Call for Papers: SERU Research Symposium, May 1, 2009 UC Berkeley

CSHE > News > Call for Papers: SERU Research Symposium, May 1, 2009 UC Berkeley

This Year’s Theme:
Comparative Perspectives on the Undergraduate Experience
May 1 2009 – UC Berkeley

Organized by the Students Experience in the Research University (SERU) Project based at the Center for Studies in Higher Education, University of California – Berkeley
http://cshe.berkeley.edu/research/seru/

The Student Experience in the Research University Project, based at the Center for Studies in Higher Education at UC Berkeley, will hold the 3nd SERU Research Symposium on Friday May 1, 2008 on the UC Berkeley campus.

The SERU Call for Papers: The symposium will gather scholarly and policy oriented researchers to present papers focused on the undergraduate experience at major research universities. It is our goal to encourage research, analysis, and discussion on the current state of, and possible methods for improving, the undergraduate experience that results in publishable papers via the SERU Project or other scholarly and policy outlets.

We welcome proposals for research papers on any topic related to the undergraduate experience, including those that use the SERU survey database available to researchers. We are also seeking studies that take a comparative approach, as suggested by this year’s symposium theme – within a university, within a system such as the University of California, between institutions, or that offer comparative views between national systems of higher education. Among the suggested topics we seek papers on:

• Student Learning Outcomes
• Affordability
• Research Engagement
• Campus Climate

Paper Proposals are Due by January 30, 2009. Please include an abstract, your affiliation, and a short description of recent research interests, publications, and papers. Send your proposal (no more than 2 pages) as a Word document to: Elizabeth Berkes at eberkes@berkeley.edu

Papers are Due April 24, 2009 (no exceptions) and must be at least 12 pages long (double spaced) for distribution to symposium participants prior to the May 1st symposium. Authors will present a short presentation on their findings. Travel funds for authors will be provided for those outside of the immediate San Francisco/Bay Area. Those researchers interested in providing a working paper based on UCUES data but who are not familiar with the SERU database and protocols are encouraged to contact Steve Chatman (steve_chatman@berkeley.edu or 510-643-7141).

About the SERU Project and Consortium: The SERU Project is a collaboration between academic scholars and institutional researchers devoted to creating new data sources and policy relevant analysis to help broaden our understanding of the undergraduate experience and to promote a culture of institutional self-improvement. Based at the Center for Studies in Higher Education, and led by a faculty and IR Research Team, the SERU Project has produced an innovative SERU Survey - a census and online survey administered regularly since 2004 to some 180,000 students at all nine of the University of California’s undergraduate campuses.

The SERU Project has recently formed a SERU Consortium that includes an initial group of AAU research universities. Each participating campus will administer the census and online SERU Survey of undergraduate students – a version of a survey currently administered at all nine undergraduate campuses of the University of California system. A select group of major universities in other countries in Asia and Europe may also join the Consortium. The intent and design of the SERU Consortium is to form a critical mass of major research universities who are interested in both generating new institutional and comparative data and using it systematically as a tool for policy-relevant research and institutional self-improvement.

Faculty, graduate students, and institutional researchers are invited to attend the symposium to participate in the discussion and to learn of research opportunities using SERU Survey data.

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