Student Experience

New ROPS Paper Uncovers Student Housing Crisis as a Hidden Cost of Higher Education

July 15, 2025

BERKELEY, CA – The Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) today announced the release of a new paper in the Research and Occasional Paper Series (ROPS) that critically examines the escalating student housing crisis. The paper, titled "Crisis by Design," delves into how the proliferation of Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) and the financialization of student housing are reshaping access and equity in higher education.

Authored by Dr. Shanshan Jiang-Brittan, the paper asserts that fast enrollment growths, coupled with insufficient...

Possibility Lab's Powerful Student Narratives on Higher Education

July 15, 2025

Berkeley, CA – The UC Berkeley Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) is delighted to feature the impactful work of the Possibility Lab, a fellow research lab under the Goldman School of Public Policy, in their recent project: "Stories of Resilience and Transformation."

This compelling initiative centers on a collection of student narratives, offering invaluable insights into the lived experiences of students as well as capturing the nuanced realities of navigating higher education today.

The...

Anne MacLachlan

Senior Researcher and Visiting Scholars Coordinator

Anne J. MacLachlan is a retired senior researcher at CSHE who continues to be devoted to increasing access, persistence, and success in postsecondary education for underrepresented groups (URM) including domestic minorities, women, and those from uneducated/poor families with an emphasis on those in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Her research areas cover the spectrum of postsecondary populations including community college and transfer students, undergraduates in general, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty. Among these, doctoral...

Inside Higher Ed Article Featuring SERU Multi-Engagement Report

April 11, 2025

A new article from Inside Higher Education entitled "Data: Students Less Involved on Campus Post-Pandemic" features SERU Multi-Engagement Report.

University World News Coverage of the SERU Multi-Engagement Report

April 15, 2025

CSHE's Igor Chirikov and John Aubrey Douglass published an article at University World News entitled "Study finds lingering impact of COVID on student experience," featuring the recently released SERU Multi-Engagement Report.

Press Release--SERU Multi-Engagement Report

March 18, 2025

SERU report cover

Student Success at Risk: New Study Finds Lasting Post-Pandemic Declines in Student Engagement in American Public Universities —Proposed Federal Funding Cuts Could Slow Recovery

March 18, 2025 – A new study from the University of California, Berkeley, finds that student engagement across key areas of research university experience – academics, research, extracurriculars, civic engagement, and career...

Tongshan Chang

Senior Researcher, SERU Consortium, UCOP

Tongshan Chang is Director of Institutional Research and Academic Planning at the University of California (UC) Office of the President and Consultant of UC Systemwide Academic Senate Committees on the Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools (BOARS) and Preparatory Education (UCOPE). He is SERU (Student Experience in the Research University) Senior Researcher at the Center for Studies in Higher Education at UC Berkeley, voluntarily assisting the SERU leadership and principal investigators in recruiting Chinese institutions and conducting...

SERU Research Report on Graduate Student Experiences in Japan

Lilan Chen
Akari Kikuchi
Yuichiro Wajima
Tatsuo Kawashima
2024

Given the perceived imbalance in resource allocation and the recognized disparities in degree completion rates across academic disciplines in Japan's higher education system, this study explores the perceptions and experiences of graduate students through a comparison between graduate students in Humanities and Social Sciences and those in Sciences and Engineering. Osaka University has been chosen as the case study because it is one of the former empirical and research-intensive universities located in the international city of Osaka, Japan, which is well-known as one of the most DEI-...