated a high demand…

The student retention behavior of stopping-out is widely misunderstood and yet very important in explaining community college student enrollment patterns. Stopping-out remains understudied in higher education literature as it is challenging to collect data from students who discontinued their enrollment, and since these students are not retained,…

The purpose of this study is to compare the immediate college enrollment of students who participated in the community college's dual credit program in high school with students who did not participate in the dual credit program. Data from a local community college's dual credit program is analyzed to understand the effects of participation,…