The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (INCLUDES) program seeks to address challenges of broadening participation in STEM at scale. The NSF INCLUDES Aspire Alliance ("Aspire," or "the Alliance") aims to diversify…

The pandemic's impact on enrollment is best documented by timely reports issued by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Their reporting as of December 2020 showed that overall enrollment in fall 2020 declined by about 2.5%, although it was down more among undergraduates, about 3.6%. While students from all racial/ethnic groups had…

As institutions closed down in mid-March 2020, international students struggled with the decision of whether to stay or go back to their home countries, facing unpredictability in both scenarios. Department of Education guidance excluded international students from Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act relief, and federal guidelines…

Performance budgeting strategies have failed to realize the aspirations of their advocates for nearly 50 years. Performance budgeting underperforms because it is too simple a solution for complex problems. It overestimates the power of monetary incentives. Where improved performance can be easily achieved, it spends money where it is not needed.…

Digital transformation (Dx) refers to a series of deep and coordinated culture, workforce, and technology shifts that enable new educational and operating models and transform an institution's business model, strategic directions, and value proposition. Dx initiatives on many campuses are anchored in student success goals. As a result of this…

Florence Rosenfeld Howe died on Saturday, September 12, 2020. She had created an indelible life of magnitude and consequence. In 1982, when Howe was 53 years old, she published an influential article in "Change," "Feminist Scholarship: The Extent of the Revolution." If the article now seems conventional, that is a sign of how…

In reaction to the murder of George Floyd this past summer, Marilee Bresciani Ludvik attended a university-wide teach-in designed to better equip us as a community to embody anti-racist behavior in and out of the classroom. It included first-person direct self-report narratives from two very successful African American female professors who shared…

Institutions of higher education face unprecedented challenges in serving their students and greater society. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic profoundly disrupted research and education globally, colleges and universities had been working for decades to better respond to societal, student, and faculty needs. The full impact of the COVID-19…

For decades, educators and policy makers have called for reform in higher education, yet now the urgency is palpable. The COVID-19 pandemic and heightened attention to systemic racism have highlighted the fact that outdated teaching practices can stunt student learning and trust of science, maintain systemic biases, and prevent equitable…

As some of the most stable and important structures in society, colleges and universities are rarely described as nimble. Yet, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, institutions across the globe not only shifted within days to online instruction, but many academic researchers also immediately launched efforts to understand the virus,…

COVID-19 forced higher education to convert to distance operations at short notice. Establishing a "new normal" as the pandemic subsides will be equally challenging. Institutions will continue to offer face-to-face teaching and distance learning. They need strategies for ensuring quality instruction in both modes. In this article, the…

Universities in the United States are evolving to meet the needs of an increasingly technological society. Although workforce preparation has always been one of the primary purposes of higher education, these efforts have reached new levels due to the extensive integration of technology in daily work and life. The future of work is expected to be…

The need to improve institutional performance seems clear considering equity gaps and the high costs associated with higher education. Although the idea of holding higher education institutions accountable for their students' success is laudable, it is also pushing many institutions to make decisions based on meeting externally imposed metrics.…

How do students define success? Surely, they have many of the same goals as policy makers and institutional leaders, but maybe they are aiming for something more. Since students are partners in higher education, the authors thought it was important to learn what they had to say. This led to a student success project for the Higher Education Data…

Elon University's Center for Engaged Learning facilitates multidisciplinary and multi-institutional scholarship of teaching and learning collaborations that now collectively represent over 200 scholars from over 120 institutions across more than a dozen countries. The collaborations have explored issues of engaged learning, in and beyond the…