February 10th, 12-1pm
CSHE Talk: AI and Student Experience in German Universities
Speaker: Paula Goerke, Jule Jensen and Andreas Breiter (University of Bremen, Germany)
Abstract. In our presentation, we will give an overview about the current situation of AI implementation the German Higher Education System and its adoption by students. The research is embedded in our Research Unit “Communicative AI” in which we focus on transformative processes within Higher Education Institutions. We address how learning and teaching as well as supporting administrative processes are challenged by the appropriation of ComAI in higher education. We will investigate how higher education institutions cope with these technological changes and its (side-)consequences of embedded biases and related social inequalities.
Location: CSHE Conference Room & Online
February 24th 8-9am PST
CGHE Webinar. Adrift or Engaged? A Data Driven Multi-Engagement Model Shows Diverse Pathways to Student Success at US Research Universities
Speakers: John Aubrey Douglass & Igor Chirikov (CSHE)
Beyond the dramatic and consequential attacks by the Trump administration, American higher education is under pressure to demonstrate its effectiveness in enhancing student success and employability. There has been criticism that students don’t learn enough, are disengaged, and are not getting value for money. This presentation presents the results of a recent study The Multi-Engagement Model: Understanding Diverse Pathways to Student Success at Research Universities that provides a unique data driven and holistic perspective on understanding the undergraduate experience at large U.S. public research-intensive universities. Leveraging 11 years of survey and institutional data collected by the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Consortium, our research shows the significance and interconnectedness of various college experiences — academic engagement in and outside of classroom settings, research activities, extracurricular, civic, and career development — and that this results in distinct and diverse pathways to success. This research contradicts the narrative of students being academically adrift popular in the media, and offers a path for institutions to better understand the experience of students from diverse backgrounds, and to better articulate to stakeholders the robust nature of their educational enterprises. This study also found that student engagement across the areas we measured declined during the pandemic and had yet to fully recover in 2023. My co-authors and I also found inequities in experiences and opportunities for students from lower-income families and underrepresented groups.
Registration link
February 24th & February 26th, 2-3pm PST
Clark Kerr Lectures
The American University in Crisis
Speaker: Christopher L. Eisgruber (President, Princeton University)
Location: Booth Auditorium, Berkeley Law
In his 1963 Godkin Lectures, Clark Kerr declared that American universities were “at a hinge in history.” We are now at an equally pivotal moment: recent attacks on research funding and academic freedom imperil the model that Kerr described and that enabled American universities to become world-leading institutions. President Eisgruber’s lectures will examine developments that have rendered American universities more vulnerable to political attack and consider how universities and their presidents should define the civic mission of universities in the years ahead.
The 2026 Clark Kerr Lecture Series are co-sponsored by the Center for Studies in Higher Education, Goldman School of Public Policy and Berkeley Law. Funding for the Clark Kerr Lectures is provided by the Carnegie Corporation and the University of California Office of the President.
Tuesday, February 24 at 2:00 p.m. |Evolving Conditions
In the first lecture, President Eisgruber will focus on major trends that have affected the American model of the research university, including rising student debt, intense national competition, and battles over affirmative action, diversity, and merit.
Thursday, February 26 at 2:00 p.m. |Contested Missions
In the second lecture, President Eisgruber will examine the role of university presidents, the civic mission of American research universities, and how university communities should respond to the challenges they now face.
Free Admission. Registration Link