Master's Institutions Research Articles

Reaching for Excellence Through Equity or Prestige? US Private Master's Comprehensive Institutions and Low‐Income Students

ABSTRACTPrivate master's comprehensive institutions (PMCIs) in the United States navigate pressures to expand college access and equity while striving for prestige in the academic hierarchy. To strive for prestige entails competing for world‐class status of greater selectivity, research intensity and resources, but such a pathway to excellence may, because of market‐competition, deepen institutional and student stratification in the sector. In this study, we examine how organisational characteristics associated with striving influence low‐income student enrolment at PMCIs over time. Our panel analysis revealed selected factors constraining the enrolment of low‐income students at the average PMCI. But the magnitude of these statistical relationships was rather modest and did not suggest dramatically worsening institutional and student inequality in the sector. These findings support a flexible theory of organisational fields, illuminating more equity‐centred behaviours at the typical PMCI than what prior literature indicates. We discuss implications for research and policy emphasising equity's connection to institutional excellence.

Scholarly Requirements and Support for Nursing Faculty Development and Career Advancement: A Nationwide Delphi Study.

The aim of the study was to better understand the scholarship requirements and support for nursing faculty as they work to advance their scholarship and careers. Nursing faculty are often required to participate in teaching, service, and scholarship. New faculty often struggle with the scholarship component. A nationwide Delphi study was conducted, surveying deans and/or associate deans for research at master's and doctoral degree-granting institutions. Scholarly requirements provided for faculty to enable development of scholarship were well defined: having a dedicated leader; funding support; a culture of scholarship; publications, presentations, and grant writing expectations; formal programs; mentors; and support. This study provided a beginning understanding of important aspects of faculty support for scholarship and career development. More information is needed to determine if the support structures and activities described reach faculty and enhance career development.

Decomposing financial inequality across U.S. higher education institutions

The level of financial inequality among U.S. higher education institutions has important implications for students and society, yet few scholars have examined this topic using established methods for measuring inequality. This paper updates and extends previous work while introducing decompositions that shed light into key trends that we observed for the 2004–2017 period: increasing inequality in total expenditures and decreasing inequality in per-student expenditures. The results of our decomposition highlight how these opposing trends related to rising differences in enrollments and an increasingly positive correlation between an institution's enrollment level and its expenditures per student. Our decomposition results also show that both between-group differences and within-group differences contributed to the observed trends. Further examination of within-group differences reveals that inequality patterns differed meaningfully by institutional type, with doctoral universities and private baccalaureate colleges possessing higher levels of inequality and a more positive correlation between per-student expenditures and enrollments than master's institutions and public associate's colleges.

US academic libraries' staffing and expenditure trends (1996–2016)

PurposeThis paper explores trends over time in library staffing and staffing expenditures among two- and four-year colleges and universities in the United States.Design/methodology/approachResearchers merged and analyzed data from 1996 to 2016 from the National Center for Education Statistics for over 3,500 libraries at postsecondary institutions. This study is primarily descriptive in nature and addresses the research questions: How do staffing trends in academic libraries over this period of time relate to Carnegie classification and institution size? How do trends in library staffing expenditures over this period of time correspond to these same variables?FindingsAcross all institutions, on average, total library staff decreased from 1998 to 2012. Numbers of librarians declined at master’s and doctoral institutions between 1998 and 2016. Numbers of students per librarian increased over time in each Carnegie and size category. Average inflation-adjusted staffing expenditures have remained steady for master's, baccalaureate and associate's institutions. Salaries as a percent of library budget decreased only among doctoral institutions and institutions with 20,000 or more students.Originality/valueThis is a valuable study of trends over time, which has been difficult without downloading and merging separate data sets from multiple government sources. As a result, few studies have taken such an approach to this data. Consequently, institutions and libraries are making decisions about resource allocation based on only a fraction of the available data. Academic libraries can use this study and the resulting data set to benchmark key staffing characteristics.

Estimating Tuition Elasticity of Student Enrollment: The Case of a Regional Comprehensive Master's Institution

This study examines the tuition elasticity of student enrollment for a public regional comprehensive master’s university, Pittsburg State University in Kansas. Tuition elasticity is a measure of the responsiveness of student enrollment decisions due to changes in tuition over time. This measure is useful as it indicates how changes in tuition policy will affect revenue. Using 32 years of institutional, state, and national data, elasticity measures are estimated for various cohorts of students, including freshmen, transfers, undergraduates and graduate students. The model controls for factors other than tuition that are also likely to influence enrollment, such as: the availability of scholarships, household income, the relative cost of alternative schools, the economic environment, and the pool of recent high school graduates. The results indicate that freshman students are more sensitive to changes in tuition than other undergraduate students in general – a one percent increase in tuition and fees is expected to result in a decrease in freshman enrollment of between 1.19 and 1.29 percent, holding all else constant. Both undergraduate transfer students and graduate students are found to be insensitive to increases in tuition and fees. These and other results are discussed relative to their policy implications for similar institutions contemplating increases in tuition.

Economies of scale and scope at public master's institutions: Evidence accounting for spatial interdependency

ABSTRACTThis study examines costs of public master's colleges and universities in the United States by employing panel data on 248 institutions spanning fiscal years 2004–2012. Our analyses estimates a flexible fixed cost quadratic function that also accounts for spatial interdependency to empirically investigate the economies of scale and scope with regards to undergraduate enrollment, graduate enrollment, and research at public master's institutions. Economies of scale exist for undergraduate and graduate education at mean, below and above it, but not for research. Ray economies of scale are present around and below mean. Economies of scope both at the individual and global level are found at current mean, below, and above output levels.

Social Media Use in Academic Libraries: A Phenomenological Study

Academic libraries are increasingly engaged on social media in order to connect with diverse community groups and move beyond the traditional bounds of the library. This research uses a phenomenological approach and Institutional Theory to explore social media postings at six different public and private university libraries in two Midwest states. The research addresses what themes emerge among the university library's social media pages and what, if any, differences in themes emerge based on the status of the library in question. Social media postings included ten different codes: archives; collections; events; exhibits; facility; library community; sentiments; services; site management; and university community. These codes were tied to three different themes: libraries create a sense of outreach and advocacy with the goal of establishing community connection, providing an inviting environment, and access to content as needed or desired. Ultimately, while libraries at universities with an ARL library or an MLS granting degree program showed a similar breakdown between these three themes, libraries at other master's degree institutions spent less time on making community connections in lieu of posting content and information about the library's environment.

What Academic Library Leadership Lacks: Leadership Skills Directors Are Least Likely to Develop, and Which Positions Offer Development Opportunity

Though research into academic library director leadership has established a list of leadership skills required for success, little research has been done to establish which skills are more difficult to acquire than others, and which library positions best help aspiring library directors to acquire those skills. This research surveyed academic library directors at American Master's granting institutions about leadership skill development in their previous academic library positions. In particular, the leadership skills academic library directors indicated they had least opportunity to develop included fundraising and donor relations, school safety issues, legal issues, compliance issues, and facilities planning. For these leadership skills, data indicate that development opportunities are perceived to be limited to the academic library positions of director, assistant director, and positions where one is the head of multiple academic library departments.

The Relationship Between Academic Library Department Experience and Perceptions of Leadership Skill Development Relevant to Academic Library Directorship

Though research into academic library director leadership has established leadership skills and qualities required for success, little research has been done to establish in which library departments library directors were most likely to acquire those skills and qualities. This study surveyed academic library directors at Carnegie-designated Master's granting institutions about their previous academic library positions, and what skills and qualities they perceived to have exercised in those positions. The two research questions addressed by this portion of the research project were: (1) is the perception of library leadership skill and quality development equal across departmental experience? and (2) what are the leadership skills and qualities most commonly perceived to be used in each department? Findings revealed that respondents perceived that there were great opportunities to exercise leadership qualities in previous positions, but few opportunities to develop more empirically measurable leadership skills. In addition, respondents perceived those skill development opportunities to be available only once working in the position of library director or in the administration department of academic libraries.

Institutional Citizenship: Supporting Successful Technology Initiatives

Though research into academic library director leadership has established leadership skills and qualities required for success, little research has been done to establish in which library departments library directors were most likely to acquire those skills and qualities. This study surveyed academic library directors at Carnegie-designated Master's granting institutions about their previous academic library positions, and what skills and qualities they perceived to have exercised in those positions. The two research questions addressed by this portion of the research project were: (1) is the perception of library leadership skill and quality development equal across departmental experience? and (2) what are the leadership skills and qualities most commonly perceived to be used in each department? Findings revealed that respondents perceived that there were great opportunities to exercise leadership qualities in previous positions, but few opportunities to develop more empirically measurable leadership skills. In addition, respondents perceived those skill development opportunities to be available only once working in the position of library director or in the administration department of academic libraries.

Library Homepage Design at Medium-Sized Institutions

This study sought to describe and analyze the homepages of academic library Web sites at 313 medium-sized bachelor's and master's general institutions. The authors evaluated an unprecedented number of library homepages for the presence of 118 design elements and reported common and uncommon design practices at these libraries. They found 21 elements present on at least half the homepages studied. Seven of these occurred on at least 80 percent of the pages studied: links to the university homepage, library hours, images, portals by subject or links to subject guides, links to interlibrary loan services, “about” sections, and catalog searches. This study serves as a baseline for the current practices of homepage design for a large population of libraries. The results of this survey indicate trends and common design elements for library Web site design and show which elements Web designers and librarians at medium-sized libraries should consider including on their Web pages. Findings are compared with a similar study conducted in 2010, and this study in turn may provide a comparison point for future research. The study also reports characteristics of the implementation of discovery services for this population of libraries in unprecedented detail and provides descriptive information about homepage links to social media sites and mobile applications.

Data Curation Is for Everyone! The Case for Master's and Baccalaureate Institutional Engagement with Data Curation

This article describes the fundamental challenges to data curation, how these challenges may be compounded for smaller institutions, and how data management is an essential and manageable component of data curation. Data curation is often discussed within the confines of large research universities. As a result, master's and baccalaureate institutions may be left with the impression that they cannot engage with data curation. However, by proactively engaging with faculty, libraries of all sizes can build closer relationships and help educate faculty on data documentation and organizational best practices. This article describes experiences from one master's comprehensive institution as it engages with data management. In a period of several months, James Madison University went from no formal data advising to a coordinated data management support plan for faculty. Collaboration across campus—and across institutions—can help make data curation an accomplishable goal. This article provides guidance on how to begin the conversation and plan for future engagement with data curation, and makes comparisons to scalable efforts with institutional repositories to further encourage participation with data curation. Research universities account for 297 of the 1,832 four-year institutes of higher education in the United States of America. There must be stewardship of the data from the remaining 1,535 organizations to help preserve the complete intellectual product of the nation. Additional resources and readings are included.

Pharmacy School Provenance and Pharmacy Practice

Pharmacy School Provenance and Pharmacy Practice

Source–message–receiver in integrated marketing communication

This is an abbreviation of the author's dissertation. Because integrated marketing communication (IMC) research has traditionally been problematic, this study used an existing scale to determine that higher educational institutional advancement (alumni, marketing-communications, development) is an appropriate venue to study the process model of IMC. Responses from practitioners representing every department within advancement, every regional accrediting body and each of the baccalaureate to doctoral Carnegie Classification levels indicated the IMC process model is both understood and its tenets practiced by practitioners at all sizes and levels of institution. In addition, because IMC is criticized as theoretically weak, this study demonstrates the multi-dimensional construct of IMC can be examined through a source–message–receiver lens, thereby contributing the basic underpinning of much communication theory as a possible core for studying the process model. The study collected and analyzed descriptive data regarding the function of institutional advancement within US institutions of higher education and its practitioners. Practitioners representing baccalaureate institutions agreed most to the IMC dimensions of differentiated communications and database-centered communications. Practitioners representing doctoral institutions had the highest agreement on the dimension of unified communications and those representing master's institutions had the most agreement on the relationship-fostering dimension. Summary statement: US baccalaureate to doctoral institutions’ advancement practitioners’ survey responses demonstrated an understanding of the best practice concepts inherent in the IMC model. It seems that more than 50 years of at least one professional development organization educating its members about best practices stemming from many disciplines, including advertising, marketing and public relations, overlapping with more than 20 years of various industries’ trade publications espousing the benefits of IMC, have led to great interest at the practitioner level, the level where individuals focus on outputs and processes. However, the criticisms of IMC at the academic level are all too valid – there is no definitive definition nor is there a definitive measure, especially one that can easily be adapted to fit all types of industries and practitioners that may benefit from incorporating the process model. That IMC as a monolithic concept is difficult to examine is not in question. Still, the secondary and primary research in this study seems to indicate that both practitioners and scholars should continue current efforts.

Current Trends in Institutional Repositories for Institutions Offering Master's and Baccalaureate Degrees

This article describes the current practices of institutional repositories at master's and baccalaureate institutions (M&BIs) in the United States. The focus includes repository content composition, operational style, development history, and accessibility. The research studies a group of institutional repositories through the analysis of their content elements. The article also discusses important management issues and identifies challenges. This research can provide a valuable resource to other libraries of similar type and size for the planning and implementation of new repositories, as well as assess the current environment of institutional repositories.

Current Trends in Institutional Repositories for Institutions Offering Master's and Baccalaureate Degrees

This article describes the current practices of institutional repositories at master's and baccalaureate institutions (M&BIs) in the United States. The focus includes repository content composition, operational style, development history, and accessibility. The research studies a group of institutional repositories through the analysis of their content elements. The article also discusses important management issues and identifies challenges. This research can provide a valuable resource to other libraries of similar type and size for the planning and implementation of new repositories, as well as assess the current environment of institutional repositories.

Research and Solutions: Effects of Climate and Institution Size on Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Colleges and Universities in the United States

Emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) associated with buildings may constitute as much as 40 percent of total emissions by the United States. Data on GHG emissions for 238 institutions, including doctorate-granting universities, master's institutions, and baccalaureate colleges, were acquired from the American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). A regression model that included gross building area, July mean temperature, and January mean low temperature was used to predict GHG emissions (R2 = 0.911). A similar model was developed for emissions as a function of full-time equivalent (FTE) students, but the fit was poorer (R2 = 0.693). The percentage of coal in the energy source for electric power generation was also a factor, with higher percentages resulting in higher emissions. Institutions with high percentages of coal as their electricity source also experienced low January temperatures, making it difficult to distinguish the effects of energy source from winter climate. For doct...

Mission Creep and Teaching at the Master's University

The accusation of mission creep at master's institutions is not erroneous. It has been occurring for decades. The imitation of the research universities by other institutions is not good for the institutions, for their faculty members, or for the cause of college teaching. Research and scholarship need to be differentiated so that scholarliness, not research activity, is seen as the foundation for good teaching. The model master's institution professor will engage in modest amounts of disciplinary research, as a complement to, not as a support or replacement for, scholarly teaching and scholarly engagement with the community.

Satisfaction and Importance Factors in Athletic Training Education

Objective: To examine various institution and student demographics and the ratings of Satisfaction (SAT) and Importance (IMP) for several programmatic variables within Athletic Training Education Programs (ATEPs). Design and Setting: A survey of SAT and IMP ratings of programmatic variables conducted with accredited, entry-level ATEPs. Subjects: Students enrolled in their final semester/term. Measurements: Students' SAT and IMP was measured by asking students to rate, on a 10-point Likert scale, seven programmatic factors. Various institution/program (state versus private affiliation, athletic division, Carnegie classification, and university enrollment) and student (age, gender, self-reported grade point average) demographic data were collected. Results: The sample consisted of 403 students from 99 institutions. Total SAT and IMP was computed by calculating the mean score across all seven factors. An analysis of variance showed a significant difference (F2,275 = 4.25, P = .01) for SAT within Carnegie classification with master's institution students more satisfied than doctoral institution students. A repeated measures analysis found significant differences (F6,292 = 34.77, P < .001) between SAT factors with students more satisfied with instructor availability than the other factors A repeated measures analysis found significant differences (F6,292 = 53.64, P < .001) between IMP factors with the quality of instruction in the major and quality of clinical experiences rated higher than the other factors Conclusions: Our results revealed that the type of institution has a greater effect upon student ratings of SAT and IMP than the student characteristics themselves.

The Role of Master's Institutions in Developing Researchers: Rethinking the Master Plan

In our increasingly complex society, research and research training in master's institutions is just as critical as in doctoral programs, but with a different emphasis and purpose. In PhD institutions, research programs are generally considered to be for the purpose of advancing knowledge in the discipline and helping to prepare the next generation of university professors. In master's institutions, the primary purpose of research and research training is to facilitate the application of knowledge and to provide advanced educational, creative thinking, and problem-solving skills for graduates who will become the next generation of community leaders, most of whom will not pursue doctoral work. In this article I will (1) review the educational and social importance of research at master's institutions, (2) point out how the nationwide appeal for research engagement at all levels of higher education tends to be at odds with traditional higher education master plans and state funding formulas, (3) discuss the different purposes of research at doctoral versus master's institutions, (4) suggest strategies for increasing research productivity at master's institutions, and (5) offer take-home messages for master's institutions, doctoral institutions, and for state funding agencies.