United States Higher Education Research Articles

A higher education approach to active shooter incidents: Evidence from 40 United States university campuses.

In a post-9/11 environment with an increased United States (US) federal government emphasis on active shooter preparedness, this study seeks to understand how higher educational institutions have adapted to this changing policy environment. Furthermore, between 2000 and 2017, there were 15 active shooter incidents at US higher education institutions. This study provides data on how public and private higher education campuses are preparing for this increased active shooter threat. Interviews were conducted with higher education employees familiar with campus security policies from 40 higher education institutions across 18 states in the US. These colleges/universities also represented a range of institution type: community colleges (5), public institutions (9), and private institutions (26). Interviews were conducted with 18 Chief/Director of Campus Safety/Security, 14 members of campus police or security, seven Chiefs of Police, and one staff member familiar with campus security policies.

U.S. Visa and Immigration Policy Challenges: Explanations for Faculty Perceptions and Intent to Leave.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11162-023-09731-0.

Governance in Higher Education Institutions: a glimpse from the US

All over the world, higher education (HE) is perceived to be crucial and strategic for the development of regions and nations. In this aspect, the United States (US) higher education plays an important role, and it is recognized for several enduring features that make it distinct from other HE systems throughout the world. The US higher education is diverse and dynamic, with a commitment to academic freedom and cutting-edge research, and a wide range of institutions and programs are available to students. The enormity of the system exceeding 4,000 institutions and serving around 20 million students is clearly one feature. Its emphasis on access and availability is another. In recent times, one might wish to add its, perhaps, overzealous affinity for a market-driven philosophy. Finally, the mechanism of control through governing boards consisting of citizen-trustees that has endured since its beginning at Harvard College must be highlighted. The aim of this article is to present an overview on governance of higher education institutions (HEIs) in the US. We attempt to describe the main parameters around governance of public higher education, and we offer critical insights through a comparison with the private sector in the US and its European counterpart.

The Influence of University Recreation Centers on Student Return and Retention During COVID-19

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, university and college student enrollment has decreased by slightly more than 5% from fall 2019 to the present. While previous studies have revealed that student involvement in recreation center activities increases return and retention at college campuses, are these results still true during the COVID-19 pandemic? The results indicated that students agreed they returned and planned to remain at the university due to a sense of belonging created from involvement in recreation center activities. The results also revealed significant relationships between underclassmen and a sense of belonging from participating in recreation center activities. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is estimated that universities may lose between $17-$30 billion by 2025. From an applied viewpoint, the results offer information for university administrators to better understand how a student recreation center may attract and retain students during this unstable time in the United States higher education.

Greening on-campus housing: blending commercial and higher education contexts

ABSTRACT With the United States higher education sector representing over five billion square feet and expending over six billion dollars annually on energy costs, the higher education institution has an opportunity to flourish as a thought leader in integrating exemplary approaches to sustainable development throughout the campus. This manuscript puts forward a formal green rider framework as part of the on-campus housing contract as well as a research design for future implementation. The aim of this proposed instrument is to increase participation and accountability of students and higher education institutions in marshalling innovative sustainable development features. While a formal green rider can further the higher education institution mission of environmental stewardship, it can also prepare the next generation of leaders by furthering their ecological literacy by understanding how to apply environmentally sustainable concepts into environmentally friendly habits.

Diversity and Inclusion or Tokens? A Qualitative Study of Black Women Academic Nurse Leaders in the United States

Severe under-representation of Black women academic nurse leaders persists in United States higher education, and a major research gap still exists regarding experiences of these leaders, and facilitators of and barriers to their success. Our objective was to examine how race and gender influence how Black women academic nurse leaders’ function in their leadership positions, how they are perceived by their peers, and how their perception of race, gender, class, and power influences diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the workplace. Critical race theory was used as a guiding theory, and the study design involved narrative inquiry followed by thematic analysis. Four overarching themes with four sub-themes were revealed: (a) Paying a personal price for authenticity, (b) Being the only one is hard even when you are in charge, (c) The illusion of diversity and inclusion while trying to survive, and (d) Focusing on building and sustaining diversity, equity, and inclusion. Implications for nursing education including instituting training for faculty in anti-racist pedagogy and requiring nursing programs to meet inclusivity metrics for approval and accreditation.

ORGANIZATIONAL AND CONTENT ASPECTS OF STUDENT ACADEMIC MOBILITY IN THE USA

The integration processes, taking place in modern society, impact the system of higher education. The united world educational environment is being formed, demonstrating the coordination of educational standards, programmes, approaches to the training of future specialists in higher educational institutions of various countries. The integration of the system of Ukrainian higher education into the world educational environment determines the growth of academic mobility of students, for which the USA higher education is famous about. The aim of the article is to study the organizational and aontent aspects of academic mobility of students in the USA higher education. Research methods applied: analysis and synthesis of psychological and pedagogical literature; study of experience of particular American universities in the context of academic mobility, systematization, and generalization. Internationalization has been defined as one of the most important principles of academic mobility organization in the USA. Internationalization is a process in which the goals, functions and organization of educational services acquire an international dimension. This process involves the integration of national education systems, defining and development of general and universal concepts and components of their functioning, i.e. those principles that form the basis of diversity of national cultures, contribute to their mutual enrichment and provide systemic changes in higher education. Academic mobility is a form of organization of the educational process (in particular, by distance learning means), which provides the opportunity to study, teach, train or carry out research in another educational institution, even abroad, resulting in self-realization in learning and professional activities. The temporary study in other institutions of higher education is a characteristic feature of academic mobility of students. The main goals of academic mobility of students in the USA are the acquisition of professional and intercultural competencies, cultural experience of the host country through training in academic mobility programmes, in summer and evening language schools, project implementation, and research.

Collegiate Athletes’ Challenge, Stress, and Motivation on Dual Role

In the United States higher education, collegiate athletes mostly have a four-year eligibility within a five-year time frame to compete for and represent their institutions. During this period, collegiate athletes are expected to perform successfully in both academic and athletic roles so that they can maintain benefits, such as scholarships and eligibility. In other words, being a collegiate athlete brings about a multitude of pressures and stressors from handling this dual role, which include but are not limited to, scheduling classes, fatigue, financial pressure, and inflexibility of coaches (Cosh & Tully, 2015). According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (2020), collegiate athletes are only allowed to participate in athletic-related activities for 20 hours per week, four hours a day in season, and eight hours per week during off season (NCAA, 2020). However, previous empirical research has indicated that Division I level collegiate athletes spend about 40 hours per week participating in sport-related activities (Smith & Hardin, 2018). Even though collegiate athletes invest tremendous time and effort in athletics, less than two percent of collegiate athletes become professional athletes after college (NCAA, 2018). For collegiate athletes, both athletic and academic performances require tremendous amounts of efforts due to their intense schedule. That is, it is convoluted for collegiate athletes to have identical motivation or reasons for attending college and participating in their sport. While collegiate athletes strive to balance in both academic and athletic responsibilities, they exhibit various types of motivation factors. According to Doupona Topic (2005), female collegiate athletes seem to be more academically motivated and less athletically motivated compared to male collegiate athletes. Also, Beamon and Bell (2006) found that African American collegiate athletes place less emphasis on academics than athletics, and they place less emphasis on education than Caucasian collegiate athletes. For African American collegiate athletes’ academic underperformance and negative psychosocial experiences can happen due to unwelcoming campus climate, inadequate academic support, and an overemphasis on their athletic roles (Beamon, 2008). As mentioned above, only a few collegiate athletes have a chance to move on to professional sport after their collegiate career. That is, majority of collegiate athletes go through a transitioning process moving out from sport. Numerous studies within the literature support that collegiate athletes often have a difficult time transitioning out of sport (Lally, 2007; Smith & Hardin, 2018). Motivation may be one of the solutions to overcome this abstruse moment. To foster effective and successful higher education environments in collegiate athletics, it is essential to understand what motivates collegiate athletes in their dual roles and how collegiate athletes set up create and implement their goals.

What’s that smell? Bullshit jobs in higher education

This study examines the growth of administrative and non-academic staff positions in the United States higher education sector through the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We first document the growth of these employments relative to increases in faculty positions and student enrollments, as well as common explanations therefor. Finding those explanations wanting, we proceed to synthesize the work of David Graeber, Benjamin Ginsberg, Roberto Michels, and Thorstein Veblen, developing an alternative explanation that focuses on the bureaucratic tendencies of large organizations and the business principles that have underwritten college and university management for more than a century. Next, using Graeber’s typology of bullshit jobs as applied to higher education we generate testable hypotheses related to our explanation. We then conduct our empirical analysis of the incidence of bullshit jobs in higher education. Finally, we summarize and discuss our findings and conclude with suggested topics for future research.

Should we wear a velvet glove to enforce Information security policies in higher education?

ABSTRACT The United States higher education is facing a unique challenge in information security management due to its distinctive characteristics, such as decentralised structure, academic freedom, and shared governance. These characteristics sharply distinguish higher education from traditional corporations. Gradually, this is beginning to pose a challenge for higher education institutions to adopt the appropriate information technology governance framework, which, for traditional corporations, mostly addresses security governance and leadership in a top-down manner. To address this issue, we examine the effect of perceived information security management approaches on perceived security practices. Our results show that the perceived flexible-oriented approach of information security management is more effective to use in implementing security controls in high education institutions. This seems to contradict most of the findings in the literature that suggest that a control-oriented approach is more effective in enforcing information security policies. Research contributions and implications are discussed, accordingly.

Metaphor and Metonymy as Means of Formation of the British and USA Higher Education Terms with the Cultural Component of Meaning

Metaphor and Metonymy as Means of Formation of the British and USA Higher Education Terms with the Cultural Component of Meaning

Textbook Affordability in the Time of COVID-19

This article provides a background of the textbook affordability problem affecting students attending United States higher education institutions, both prior to and during the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, as well as potential solutions to the problem. Solutions discussed include the availability of open materials in online repositories, publisher responses like inclusive access, institutional incentive programs, and initiatives by library consortia or other statewide programs. The responses of various stakeholders to make textbooks accessible to students during the pandemic are also covered.

Is the Sky Falling (Again)? Observations on the Language Requirement in United States Higher Education

Is the Sky Falling (Again)? Observations on the Language Requirement in United States Higher Education

Cautionary Stories of University Indigenization: Institutional Dynamics, Accountability Struggles, and Resilient Settler Colonial Power

Increasingly, a discourse of indigenizing is being articulated in United States higher education. This article contributes to the limited existing research that examines how indigenization processes, well underway in Canada, are able to transform post-secondary institutions and/or how transformation is resisted and contained. With attention to institutional dynamics, Native studies’ centering of community accountability, and patterns of settler-colonial power, the study centers the perspectives and experiences at one university of Indigenous students, faculty, staff, and community partners. Interviews reveal four tensions or challenges of indigenization. “Hidden contributions” are the result of Indigenous people bearing the burden of rectifying the institution’s default colonial practices. Many individuals attempt to satisfy a challenging “dual accountability” to both First Nations and the university. Contradictions and uneven advances across the university create starkly varying experiences and reveal both promising change and disappointment. Finally, participants envision going beyond indigenization and decolonization by centering Indigenous intellectual autonomy and increasing accountability to First Nations. Interpreting these experiences and perceptions through logics of inclusion, reconciliation, and decolonization, the study suggests strategic approaches to address these tensions in future efforts in Canada and the United States.

Students’ perceptions of hospitality education quality in the United States higher education: Domestic versus international students

As the competition for recruiting hospitality management students increases among major hospitality management programs in the United States, updating programs based on student needs has become integral to program success. This study explored student perceptions of hospitality education quality in the United States and compared international and domestic student perceptions of 29 education quality attributes in five areas: student support, industry networking, innovative curriculum, learning environment, and program credential. A total of 329 usable responses including 69 responses from international students were collected at four hospitality management programs for data analysis. Overall, study results indicated that domestic students rated all five areas significantly higher than international students. However, some notable differences were found in the relative importance of education quality areas and individual education quality attributes between the two groups. Domestic students chose the industry network as the second most important area of education quality after student support, while international students rated the innovative curriculum as one of top two important quality areas. Detailed implications are discussed for program administrators and faculty.

Academic leaders’ response to the volatility of higher education: the influence of institutional logics

ABSTRACT The purpose of this research was to articulate the pressures faced by USA higher education leaders lived experiences and the relationship to problem definition, attention focus, and strategy choice. A conceptual Model of Strategy Choice by Higher Education Leaders is proposed to capture the dynamics between exogenous pressures and problems and leaders’ choice of strategy, and decision-making. The model addresses two social processes (sense-making and decision-making) associated with reproducing and altering institutional logics. The findings highlight distinctions between conventional, pre-transformative, and transformative leadership thinking and their association with different dimensions of problem definition, organizational learning, and strategy choice.

I on the Prize: Inquiry Approaches in Undergraduate Mathematics

In the United States (US) and elsewhere across the world, undergraduate mathematics instructors are increasingly aware of the value of inquiry-based instruction. In this research commentary, we describe the intellectual origins and development of two major strands of inquiry in US higher education, offer an explanation for apparent differences in these strands, and argue that they be united under a common vision of Inquiry-Based Mathematics Education (IBME). Central to this common vision are four pillars of IBME: student engagement in meaningful mathematics, student collaboration for sensemaking, instructor inquiry into student thinking, and equitable instructional practice to include all in rigorous mathematical learning and mathematical identity-building. We conclude this commentary with a call for a four-pronged agenda for research and practice focused on learning trajectories, transferable skills, equity, and a systems approach.

Stratification with Honors: A Case Study of the “High” Track within United States Higher Education

At present, U.S. postsecondary sorting is best evidenced by an increasingly stratified system of higher education. However, very little attention is paid to even deeper levels of stratification within colleges and universities where academic tracking and its consequences are manifest. Given this significant lack of attention to deepening levels of stratification within many of the most “accessible” postsecondary institutions in the U.S., the purpose of this article is threefold: (1) to introduce readers to the notion of academic tracking within the postsecondary sector, (2) to situate honors education within the U.S. postsecondary tracking structure, and (3) to demonstrate the depths of stratification within a system that is lauded as the contemporary architect of social mobility. Based upon qualitative data collected during the 2016–2017 academic year at one public 4-year “accessible” university, findings illustrate the persistence, structure, and depths of stratification as an unintended consequence of one university’s efforts to reconcile the competing goals of excellence and equity.

Understanding ELT Academics’ Teaching Methods in the United States: A Qualitative Study

While much research delineates effective and innovative methods for teaching second language in English Language Teaching (ELT) field, few studies occurred in the United States (US) context. Thus, the current study examines effective and innovative methods in ELT within the context of US higher education. In this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews, reflections and classroom observations were used to collect qualitative data from a sample group of 17 participants working in two US higher education institutions. The data were analyzed separately using content analysis. The results indicated that lecturers apply inquiry-based teaching and communicative teaching approaches enriched with technological facilities in their classrooms thereby enabling learners to improve productive and creative/critical thinking skills. Thus, it is recommended that English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers and lecturers should create second language learning environment in which topics regarding culture and real-life context are integrated into their teaching. Furthermore, this study also suggests that researchers do more study for future research.

HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM IN THE USA

The aim of the article is to analyze the system of Higher Education in the USA. It reviews the kinds of educational institutions and types of education which they provide. The system of Higher education in the United States of America is made up of two levels or stages. The first level is undergraduate education and when students complete it they usually become Bachelors of Art or Bachelors of Science. The second level is called postgraduate education which is completed with acquiring Master or Ph.D. degrees. There are several types of higher educational institutions such as colleges, universities, 2-year community colleges, conservatories, art schools, military academies and others. To be admitted in each level of higher education students have to take some certain standardized tests and prove their ability to manage the educational program. The article describes the system of funding of the USA higher education. The educational institutions can be categorized into public, private and for-profit schools. Private and for-profit colleges and universities are the most expensive schools. Students pay for tuition, room and board with their own money. There is a system of educational loans, scholarships and grants which you can take or receive if you do not have enough of your own finance. Americans are willing to pay for the education of their children as well as their own. It has to do with their belief that education will enable them to achieve success and financial stability. Many Americans follow the lifelong learning for professional growth, new knowledge and skills.