John Aubrey Douglass

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Dr. John Aubrey Douglass is Senior Research Fellow - Public Policy and Higher Education at the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) at the University of California - Berkeley.  He is the co-editor of Globalization's Muse: Universities and Higher Education Systems in a Changing World (Public Policy Press, 2009), and the author of The Conditions for Admissions (Stanford Press 2007) and The California Idea and American Higher Education (Stanford University Press, 2000 and 2007; published in Chinese in 2008).

Among the research projects he founded and leads is the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Consortium – a group of major research universities in the US, and now in China, Brazil and Europe developing new data sources and analysis for studying and improving student academic and civic engagement. He is also the editor of the Center's Research and Occasional Paper Series (ROPS), sits on the editorial board of a number of international higher education journals in Europe, China and Russia, and is on the international advisory board of a number of higher education institutes.

He has been a Visiting Professor at Amsterdam University College (a unit of the University of Amsterdam and Vrije University of Amsterdam), at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Brazil), at Sciences Po (Paris) and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Oxford Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (OxCHEPS).

Scholarly publications include articles in Higher Education Quarterly, Higher Education Policy and Management (OECD), Higher Education Policy, BOOM (a journal on California politics and culture), Perspectives (UK), Change Magazine, California Monthly, Minerva, The Journal of Policy History, California Politics and Policy, History of Education Quarterly, The American Behavioral Scientists, and the European Journal of Education.

Current research interests are focused on comparative international higher education, including the influence of globalization, the role of universities in economic development, science policy as a component of national and multinational economic policy, strategic issues related to developing mass higher education, and leads and international project assessing the student experience in major research universities.

He also serves as a consultant on issues related to institutional strategic planning, access and academic program quality assurance. He has served as the chief policy analyst for the University of California's Systemwide Academic Senate and held teaching and research positions at the University of California - Santa Barbara campus.

Recent Publications & Presentations

TALES OF UNIVERSITY DEVOLUTION: Organizational Behavior in the Age of Markets by John Aubrey Douglass. CSHE.6.12 (April 2012)

To Judge International Branch Campuses, We Need to Know Their Goals by Richard J. Edelstein and John Aubrey Douglass, Chronicle of Higher Education, (February 2012)

MONEY, POLITICS AND THE RISE OF FOR-PROFIT HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE US: A Story of Supply, Demand and the Brazilian Effect by John Aubrey Douglass. CSHE.2.2012 (February 2012)

Searching for the Holy Grail of Learning Outcomes by John Aubrey Douglass, Gregg Thomson, and Chun-Mei Zhao. CSHE.3.12 (February 2012)

The Learning Outcomes Race: the Value of Self-Reported Gains in Large Research Universities by John Aubrey Douglass, Gregg Thomson and Chun-Mei Zhao, Higher Education, February 2012.

Poor and Rich: Student Economic Stratification and Academic Performance in a Public Research University System, by John Aubrey Douglass and Gregg Thomson, Higher Education Quarterly, January 2012.

Seeking Smart Growth in Higher Education: A Look at the Structure of US Higher Education, Past and Future. John Aubrey Douglass. Magazine Unicamp (Brazil journal on higher education reform, in Portuguese), Summer 2010; a version published in University Education Science - Hunan University (in Chinese), Nov 2011, 4:34:48

Op Ed: Reinventing California’s Higher Education System. John Aubrey Douglass, Los Angeles Times, September 13, 2011

SAT Wars: and The University of California in Joseph Soares (ed), SAT Wars: The Case the Case for Test Optional College Admissions” (New York: Teacher College Press 2011)

Saving the College Dream: The Death and Life of California’s Public Universities. John Aubrey Douglass, Boom: A Journal of California, Summer 2011, vol. 1, No. 2, pps 25–42.

A GLOBAL TALENT MAGNET: How a San Francisco/Bay Area Higher Education Hub Could Advance California’s Comparative Advantage In Attracting International Talent and Further Build US Economic Competitiveness by John Aubrey Douglass, Richard Edelstein and Cecile Hoareau. CSHE 9.11 (May 2011)

US Higher Education as An Export: Its is about the money, but also much more by John Aubrey Douglass, Richard Edelstein and Cecile Hoareau - Brief - April 28, 2011

International Students: A Profile of Characteristics and Engagement - By Chun-Mei Zhao and John Aubrey Douglass - Brief - April 28, 2011

Where are the International Students in California? The answer might surprise you by John Aubrey Douglass, Richard Edelstein and Cecile Hoarea - Brief - April 5, 2011

The Immigrant's University: A Study of Academic Performance and the Experiences of Recent Immigrant Groups at the University of California. John Aubrey Douglass and Gregg Thomson. Higher Education Policy (December 2010) 23, 451-474

Austerity Fashionista or a Call to Look Before You Leap: Reflections on Higher Education Budget Cuts in England and California. John Aubrey Douglass. Global Higher Education, November 17, 2010.

Higher Education and Obama's Stimulus Gambit. John Aubrey Douglass. Politique Américaine, (in French), No.15, 2010.

Re-Imagining California Higher Education by John Aubrey Douglass. CSHE.14.10 (October 2010)

FROM CHAOS TO ORDER AND BACK? A Revisionist Reflection on the California Master Plan for Higher Education@50 and Thoughts About its Future by John Aubrey Douglass. CSHE 7.10 (May 2010)

THE GLOBAL MARKET FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS: Suggestions for the Obama Administration by John Aubrey Douglass and Richard Edelstein. International Higher Education, no 59, spring 2010.

THE BEST LAID PLANS: chapter in John B. Clark, W. Bruce Leslie, and Kenneth P. O'Brien (ed), SUNY at Sixty: The Promise of the State University of New York (Albany: SUNY Press 2010).

HIGHER EDUCATION BUDGETS AND THE GLOBAL RECESSION: Tracking Varied National Responses and Their Consequenceby John Aubrey Douglass. CSHE 4.10 (February 2010)

ENGAGED LEARNING IN A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY: Trends in the Undergraduate Experience. Report on the Results of the 2008 University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey by Steven Brint, John Aubrey Douglass, Gregg Thomson, and Steve Chatman. CSHE.2.10 (February 2010)

HIGHER EDUCATION’S NEW GLOBAL ORDER: How and Why Governments are Creating Structured Opportunity Markets by John Aubrey Douglass. CSHE.10.09 (December 2009)

The Global Competition for Talent The Rapidly Changing Market for International Students and the Need for a Strategic Approach in the US by John Aubrey Douglass and Richard Edelstein. CSHE.8.2009 (October 2009)

Globalization's Muse: Universities and Higher Education Systems in a Changing World by John Aubrey Douglass, C. Judson King, Irwin Feller (ed.) Berkeley Public Policy Press, 2009

Whither the Global Talent Pool? by John Aubrey Douglass. Change Magazine (July/August 2009)

Decoding Learning Gains: Measuring Outcomes and the Pivotal Role of the Major and Student Backgrounds by Gregg Thomson and John Aubrey Douglass. CSHE.5.2009 (May 2009)

College vs. Unemployment: Expanding Access to Higher Education Is the Smart Investment During Economic Downturns by John Aubrey Douglass. CSHE.21.2008 (November 2008)

The Big Curve: Trends in University Fees and Financing in the EU and US by John Aubrey Douglass and Ruth Keeling. CSHE.19.2008 (November 2008)

The Poor and the Rich: A Look at Economic Stratification and Academic Performance Among Undergraduate Students in the United States by John Aubrey Douglass and Gregg Thomson. CSHE.15.2008 (October 2008)

Universities, the US High Tech Advantage, and the Process of Globalization, CSHE Research and Occasion Papers Series, CSHE.8.08. (May 2008).

Wrong Trajectory: America is Losing Its Higher Education Advantage, with Enormous Repercussions. California Magazine May/June 2008.

A World of Competitors: Assessing the US High Tech Advantage and the Process of Globalization. Higher Education Management and Policy,OECD Journal vol. 20 no. 2 April 2008.

Creating a Culture of Aspiration: The Role of Higher Education in Human Capital and Social Change, Peking University Education Review (in Chinese) vol. 6 no. 2 2008.

A Global Scenario for Higher Education Systems. GUNI-UNESCO Dec 2007

"The Immigrant University: Assessing the Dynamics of Race, Major and Socioeconomic Characteristics at the University of California. John Aubrey Douglass, Heinke Roebken, and Gregg Thomson. CSHE.19.07 (November 2007)

The Crisis of the Publics: An International Comparative Discussion on Higher Education Reforms and Possible Implications for US Public Universities -Symposium Proceedings, C. Judson King, John Aubrey Douglass, and Irwin Feller (ed), Center for Studies in Higher Education, University of California - Berkeley, November 2007.

What Happened to America's Higher Education Advantage? John Aubrey Douglass, Oxford Magazine, Michaelmas Term 2007.

The Global Race for Higher Education, John Aubrey Douglass, International Higher Education, No. 49 Fall 2007.

Whither America's Higher Education Advantage? Our Economic Competitors are Trying Harder to Increase Access and Graduation Rates, John Aubrey Douglass, Coastlines Magazine, Summer 2007.

A New Generation: Ethnicity, Socioeconomic Status, Immigration and the Undergraduate Experience at the University of California, John Aubrey Douglass, Steven Brint et al., Center for Studies in Higher Education, University of California - Berkeley, September 2007.

Stem Cells, Science Policy, and Religion in the United States, John Aubrey Douglass, International Higher Education, No. 48 Summer 2007.

The Entrepreneurial State and Research Universities in the United States: Policy and New State-based Initiatives. John Aubrey Douglass. Higher Education Management and Policy (OECD). Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 84-120. (March 2007).

The Conditions for Admission: Access, Equity and the Social Contract of Public Universities. John A. Douglass. Stanford University Press. (2007).