Research News

Karen Webber is part of the opening panel session on November 9 for NACUBO’s virtual Integrated Analytics Planning Conference.

The session is titled Actionable Analytics for Changing Times and includes additional panel members Henry Zheng, and Carrie Klein.

A new book on the use of data analytics, edited by Karen Webber and Henry Y. Zheng, has been released by Johns Hopkins Press. Using a series of focused discussions and case studies, Big Data on Campus: Data Analytics and Decision Making in Higher Education, helps readers understand how analytics can support major organizational functions in higher education, including admission decisions, retention and enrollment management, student life and engagement, academic and career advising, student learning and assessment, and academic program planning. 

Denisa Gándara (PhD 2016) and Sosanya Jones investigate how policymakers use discursive strategies in advocating higher education policy in "Who Deserves Benefits in Higher Education?: A Policy Discourse Analysis of a Process Surrounding Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act." The paper appears in the fall 2020 issue of Review of Higher Education.

A research paper by Tim Cain appears in the fall 2020 issue of Review of Higher Education.

In "Collective Bargaining and Committee A: Five Decades of Unionism and Academic Freedom," Cain uses 50 years of reports by the American Association of University Professors’ Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure to unravel the complicated relationship between unionization and academic freedom on college campuses.

In an essay, "Reframing Decision Making in the Current Crisis," published by the TIAA Institute, Jim Hearn challenges industrial production rubrics and labels often applied to gage the efficiency and effectiveness of higher education institutions.

George Spencer is quoted in "How 2- and 4-year colleges can boost spring enrollment" in EducationDive.

Spencer's research of articulation agreements that define how credits transfer between schools (particularly between two-year and four-year higher education institutions) indicates an important part of convincing students to re-engage with higher education during the pandemic.

Karen Webber and Rachel Burns (PhD 2018) appear in Research in Higher Education. Noting the upward trend in borrowing among graduate and professional students, Webber and Burns investigate the implications on students and institutions and on policy development. 

Research on tracking systems in post-secondary education by Amy Stich appears in the Journal of Higher Education.

Her paper, "Beneath the White Noise of Postsecondary Sorting: A Case Study of the 'Low' Track in Higher Education," tackles the seemingly benign language used to perpetuate "organizational foundations, hierarchies, and processes that are constituting and constituted by race."

PhD student Ijaz Ahmad presented a paper with Jim Hearn at the 36th European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium on July 2, 2020.

Their quantitative comparison of 21 European higher education systems is titled A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Adoption and Diffusion of Performance-based Funding in European Higher Education. 

Tim Cain provides expert commentary on college student activism in "Graduate Student Unions Push Back against Institutions' COVID-19 Policies, Perceived Unfair Treatment on Campus." The article chronicles higher education student strikes at the University of Michigan and University of Kansas in response to COVID-19 concerns.

Researchers in the UGA Institute of Higher Education were awarded $690,027 by the National Science Foundation to study how students’ access to experiential learning opportunities is affected by their proximity to areas with major economic and workforce activity.

Karen Webber, professor of higher education, is PI, and Amy Stich, assistant professor of higher education, is co-PI on the project, “The Effect of Geographic Locale on Access to Work-Related Experiential Activities.”

"The Relationships Between State Community College Governance Centralization and Local Appropriations" appears in the latest issue of Higher Education Politics & Economics. The research by Lindsey Hammond (PhD 2020), Sean Baser (PhD student) and Alexander Cassell (MEd 2019) explores relationship between community college independence and local appropriations outcomes.

The rapid rise in popularity and monetization of Esports (virtual simulations of sports, competitive games, and military operations) in American culture is drawing the attention of higher education leaders. Welch Suggs (PhD), Jennifer May-Trifiletti (PhD student), Jim Hearn, and Julianne O'Connell (PhD student) prepared a research brief for the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) that highlights potential benefits and challenges of structuring formal Esports programs at institutions of higher education. 

Melissa Whatley (PhD 2019) and Amy Stich study inequalities in access to study abroad opportunities. Their latest research findings are published in The Journal of Higher Education online.

For this mixed-methods study, they reviewed how institutions communicated with students about these programs and how policies and practices mitigated or perpetuated disparities in participation among diverse student populations.

A team of scholars with ties to the Institute "explore[s] trustees’ involvement in a qualitative comparative case study of four elite US research universities." 

The paper, "How University Leaders Shape Boundaries and Behaviors: An Empirical Examination of Trustee Involvement at Elite US Research Universities," by Sondra N. Barringer, Barrett J. Taylor, Karley A. Riffe, and Sheila Slaughter appears online in Higher Education Policy this month.

​Based on research for their recent book, Matthew Mayhew and Greg Wolniak (IHE) hypothesize that higher education will experience a “golden boomerang” effect among students from wealthier families.​ But students from lower-income backgrounds might change plans and pursue less expensive online programs or community colleges close to home.

IHE’s postdoctoral research and teaching associate, Maurice Shirley, has received a 2020 NYU University-Wide Outstanding Dissertation Award for his work, Understanding the Effects of Student Employment on College Completion for Undergraduate Black, Latinx, and White Students at Two and Four-Year Institutions.

“I'm extremely honored to have my work recognized by NYU! With this award, I aim to continue contributing to conversations on enhancing student outcomes for traditionally underserved student populations across the U.S.”

Several higher education conference scheduled for this spring have canceled their physical meeting components. Those students and faculty who had made reservations and paid registrations through an approved travel authority already are instructed to cancel their travel plans, seeking refunds or vouchers from all vendors. Christina is available to answer your questions.

Megan Zahneis interviewed Tim Cain for her article "The Latest Assault on Tenure," published in The Chronicle of Higher Education on February 16, 2020. Zahneis profiles a tenured history professor at Centenary College, who was released in December after 19 years of teaching (12 with tenure).

Erik Ness is PI of a grant from Arnold Ventures and SHEEO to investigate authorization processes of higher education institutions across the 50 states.

The grant team, which includes PHD candidate Sean Baser, will evaluate the licensing and certification landscape across the nation and then examine several distinct state models in greater detail.

The research builds on the white paper, released last fall by SHEEO.

In January 2020, Greg Wolniak received a research grant from the Horatio Alger Association to conduct a follow-up study of the career and educational outcomes among students from adverse backgrounds. 

As a long-standing PI for the Association, in 2017 Wolniak launched the association’s first ever longitudinal study of the developmental trajectories of Horatio Alger Scholars, designed to follow the entering cohort of freshmen scholars through critical points in their college experience. 

Dr. Leslie Gordon was invited by Reinhardt University's Center for Innovative Teaching and Engaged Learning to make a presentation on ePortfolios to approximately 80 faculty on January 16.  

She also met with faculty currently piloting an ePortfolio platform to offer additional guidance on preparing faculty and students for implementation of ePortfolios across the institution. 

Wolniak was named a 2020 Research Fellow for the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP). The fellowship includes access to a large alumni survey database containing postcollege information on undergraduate arts majors. Using the database, Greg Wolniak and research partner, Amy Whitaker, will examine issues of diversity and equity in the arts, and the extent to which (and for whom) undergraduate arts education serves as a pathway to graduate education in fields like law and business.

IHE postdoctoral associate Maurice Shirley was named a fellow in the 2020 NCES Data Institute: Using Federal Datasets to Support Research on Postsecondary Education. The Institute provides an intensive introduction to NCES datasets and research methodologies using large-scale national data sources.

Shirley said, "I am excited about the prospect of meeting likeminded scholars, who are also dedicated to enhancing education. It's a unique opportunity to further develop a scholarly research agenda that has a positive impact on US higher education."

An article by a team of IHE faculty, students, and an alumnus appears in Educational Policy OnlineFirst. Lindsey Hammond, Philip Adams, Paul G. Rubin (PhD 2017), and Erik C. Ness use rhetorical analysis to examine how 11 influential intermediaries package their college completion policy messages.

The article, entitled “A Rhetorical Analysis of Intermediary Organization Documents on College Completion Policy,” is an extension of a five-state comparative case study into the roles that intermediary organizations play in fostering research utilization among policymakers.