Many policies in higher education are intended to improve college access and degree completion, yet often those policies fall short of their aims by making it difficult for prospective or current college students to access benefits for which they are eligible. Barriers that inhibit access to policy benefits, such as cumbersome paperwork, can weigh…

This study focuses on how admissions at selective colleges and universities represent key racialized organizations. We analyzed data from 50 individual interviews of admissions professionals, through a theory of racialized organizations to recognize admissions as practices that consistently reproduces systemic inequities. We reveal how…

State-level governing boards (SLGBs) can play an essential regulatory role as intermediaries between the public, state-elected officials, and campus-level leadership. However, these boards have been understudied within higher education relative to their enormous potential to influence postsecondary institutions and state political dynamics via the…

Over the past three decades, political candidates and elected policymakers have advanced a wide variety of publicly funded tuition-subsidy programs to improve college access and -affordability. These college-aid programs employ different subsidy instruments, target different types of students, draw from different funding sources, and come with…

Extant research neglects to examine how policymakers make decisions regarding funding allocations to higher education institutions. This case study analyzed the policy process surrounding the development of one model for funding higher education in Colorado. The study is anchored in a theory of policy design, which considers how groups targeted by…

Americans are increasingly divided in their views on higher education, often in alignment with their political affiliations. This study examines how perspectives on one of the most pressing issues in higher education, college affordability, differ across political ideologies. For our analysis, we exploit an original dataset of text appearing on…

Despite the scholarly attention on the effects of merit aid on college access and choice, particularly on the significant effect that states' varied eligibility criteria play, no studies have examined the policy process through which merit aid criteria are determined. This is surprising given the recent attention to state-level policy dynamics and…

This study investigates the changes in the structure of state-level governance for universities in Florida from 2000 to 2002, and examines three distinct narratives that explain the processes of and the reasons for the structural changes. The author presents three specific sets of literature which help set the framework for examining the recent…

Reviews the role of institutional policy, cites frequent abuses of institutional policy, and delineates several principles of policy management (development, communication, execution and evaluation). (Author/PG)

By selecting vantage points on thebasis of the issues involved and the circumstances that surround them, and viewing the process of governance from more than one perspective, the author presents a viable approach to governance of higher education institutions. (Author/PG)

Goals study programs for institutions of higher education. (IR)

Investigates the relationship of teaching styles, the faculty's perception of college goals, satisfaction, influence over policy issues, and organizational characteristics, and the teaching effectiveness of community college divisions. (Editor/PG)

Five basic definitions of evaluation are identified: (1) evaluation as measurement; (2) evaluation as professional judgment; (3) evaluation as the assessment of congruence between performance and objectives (or standards of performance); (4) decision-oriented evaluation; and (5) goal-free/responsive evaluation. (Editor/LBH)

Policy research, the systematic analysis of public policies, is applicable to undergraduate study because it develops interdisciplinary skills, and creates a program through which students and faculty members can cooperate in attempting to solve crucial social problems. (Author/PG)

Statewide faculty advisory committees as a mechanism for developing faculty involvement in policy formation, implementation, and evaluation are examined. The roles these committes can and have played are identified and the determinants of committee influence in the higher education policy area are outlined. (Author/MLW)