From 2005 to 2018, AAC&U led a national public advocacy and campus-action initiative to champion the importance of a liberal education for individual students and for a nation dependent on economic creativity and democratic vitality. At the heart of the initiative-titled Liberal Education and America's Promise, or LEAP, was a distinctive…

In 2019, twenty community colleges joined Strengthening Guided Pathways and Career Success by Ensuring Students Are Learning, a two-year project led by the American Association of Colleges and Universities. The project draws on the guided pathways framework to support institutions as they (1) map academic pathways and degree programs to student…

"How College Contributes to Workforce Success: Employer Views on What Matters Most" presents findings from a wide-ranging survey of executives and hiring managers that was conducted in partnership with Hanover Research. The survey explored employers' views of what constitutes workforce preparedness, the educational outcomes and…

The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) periodically surveys its members to better understand how colleges and universities are defining and articulating learning outcomes, providing access to engaging learning experiences (i.e., "high-impact practices"), and assessing student success. Though equity has been a…

As students face rising tuition costs, increasing debt burdens, and uncertain employment prospects, a central question arises: Is college worth it? Although empirical research consistently finds that a college education is a profitable investment, media stories continue to cast doubt on the value of the degree. Findings from two recent studies…

In the eighteen months between the COVID-19 pandemic's initial impact on higher education and the start of the 2021-22 academic year, many events shaping and crystalizing ideological perspectives transpired across the nation and around the world. For the millions of college students returning to campus, as well as for faculty and staff, the…

Drawing from campus-based research projects sponsored by the AAC&U and the Center for Urban Education at the University of Southern California, "From Equity Talk to Equity Walk" provides practical guidance on the design and application of campus change strategies for achieving equitable outcomes. The authors offer advice on how to…

Conversations about liberal education typically focus broadly on mission, goals, curricula, cocurricular educational opportunities, or overall student outcomes. Conversations about teaching and learning, by contrast, are more granular, focusing on what happens in the classroom, the teaching practices that faculty individually or collectively elect…

"We Hold These Truths: Dismantling Racial Hierarchies, Building Equitable Communities" describes the work of Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers at colleges and universities across the country to dismantle the tools that perpetuate oppression and entrenched racial hierarchies. By creating positive narratives…

The newest publication in a series of reports on the AAC&U Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education (VALUE) Initiative--?We Have a Rubric for That: The VALUE Approach to Assessment--compiles ten years of evidence to provide an argument-based framework for the assessment of student learning in higher education using the VALUE…

Presenting findings from a three-year project on Committing to Equity and Inclusive Excellence led by AAC&U in partnership with the Center for Urban Education at the University of Southern California, "A Vision for Equity" shares lessons learned about addressing equity gaps at thirteen participating campuses. The book details…

This report provides a summary of findings from an online survey on behalf of the Association of American Colleges and Universities among employers at companies that have at least 25 employees and report that 25% or more of their new hires hold either an associate's degree from a two-year college or a bachelor's degree from a four-year college.…

"Rising to the LEAP Challenge" provides a series of case studies that reflect the "real-world" application of students' cumulative learning through signature work projects, as put forth in AAC&U's [Association of American Colleges and Universities'] The LEAP Challenge. Such projects focus on complex questions that are…

"Essential Global Learning" is a compilation of seminal AAC&U articles about global learning. This publication provides a working definition of global learning, a framework for assessment of global learning, and case studies of high-impact global learning activities on a variety of campuses. It is a foundational publication for…

The ongoing digital revolution has created a complex and interconnected ecosystem that is fundamentally reshaping how we learn and communicate. Yet, despite its transformative potential, this digital ecosystem has so far had less of an impact on formal education than on other sectors of our society. Authors Randy Bass and Bret Eynon explore the…