Access

CSHE Research Cited in EdSource Amid UC Standardized Testing Debate

June 10, 2026

As the University of California Academic Senate deliberates whether to recommend reinstating standardized testing for freshman applicants, research from the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) is playing a central role in the systemwide conversation.

A recent EdSource report, "UC freshmen increasingly are not ready for college math. Some professors want to require the SAT again," highlights a sharp division among UC faculty. While over 1,400 STEM faculty members have signed an open letter advocating for the return of the SAT/ACT to gauge math readiness, opponents of high-...

Executive Summary. Staying Enrolled in CalFresh Helps Community College Students Stay in School

Igor Chirikov
Jesse Rothstein
2026

Nearly half of California community college students report struggling with food insecurity. SNAP food benefits (known as CalFresh in California) can help reduce student hunger. Alleviating hunger among students should lead to improved educational outcomes, but rigorous research on this topic remains scarce. Our recent study (The Impact of Nutrition Assistance on College Student Success) helps to close that gap, using a compelling matching design with...

CSHE Senior Researcher Igor Chirikov Featured on KCRA 3 to Discuss CalFresh and College Success

May 11, 2026

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.

By evaluating similar student profiles, the...

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...

Access and Admission

CSHE has published a series of papers on the access and equity in higher education. Selected publications include:

Eligibility for Admission to the University of California After the SAT/ACT: Toward a Redefinition of Eligibility, by Saul Geiser, CSHE 2.22 (February 2022)

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Education's Abiding Moral Dilemma: Merit and Worth in the Cross-Atlantic Democracies, 1800-2006 by Sheldon Rothblatt (2007)

Sheldon Rothblatt
2007

The conflict between access and quality in education has been front-page news for decades. Policies regarding the role of elite universities, the organisation of secondary education, admissions criteria, courses of study, high stakes testing, and fiscal and programme accountability have changed with uncommon frequency, resulting in confusion and uncertainty. Yet it is the argument of this book that the tension between access to education and the preservation of quality is another chapter in the much longer history of merit selection in England, Scotland and America, and should be...

John Aubrey Douglass

Senior Research Fellow

John Aubrey Douglass is Senior Research Fellow - Public Policy and Higher Education at the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE), and is a faculty member in the Goldman School of Public Policy, at the University of California - Berkeley. His research focuses on the forces and politics of globalization, the future of Democracy, the role of universities in economic development and socioeconomic mobility, the student experience and institutional self-improvement, and the history of higher education. He has written extensively on the rise of neo-nationalism and the impact on...

New ROPS Report Challenges Return to SAT

September 30, 2025

SAT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New UC Berkeley Report Challenges Return to SAT: Calls for Public Universities to Double Down on Public Mission

Berkeley, CA – September 30, 2025 — As a number of elite “Ivy-Plus” universities have reinstated SAT and ACT requirements, a new research report by Saul Geiser, Senior Associate at UC Berkeley’s Center...

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...

Gary Matkin

Former Dean of Continuing Education, University of California, Irvine
Former Dean, Continuing Education, Distance Learning, and Summer Session Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1989, Education M.B.A., University of California, Berkeley, 1970, Political Aspects of Business B.S., University of San Francisco, 1966, Accounting Certified Public Accountant (inactive), 1966, California License E14426 Other Experience Associate Dean, CE, UC Berkeley 1990-2000 Director, Admin Services, UC Berkeley 1975-1990 Business Officer, UC Berkeley 1973-1975 CPA, Various 1966-1973 Professional Societies California Alumni Association Association of Public...