Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Project and Consortium

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SERU Asia Consortium Initiative

The Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Project based at the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California – Berkeley campus is inviting a group of leading Asian and European research universities to join the SERU Consortium.

The purpose of the SERU Consortium is to draw together a group of progressive research universities to:

• collaboratively generate new institutional, comparative, and longitudinal data on the undergraduate experience; and
• systematically use subsequent analysis as a tool for policy and scholarly relevant research and institutional self-improvement.

The SERU Consortium is not built on a fee-for-service model like many other surveys, rather it is a collaboration among motivated major research universities; it is also designed as a distinctly bottom-up or institutional-driven initiative that may have implications for shaping national initiatives in quality assurance – but that is not our primary purpose. Each Consortium member contributes funding to support administrative costs and research and policy activities.

There are two forms in which major research universities may join the SERU Consortium:

1. “Consortium Partners” who participate in SERU symposia, collaborative research projects, and the sharing of policy-relevant research and best practices related to improving the student experience and educational outcomes, and
2. “Consortium Survey Members” who participate as Consortium Partners and administer the innovative, online, census-based SERU survey that focuses on the experience of students in major research universities, including exploration of academic and social experience, self-reported learning gains, and their socioeconomic background and perceptions.

Current US members of the SERU Consortium include the nine undergraduate campuses of the University of California and, more recently, a core and initial group of six other US major research universities who are all members of the Association of America Universities. Members of the SERU AAU Consortium administered the SERU Survey beginning in the Spring of 2009.

Leading Asia universities that have shown interest or participated in discussions on forming the SERU Asia Consortium include:

• University of Tokyo
• Korea University
• Seoul National University
• National Taiwan University
• Peking University
• Beijing Normal University

All inquiries about the SERU Asia Consortium Initiative can be directed to John Douglass at .