While the coronavirus crisis altered all facets of life across the globe, its impact on American higher education posed immediate challenges to students and faculty alike. Disruptions in normal, in-person instruction affected all students' abilities to connect and create, but first-year students and their professors were particularly restricted in…

Although honors populations occupy only a fraction of institutional enrollments, they have undeniably changed the nature of higher education. This essay considers the impact of honors on university culture, processes, and infrastructure. Touted as a "critical element" of the comprehensive college experience for both students and faculty,…

In the ever-growing discussion of how to build and support honors programs that reflect the diverse communities our institutions serve, the recruitment of transfer students has only recently been identified as a key avenue to enacting more equitable programs. Reflecting on four years of recruiting, enrolling, and graduating transfer students in…

This study uses data from the 2018 "Student Experience in the Research University" (SERU) Survey of undergraduate degree-seeking students to develop a profile of an honors student. Nineteen research universities participated in the 2018 SERU Survey, with a resulting sample size of almost 119,000 undergraduate students, of whom 15,280…

Honors students are often regarded as the best and brightest at their universities, but the standard definitions of high achievement are not always useful for identifying talented undergraduate Black women. In a qualitative study of Black women in honors inside and outside the classroom at two urban predominantly white universities (PWIs), data…

In this article, the author asks members of the honors community to interrogate the way they narratively frame honors experiences so that these constructs are as inclusive as possible. Employing admissions practices that do not disadvantage students from underrepresented backgrounds is crucial, but also essential is that they do not…

The primary purpose of the current study was to explore the nature and process of transformation as described by students in their stories of first-semester experiences and to compare these processes to those outlined in transformative learning models in order to examine the degree to which they correlate. The secondary goal was to investigate how…

From the inception of the integration of predominantly White institutions in higher education marked by "Sweatt v. Painter" in 1950, The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) has been a battleground for educational equity. The university continues to find itself at ground zero in the battle for race and equity in higher education and…

Often administrators overlook the student voice in developing strategic plans, mission and vision statements, marketing strategies, student services, and extracurricular programming. Engaging students in these areas may enhance students' cooperation, interactions, responsibility, and expectations. In order to assess honors students' perspectives…

Families, especially those considering sending their children to a private four-year university, need all the help they can get in funding college. Annmarie Guzy's essay "AP, Dual Enrollment, and the Survival of Honors Education" in this issue powerfully spells out the financial benefits that accrue from using AP courses to satisfy…

For some students, intellectual curiosity and leadership are innate. For many, it must be nurtured. The Shaw University Honors College is an academic center of encouragement, interaction, and care for a diverse population of students. Many of them would otherwise never conceive of the marvelous opportunities and experiences they share during their…

Not every student has done honors work in the humanities, but all students experience research at a human level that necessarily recalls the work of the humanities. This article describes how Joe Kraus, a professor of literature at the University of Scranton, was inspired to see applied humanities in stories of human experiences, which helped him…

For the past eighty-two years, Monroe College has been committed to being a national leader in urban and international education. Established in the fall of 2004, the honors program has been transformative for the college, bringing together a wide range of professionals from across disciplines to provide innovative academic offerings. The program…

Honors education at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences (RUAS) focuses on students who are willing to invest more in their study than the average student. Selection criteria are the students' willingness to develop beyond what is offered in the regular curriculum and are not based on previous accomplishments. The additional challenge of the…

Student success and the "completion agenda" are important issues in higher education today (Complete College America). For honors programs and colleges, understanding and advancing these issues requires data-driven approaches tailored to the unique honors student population and broader institutional contexts. Honors faculty and…