scholarly journals Creating a diverse student success infrastructure: The key to serving today’s student body and catalyzing cultural change

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 221258682110062
Author(s):  
Adrianna Kezar

While there have long been campus efforts to better support students from diverse backgrounds, these programs, services and interventions have not been systemic. This paper documents student success infrastructure elements which share similar features that enhance their effectiveness, suggesting some basic ways of re-orienting the way higher education is organized that better support student success. The shared features of effectiveness within the student success infrastructure include broad stakeholder engagement, collaboration, learning, clarity & transparency, equity, and alignment.

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Petty ◽  
Dakota King-White ◽  
Tachelle Banks

Abstract Throughout the United States there are millions of Black and Brown students starting the process of attending college. However, research indicates that students from traditionally marginalized groups are less likely than their counterparts to complete the process and graduate college (Shapiro et al., 2017). While retention rates for students from traditionally marginalized backgrounds continue to decline, universities are beginning to pay attention to the needs of this population in search of ways of better supporting them. The examination of these factors may also inform programmatic adjustments, leadership philosophies, and future practices to help retain students and lead to eventual completion of a baccalaureate degree. In this article, the authors review the literature to explore factors that can affect Black and Brown students’ completion rates in higher education. By reviewing the literature and the factors impacting Black and Brown students, the authors share with readers initiatives at one university that are being used to support students from a strengths-based approach.


Author(s):  
Debbie Holley ◽  
Martin Oliver

Higher Education Institutions have worked to make equality of access to electronic curriculum resources the ‘status quo’. However, there is evidence that simply providing e-learning – no matter how well intentioned – is insufficient to address the problems that students are experiencing. A three stage model has been developed through analysis of students’ learning experiences at an inner-city, post-1992 University to illustrate how students have to negotiate their engagement with Higher Education. The model provides a way of mapping aspects of course design to different portraits of students, enabling students to be considered as high, medium and low risk in terms of retention. The value of this model for design and analysis of courses is located within the debate of how inclusive business schools curricula are for a diverse student body.


2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-105
Author(s):  
Maximus Gorky Sembiring ◽  
Yan Haryanto ◽  
Johanna BS. Pantow

Partnerships, public relations and institutional development at Universitas Terbuka UT (Indonesia Open University) are discussed in this paper. The discussion is aimed at elucidating the way of Universitas Terbuka pursuing its vision, i.e. to be one of center of excellence in distance higher education institutions in Asia by 2010 and the world by 2020. Short history, development and the future of higher education system in general are also described; specifically the development, role and contribution of distance higher education, run by Universitas Terbuka, in Indonesia. Partnerships are designed to be the way Universitas Terbuka improves its delivery and instructional processes. Public relations are aimed at constructing institutional image not only in the national level but also in regional and even in the global context. Institutional development is intended to be the systematic and comprehensive ways to adopt the turbulence as a result of rapid change internally and externally. Besides, historical development of Universitas Terbuka, which now has more than 482.000 active students registered at the four faculties, is also explicated in relations to the need of discussions of the importance of partnerships, public relations and institutional development. The discussion on partnerships will be more elaborated on how to empower the 37 regional centers, almost 3000 exam sites in 527 cities and more than 8000 study groups all over the country to initiate and maintain partnerships with local state and some selected private universities in the use of common resources. The argument on public relations will be developed on how the central and regional offices build the institutional image in association with maintaining current student body and pursuing larger prospective students. The discussion on institutional development will be expanded specifically on how to develop strategic and operational planning documents with respect to maintaining and assuring academic and administrative quality at Universitas Terbuka. The paper finally explains where partnerships, public relations and institutional development aspects are positioned in the strategic and operational planning of Universitas Terbuka within its three main focuses, i.e. the improvement of academic quality, the expansion of students participation and service points, and the enhancement of internal management comprehensively.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-364
Author(s):  
Nicole M Elias ◽  
Madeleine Marrin

Student engagement in institutions of higher education has become a central priority for educators and administrators. What “student engagement” means for a diverse student body is an important question for public institutions with justice-related missions. As social welfare policy shifts to allow more recipients of public assistance access to higher education, research regarding their engagement experiences remains scarce. To support a socioeconomically diverse student body, consistent with the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) standards, this project explores the nature of engagement among student recipients of public assistance by asking the following research questions: what forms of engagement with students on public assistance take place? Why is engaging students on public assistance important? How can we foster greater engagement with students on public assistance? To answer these questions, student and faculty focus groups are conducted. From this analysis, we highlight normative implications of engaging a socioeconomically diverse student population and present recommendations for fostering greater engagement.


Author(s):  
Donna M. Farina ◽  
Natalia Coleman

Next-generation learning (NxGL) approaches have been applied to improve learning outcomes for the diverse student population of New Jersey City University (NJCU), one of the top hundred most diverse institutions of higher education in the country. This chapter focuses on the variety of reactions that diverse students, both undergraduate and graduate, can have to unknown or unfamiliar learning experiences, as they move through different stages of adjustment to the next-generation classroom. The chapter discusses how instructors can anticipate common student reactions and what they can do to guide students toward successful participation in NxGL. The improved skills of the instructor will allow students to benefit to the fullest possible extent from new learning opportunities. If the instructor feels at home with next-generation teaching and learning, this will increase the potential for student success as well as satisfaction with these approaches.


Author(s):  
Peter de Boer ◽  
Prantik Bordoloi

In recent years the globalization trend in higher education has continued. This borderless educational world provides students opportunities to select and follow a study programme anywhere in the world. The resulting international classrooms create challenges and opportunities for international study programmes in preparing their diverse student populations for the demands posed by today’s fast-paced (business) environment. The teacher plays a pivotal role in accommodating the increasingly diverse student body and facilitating learning while being mindful of different learning styles, expectations and needs. Whereas initially the consequences of having an international classroom was taken for granted, higher education institutions have increasingly become aware that it involves more than offering the curriculum in English. In this study we explore the linkages between the student diversity, in terms of self-reported nationality, ethnicity and native language, affective learning and teacher credibility in the context of international classrooms. A key objective of this study was to check the reliability of the measurement items and scales for use in research pertaining to international classrooms. For this study, data was collected from 183 students following the International Business programme at an undergraduate level at one of the most international Universities of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. The study sample had students from 35 different countries with the Dutch (42%) and German (19%) students constituting the largest group. The sample was divided into two groups: those with the same ethnicity, nationality and native language as the teacher (student-teacher congruence), and those who were different (student-teacher incongruence). The results of this research suggest that the measurement tools for teacher credibility and affective learning are valid, whereas the tool for nonverbal immediacy did not prove reliable. In addition, the theory-driven hypotheses were not supported as no significant difference was found between the scores of affective learning and teacher credibility between the two different groups of students.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 28-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Harvey ◽  
◽  
Greg Walkerden ◽  
Anne-Louise Semple ◽  
Kath McLachlan ◽  
...  

As the number of students engaging in higher education increases, so too does their diversity. Additionally, there is growing pressure on universities to better prepare graduates for the varied paths they will pursue beyond study. In responding to these conditions it is important to develop pedagogical approaches that are both inclusive and engaging. One adaptation needed is in relation to the practice and documentation of reflection for learning. Reflection is widely practiced across higher education, and is favoured by the Work-Integrated Learning field for the ways it helps students make sense of their learning. The ongoing reliance on journals for practising and documenting reflection has several benefits; however, a diverse student body, engaging with diverse learning experiences, is likely to benefit from being offered diverse, flexible ways of engaging with reflective practice. Informed by student and practitioner reflective data gathered at an Australian university, this conceptual paper accepts the challenge to “disrupt” (deFreitas 2007) the text and “move beyond the diary” (Harvey et al. 2012) to present an argument for the value and role of alternative modes of reflection, spanning arts-based, embodied, mindful and technological approaches. Underpinning this advocacy of diverse mediums for reflection are the principles of inclusivity and universal design.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Águeda Benito ◽  
Neal A. Green ◽  
Deborah R. Popely ◽  
Phuong M. Thai-Garcia ◽  
Art T. Schneiderheinze

The article addresses the importance of incorporating faculty development as a key priority of higher education institutions. A literature review and some face-to-face and online interviews were conducted at various U.S. institutions, to identify common and best practices regarding this important matter. The article offers some ideas about what is done, and how it is done, to help faculty be ready for the challenging role they need to play: to be effective developers of a diverse student body that meets the evolving needs of industry and that utilizes technological tools that never existed before. 


Author(s):  
Jacqueline M. Dewar

In Chapter 9 the authors give their perspective on the benefits of scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) to faculty, to their institutions, to the academy, and to students. Among these are helping faculty and their institutions respond to new developments in higher education: a more diverse student body, increasing calls for accountability, new technologies for teaching, and new understandings of how people learn. The authors describe three pathologies of teaching and discuss how SoTL can serve as an antidote to each, thereby making progress toward the ultimate goal of improving student learning. Examples are given of ways that investigating each type of question in the SoTL taxonomy might address one or more of the three pathologies.


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