This paper provides an account of the pilot and first year of a university improvement initiative, developed in response to a reaffirmation mandate from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. The initiative focused on increasing student retention and enhancing learning through the campus-wide use of team-based…

Students in Sitting Bull College's lay advocate program develop a well-rounded understanding of the law, enabling them to represent defendants in tribal courts. The program offers legal training for its students--and illustrates how American Indian nations can broaden legal representation for Native defendants in tribal courts. It is one of only…

Discussing socioeconomic status in college classes can be challenging. Both teachers and students feel uncomfortable, yet social class matters more than ever. This is especially true, given increased income inequality in the United States and indications that higher education does not reduce this inequality as much as many people hope. Resources…

Serious curricular reform is both exhilarating in its possibilities and exhausting in its particulars. When its scope is significant and it is undertaken in response to a variety of difficult challenges, curriculum revision becomes more about cultural change than a mere matter of logistics. While studying adaptive leadership with colleagues at the…

In Baldino and Cabral (2013) we introduced the concept of qualified labour-power as the commodity produced by the school system. In the present article we outline a quantitative model to evaluate the profit rate of educational programmes. We compare a medical school programme with a teacher education programme at a public university in Brazil,…

Writing intensive courses provide a means of addressing declining student writing proficiency. Programmatic learning goals accomplished through a writing-intensive course can be used to develop students' writing skills. For business communication faculty members to maximize the value of their courses to business programs, they should demonstrate…

The Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter (LRSM), University of Pennsylvania, was built in 1965 as part of the Advanced Research Projects Agency's (ARPA) Interdisciplinary Laboratories (IDL) program intended to foster interdisciplinary research and training in materials science. The process that led to the construction of the…

Purpose: This paper aims to present an overview of the design and implementation of a curriculum review undertaken at Plymouth University, UK, to gauge the incidence and status of sustainability in degree programmes across the curriculum. The paper outlines the methodological approach taken, reviews findings and summarises the effects and…

Several recent studies point to strong performance in economics PhD programs of graduates from liberal arts colleges. While every undergraduate program is unique and the likelihood of selection bias combines with small sample sizes to caution against drawing strong conclusions, the authors reflect on their experience at Carleton College to…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze and discuss the results that the accreditation system implemented in Chile has brought to higher education institutions and undergraduate and graduate programs, taking into account both its positive and negative implications. Design/methodology/approach: The examination of the Chilean accreditation…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the development of an academic service learning course in a foreign university branch campus in Malaysia, and its outcomes in terms of student learning. Drawing on the transformative learning theory and case study research, it discusses three forms of learning that characterise the students'…

Most distance learning institutions collect vast amounts of learning data. Making sense of this 'Big Data' can be a challenge, in particular when data are stored at different data warehouses and require advanced statistical skills to interpret complex patterns of data. As a leading institute on learning analytics, the Open University UK instigated…

This study addresses gaps in the theoretical and policy literature by examining the relationship between associate degree program credit requirements and four student outcomes: associate degree attainment, time to degree, final associate degree grade point average, and persistence. Using student unit record data, a longitudinal quantitative study…

This article describes the extra support required for outgoing students on their Year Abroad (YA) journey. It highlights the increasing need for and relevance of peer mentoring of YA students in preparing them to deal with different structures and organisations where external support might be insufficient or even non-existent. It also outlines…

The problems of implementing interprofessional training of physiotherapists in universities and at the bases of the practical training of students in Great Britain have been analyzed. The role of physiotherapists in issues of medical education and practical assistance within their own profession has been defined. The list of leading training bases…