Student Experience

Rethinking standardised testing to end discrimination

John Aubrey Douglass
2020

In a shot heard around the United States, on May 21, 2020, the University of California’s Board of Regents suspended the requirement and use of standardized tests, including the SAT and ACT, for freshman applicants. UC will be test optional for campus selection of freshman in fall 2021 and 2022, and “beginning with fall 2023 applicants and ending with fall 2024 applicants, campuses will not consider test scores for admissions selection at all, and will practice test-blind admissions selection.”

The Regents, along with some 1,200 other universities and colleges, had previously...

Inside the SERU Engagement Report--A Conversation with the Authors

April 8, 2025
CSHE's Igor Chirikov and John Aubrey Doulgass presented the recently released SERU Multi-Engagement Report at a town hall meeting at the Association for Undergraduate Education at Research Universities (UERU). The town hall was moderated by Steve Dandaneau, UERU, Executive Director.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2kko2TQgjo

Resilience and Resistance: The Community College in a Pandemic, by Brian Murphy, CSHE 6.21 (April 2021)

Brian Murphy
2021

All universities and colleges in the United States were deeply and immediately affected by the sudden appearance of Covid-19. Two-year public community colleges suffered the same fate as their university neighbors: the immediate needs were to close up operations, shift instruction to online and distance modalities and keep students engaged and focused when all around them collapsed. But the community colleges suffered under constraints not shared by many of their university neighbors: limited discretionary, little or no funding from endowments to fall back on and students whose limited...

College Major Restrictions and Student Stratification by Zachary Bleemer and Aashish Mehta, CSHE 14.21 (December 2021)

Zachary Bleemer
Aashish Mehta
2021

Underrepresented minority (URM) college students have been steadily earning degrees in relatively less-lucrative fields of study since the mid-1990s. A decomposition reveals that this widening gap is principally explained by rising stratification at public research universities, many of which increasingly enforce GPA restriction policies that prohibit students with poor introductory grades from declaring popular majors. We investigate these GPA restrictions by constructing a novel 50-year dataset covering four public research universities’ student transcripts and employing a dynamic...

Student Engagement in a Brazilian Research University, by Ana Maria Carneiro and Camila Fior, CSHE.3.23 (June 2023)

Ana Maria Carneiro, Camila Fior
2023

Research universities enable students to have a unique learning environment and other experiences. This article aims to analyze student engagement in one research university in Brazil, the effects of student socioeconomic and academic characteristics and their associations with university structures (curriculum), and student trajectories. The data comes from the Student Experience in the Research University, an international survey administered in 2012 at the University of Campinas and longitudinal academic registers. The study used both Principal Component Analysis and also Multiple...

How Helpful Are Average Wage-By-Major Statistics In Choosing A Field Of Study? by Zachary Bleemer, CSHE.1.24 (January 2024)

Zachary Bleemer
2024

Average-wage-by-major statistics have become widely available to students interested in the economic ramifications of their college major choice. However, earning a major with higher average wages does not necessarily lead individual students to higher-paying careers. This essay combines literature review with novel analysis of longitudinal student outcomes to discuss how students use average-wage-by-major statistics and document seven reasons that they may differ, sharply in some cases, from the causal wage effects of major choice. I focus on the ramifications of two-sided non-random...

Student Experience and Success

Understanding the student experience is essential to shaping policies and practices that enhance learning, well-being, and success in higher education. At CSHE, our research explores various dimensions of student life, from academic engagement and learning outcomes to well-being, belonging, and the impact of institutional policies.

This page highlights CSHE’s work on student experience, including findings from the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Consortium and other studies.

SERU publications include:...

Bryan Edward Penprase

Vice President of Sponsored Research and External Academic Relations, Soka University of America

Bryan Penprase is the Vice President for Sponsored Research and External Academic Relations at Soka University of America, where he develops strategic partnerships and builds collaborations with universities and colleges to advance undergraduate education and research at Soka University. He formerly served as Dean of Faculty for three years at Soka University, where he worked to create new academic programs, and managed the curriculum design, hiring and implementation of a new Concentration in Life Sciences. Bryan also has been actively developing global liberal arts collaborations, most...

Takuya Kimura

Professor, Ph.D, Kyushu University, Japan
Takuya KIMURA is a Japanese Sociologist of Education. He hold Ph.D in Educational Planning from Tohoku University . He is a professor at Kyushu University and the National Center for University Entrance Examinations. He is also the founder and president of Japan Association of College and University Admissions Profession (JACUAP). He holds M.A. in Educational Philosophy from the Graduate School of Education at the University of Tokyo. He has served as Assistant Professor at Kyoto University, Assistant Professor and Associate Professor at Nagasaki University, Associate Professor...

Richard J. Edelstein

Former Senior Research Associate

Richard J. Edelstein is a Senior Research Associate at Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education where he collaborates with John Douglass, Senior Research Fellow, on studies of the impact of globalization on higher education institutions. He is also Principal and Managing Director at Global University Concepts, a higher education consultancy he launched to advise universities on international strategies and the development of partnerships and alliances with foreign institutions. He was Director of International Affairs for six years at AACSB International, the primary U.S....