News

October 27, 2015 – Socioeconomic background factors, including family income, education, and race/ethnicity, account for a large and growing share, over a third, of the variation in students’ SAT scores, according to a new study published by the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) at the Berkeley campus of the University of California. Of those factors, race is now most influential.

BERKELEY, CA, October 23, 2015 – Pamela Brown, Vice President of Institutional Research and Academic Planning (IRAP) at UC Office of the President (UCOP) will present the findings of the 2015 UC Accountability Report at Berkeley on Oct. 28th. Higher education institutions are increasingly called upon to account for the value of a college degree and the importance of research universities. The report asserts that as the largest public research institution in the world, the University of California (UC) must lead the way in advocating the purpose and importance of public higher education. Now in its 8th year, the report provides an assessment of UC’s progress in meeting key teaching, research, and public-service goals across ten campuses. Similar data is presented in an interactive form in the Information Center. UC utilizes both data sets for strategic planning, budgeting, and performance management, and to identify important policy issues facing UC. In her presentation, Brown will demonstrate how UCOP uses institutional data to respond to performance outcomes and accountability efforts.

October 19, 2015 - The Center for Studies in Higher Education joins 17 other leading higher education research centers to call for knowledge about gun violence on college and university campuses. Among them, three Penn GSE research centers — the Alliance for Higher Education and Democracy, the Center for the Study of Race & Equity in Education, and the Institute for Research on Higher Education

BERKELEY, CA, October X, 2015 – On June 24, CSHE hosted research teams to discuss the similarities and differences in the public role and practices of universities, focusing on four prominent public and private institutions: the Universidad de Chile and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Santiago, UC Berkeley and Stanford University.

BERKELEY, CA, October 9, 2015 – At UC Berkeley on Oct. 12, James Hyatt, Associate Director at Center for Studies in Higher Education, will present findings from his new study that addresses growing concerns about the long-term viability of university retirement programs. His research, titled The Higher Education Pension Reform Project, examines changes to retirement and post-retirement benefit programs around the country. Funded by a grant from Fidelity Investments, with support from other organizations, the study is based at the Center for Studies in Higher Education, UC Berkeley, where Hyatt also serves as principal investigator and senior research associate.

BERKELEY, CA, October 5, 2015 – William Deresiewicz, author of a controversial new book, Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life, will present the argument that the culture of elite education stifles risk-taking and independent thinking, in a conversation with Carol Christ, Director of the Center for Studies in Higher Education, at Berkeley, on Oct. 7th.

BERKELEY, CA, September 29, 2015 – Jamie Merisotis, President and CEO of Lumina Foundation and recognized leader in philanthropy, higher education, and public policy, will describe how to develop national resources to push the U.S. back to world prominence, the focus of his new book America Needs Talent, at a talk at Berkeley on Oct. 2. In a conversation with Carol Christ, Director of Center for Studies in Higher Education, Merisotis will explain why the U.S. needs talent to usher in a new era of innovation and success, and why government, the private sector, education, and individuals must make deliberate choices to grow talent in America. Merisotis states:

BERKELEY, CA, September 21, 2015 – Dr. Stephen Kosslyn, Dean of Arts and Sciences at Minerva, will speak at Berkeley on Sept. 21 on key aspects of the Minerva program, which globally immerses students of the virtual campus as they study in cities around the world. The Minerva Schools at the Keck Graduate Institute (KGI), established in 2014, is a four-year undergraduate program founded as a partnership between the Minerva Project and KGI. Minerva’s founder, Ben Nelson, former Snapfish president, has scrapped every commonly held assumption about how people should be educated. Minerva offers a newly invented curriculum, cultural immersion, and small interactive online seminars to prepare students to become global leaders and innovators. Nelson states, “We are effectively building a perfect university and we are trying to educate people who we would be excited to see in positions of leadership and influence in the world.”

BERKELEY, CA, September 11, 2015 – Dr. Jorge Klor de Alva, president of Nexus Research and Policy Center , will spotlight the findings of a controversial study, “Rich Schools, Poor Students: Tapping Large University Endowments to Improve Student Outcomes” in a Sept. 16 presentation at Berkeley sponsored by the Center for Studies in Higher Education and the Social Science Matrix. The study demonstrates that private universities are not necessarily private. Many are sitting on millions, if not billions, of dollars in tax-exempt endowments. These tax exemptions are government subsidies and dwarf appropriations for public universities. To address the issue of funding equity, the study recommends restructuring the tax breaks to pay for additional student services that would replace the Obama administration’s plan for free tuition at community colleges.

The argument that cultural and other forms of diversity enhance the educational experience of all students is generally associated with post-1960 efforts to expand the presence of disadvantaged groups on the campuses of America’s universities and colleges. Yet, as CSHE researcher John Douglass explains in the new article, “International Berkeley” published in the academic journal Voprosy Obrazovaniya, arguments on the merits of cultural diversity have much earlier roots in the historical enrollment of international students. more

May 23, 2015 - Read Carol Christ's, former President of Smith College and current CSHE Director, thoughts on free education.

May 4, 2015 - Richard C. Atkinson, President Emeritus of the University of California, and Saul Geiser, Research Associate at the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California, Berkeley, write an op-ed article in The New York Times about the College Board's revised SAT.

Carol Christ, former President of Smith College and current CSHE Director, reviews Remaking College: The changing ecology of higher education (Stanford University Press, 2015) written by Michael Kirst, Professor Emeritus of Education and Business Administration at Stanford University and the current President of the California State Board of Education and Mitchell Stevens, Associate Professor of Education at Stanford University.

Dr. Ronald L. Huesman, Jr. (Ron) is a CSHE Research Associate and the Managing Director of the Student Experience in the Research University-Association of American Universities Consortium (SERU-AAU). SERU-AAU is an academic and policy research partnership between the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California – Berkeley and the University of Minnesota. The SERU-AAU consortium is a group of leading research extensive universities in the United States made up of researchers and scholars who collaborate to generate institutional, comparative, and longitudinal data on student experience in research universities.

The Center takes great pleasure in announcing the autobiography of Neil J. Smelser, University Professor Emeritus of Sociology and past Center Director. Entitled Wanderlust in Academia, the autobiography is available on-line at the Center’s eScholarship site.

I began my career at Berkeley in 1970, as a faculty member in the English Department. My academic specialty is Victorian literature. In the course of my faculty career, I held a series of administrative positions: chair of my department, Dean of Humanities, Provost and Dean of the College of Letters and Science, and Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor.

Dear Colleagues, It is with great pleasure that we announce Professor Emerita Carol T. Christ as the director of the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE). Director Christ’s appointment will begin on January 1, 2015. Carol Christ brings to this position her comprehensive leadership experience, deep knowledge of the Berkeley campus, and a forward-looking perspective for the Center.

The Center for Studies in Higher Education is pleased to announce a new collaboration: the President Emeritus David Pierpont Gardner website. Debuting early August, Dr. Gardner’s website will highlight his presidencies at the University of Utah from 1973-1983 and the University of California from 1983-1992.