Recent high dropout and low graduation rates in the South African higher education institutions as well as government funding cuts and the economic uncertainty due to COVID-19 pandemic have heightened the urgency for the higher education sector to improve its productivity. However, empirical evidence on the productivity growth of the sector…

How are university faculty members in STEM disciplines motivated to conduct research, and how does motivation predict their success? The current study assessed how multiple types of self-determined motivation predict research productivity in a sample of 651 faculty from 10 US institutions. Using structural equation modeling, the basic…

Researchers conducted a qualitative content analysis to investigate the observable involvement of 22 Governing Boards with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts at colleges and universities. Using a merged theoretical framework of Rall et al.'s (Journal of Education Human Resources 38:139-164, 2020) Culturally Sustaining Governance and…

The international expansion of higher education has intensified in recent decades with a rapidly growing number of international branch campuses appearing on the scene. This study investigates the economic, cultural and institutional, and educational determinants of transnational higher education on both the extensive margin (number of…

Over 50,000 Ph.D. degrees in Science and Engineering (S&E) are awarded annually by United States (U.S.) universities, but few studies have systematically considered how the various aspects of doctoral training can influence the occupational outcomes of S&E doctoral graduates. This inquiry draws from the National Science Foundation's…

Students from a lower socioeconomic background have a higher risk of dropping out of higher education. The underlying mechanisms of this association between socioeconomic background and higher education dropout are not well understood. Previous research in higher education has followed Tinto's model of academic and social integration to explain…

In this study, the effects of academic inbreeding on individual and institutional research productivity are examined to understand its impact as a recruitment policy. Over the past decade, in particular, there has been growing awareness of the problems posed by inbreeding in higher education. This study aims to expand on this awareness through an…

Research consistently shows that higher-education participation has positive impacts on individual outcomes. However, few studies explicitly consider differences in these impacts by socio-economic background (SEB), and those which do fail to examine graduate trajectories over the long run, non-labor outcomes and relative returns. We address these…

System governing boards fulfill roles as both regulators and protectors for their multiple constituent campuses. While centralized control provides many benefits to institutional members, such advantages are also be accompanied by limitations upon campuses to pursue expanded missions, fully compete, and spend according to individual rather than…

Research estimating the outcomes of higher education in Germany has widely ignored the private educational sector. This study focuses on labour market returns in terms of the income of graduates from private higher education institutions in Germany. Using data from the National Education Panel Study (NEPS) the results of the Bayesian regression…

As policymakers along with students and families demand information related to the return on investment in postsecondary education, it is critical to empirically assess the relationship between enrollment in higher education and future earnings. Previous research into the impact of college attendance on future income mostly focuses on selective…

A growing number of states are placing restrictions on whether public universities can increase tuition, and this trend is likely to continue in the future. Yet no research has examined whether tuition caps or freezes have induced more students--particularly from historically underrepresented groups--to enroll in public higher education. In this…

Public funding to higher education has declined over the years and many states have experimented with policies to encourage private sector donations to public universities. Building on research that examines the intersection of state policy and philanthropy, we examine the influence of a state policy on endowment gifts to the University of Wyoming…

Despite social class being a burgeoning area of research in the higher education literature, there is no single comprehensive measure of social class in university student populations. Most previous research has included objective single-item measures (e.g., parent education or occupation) to assess social class and then sorted students into…

One in three students suffers from at least one common mental disorder highlighting the high prevalence of health issues in higher education. At the same time, every third student drops out of university without achieving their degrees. Nevertheless, connections between health and students' dropout behavior have hardly been investigated. Grounding…