Business schools globally operate in a market-driven environment and rankings are very much part of that environment. Rankings have a significant impact on a school's ability to attract the top scholars, the most able students and research funding. Schools use rankings to support claims of excellence and "world class" status. The purpose…

The Texas Ten Percent Plan (TTP) provides students in the top 10 percent of their high-school class with automatic admission to any public university in the state, including the two flagship schools, the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M. Texas created the policy in 1997 after a federal appellate court ruled that the state's previous…

The field of education is moving rapidly toward a standards-based approach to grading. School leaders have become increasingly aware of the tremendous variation that exists in grading practices, even among teachers of the same courses in the same department in the same school. Consequently, students' grades often have little relation to their…

The population of 674 first-year student-athletes culled from 5 successive freshman classes (2004-2008) at a mid-size midwestern university was examined to determine what combination of demographic, academic, and athletic variables best predicted retention into the 2nd academic year. The dependent variable of retention was chosen because it is a…

In this study, responses of 574 students from two colleges in Israel were used to examine three issues: (a) financial literacy (FL) among Israeli college students, (b) gaps in FL between Jews and Arabs, and (c) factors affecting students' FL. The results showed that Israeli students exhibit a low level of FL and that FL is affected by gender,…

The purpose of this study was to identify constructivist concepts that are important to student-perceived learning outcomes in college courses that use a virtual world, such as Second Life, as an educational tool. Identification of these concepts will help instructors to make the best use of their course design efforts in mediated environments.…

This research project explores learning styles of college students in the US and China. The Grasha-Reichmann Student Learning Style Scale, designed to measure how college students view their learning, was used as the main instrument for the current study. A total of 511 college students, 274 from the US and 237 from China, participated in this…

Retention and graduation rates of an entire cohort of 1,913 first-time full-time college students are analyzed. The effects of participation in a first year experience (FYE) course and of entry level academic preparation (ELAP) on retention and graduation are examined, both descriptively and with discrete-time survival analyses. Although…

In 3 studies, we tested the hypothesis that the higher ranked an individual's group is, the less cooperative the facial expression of that person is judged to be. Study 1 established this effect among business school deans, with observers rating individuals from higher ranked schools as appearing less cooperative, despite lacking prior knowledge…

This study identifies a theoretical mechanism that could potentially affect public university admissions standards in a context of demographic change. I explore how demographic changes at a prestigious public university in the United States affect individuals' evaluations of college applications. Responding to a line graph that randomly displays a…

Despite a major expansion in the number of students in higher education, students from rural areas continue to be underrepresented at selective universities. To reduce the urban-rural imbalance of entry to selective universities, institutions in many countries of the world have implemented admission policies favoring rural students. Previous…

A small group of faculty at Salem State University representing the disciplines of Chemistry, Finance, Geography, Political Science, and Social Work implemented a Team-Based Learning (TBL) model in their courses to explore its efficacy for increasing student engagement. Surveys were used to collect pre- and post-data from students to determine the…

The debate over religion and spirituality in higher education and their relevance to higher education is continual. Rockenback (2011) outlined the relevance in asserting that because religion and spirituality are part of the whole person, they are also part of the traditional value of the whole person. This traditional value of religion and…

This case exemplifies the unintended divisive cause and effect dynamic that can occur as a direct result of a seemingly innocuous school board policy modification. A change in school board policy at a local school district in Laredo, Texas, was designed to facilitate the fulfillment of a foreign language requirement for high school students. A…

The purpose of this study was to develop a portrait of students with psychological conditions, to determine the predictors of sense of belonging for these students, and to draw comparisons between the collegiate experiences of students with, and those without, psychological conditions. Using data from the 2009 Multi-Institutional Study of…