News

Our recent ROPS article Broadening Our Perspective Concerning America’s Education Attainment: Growth, Progress, and Data Gaps, by Michael Kirst and Victor Chan, was featured in Education Week. The media coverage dives deep into the findings on American educational attainment.

BERKELEY, CA — A new study led by Igor Chirikov, a senior researcher at UC Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) reveals that two-thirds of undergraduates at major U.S. public research universities utilized generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) during the 2023–2024 academic year. Both AI adoption and AI-assisted misconduct vary dramatically depending on the student's academic field. 

CSHE senior researcher Igor Chirikov was recently interviewed by KCRA 3 News to discuss the findings of his study linking food security to higher education success.

The segment highlights a new working paper co-authored by Igor Chirikov and Jesse Rothstein. The study, The Impact of Nutrition Assistance on College Student Success, offers some of the most precise data to date on how California's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—known as CalFresh—directly impacts academic outcomes.

Berkeley, May 4, 2026 – Community college students who receive CalFresh during their first year of college are more likely to stay on track academically and return for a second year, according to a new working paper from the California Policy Lab and the Center for Studies in Higher Education.

Berkeley Talks, a Berkeley News podcast that features lectures and conversations at UC Berkeley, featured the Clark Kerr Lectures in their most recent episode "How the American university’s success led to its modern challenges." 

Listen to the episode: https://news.berkeley.edu/2026/05/01/berkeley-talks-the-american-univers...

BERKELEY, CA — A new research paper released by the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) at the University of California, Berkeley, reveals that the common narrative of American educational stagnancy is misleading.

BERKELEY — CSHE Senior Researcher Anne MacLachlan was recently featured in the Daily Californian, providing analysis on a new U.S. Department of Education proposal aimed at curbing federal loans for "low-value" college degrees.

The proposed rule would cut off federal funding for programs where graduates earn less than the average high school graduate. While the Department frames this as a safeguard against predatory debt, MacLachlan warned that a strictly market-driven metric may overlook the broader importance of the humanities and social sciences.

A recent news report from the Financial Times (FT) featured insights from ROPS Paper Crisis By Design (authored by Shanshan Jiang-Brittan) in a major investigation into the international student housing market.

Our recent ROPS publication "Divergent Business Models in International Higher Education: A Transatlantic Comparison" was recently featured in Times Higher Education. Authored by David B. Audretsch, Alice Civera, Michele Meoli, and Stefano Paleari, the paper examines the shifting economic sustainability of the U.S. university model compared to its European counterparts.

Read the ROPS paper: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/385370m4

BERKELEY, CA — The Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) has released a new ROPS paper titled "Divergent Business Models in International Higher Education: A Transatlantic Comparison"The paper, authored by David B. Audretsch, Alice Civera, Michele Meoli, and Stefano Paleari, suggests that the United States’ long-standing preeminence in the sector is facing structural challenges related to economic sustainability and shifting global demand

Professor Jesse Rothstein is hiring a predoctoral research assistant to take part in his academic and policy research.

BERKELEY, CA — As generative artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes the classroom, a new study from the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) provides novel large-scale longitudinal evidence of how faculty are responding.