Cultivating Student Success

Higher education in the United States is facing a critical juncture. Tuition costs are rising, while measures of success are declining. Students struggle to meet the most basic academic requirements, barely passing their courses. Other students battle physical and mental health difficulties that also impact their ability to do well in college. While institutions recognize the challenges students face, they are poorly equipped to adequately help them. In this book, experts from a variety of disciplines present theory, application, and extensions to guide those working with emerging adults in higher education. It provides faculty, administrators, and staff with the knowledge and skills needed to help today’s students succeed.

Tashi-Bot: A Intelligent Personal Assistant for Users in an Educational Institution

The number of AI applications in education is growing every day. One recent AI application in the educational sector is Chatbot technology, which is used to support teaching and administrative tasks. This document presents the design and implementation of a Chatbot called Tashi-Bot that helps applicants and university students to obtain information from an educational institution about certain academic and administrative processes. Among these are processes related to well-being, tuition, costs, admission, and other services. In order to design the Chatbot, an analysis of the state of the art, methodologies, and suitable tools was carried out, and a survey was conducted to discover the needs of users and their preferences in the use of a Chatbot for this specific purpose. Tashi-Bot was implemented on the SnatchBot platform and later deployed on a Telegram channel. In its evaluation, a final survey was carried out to check on the satisfaction of the users. The results suggest that Tashi-Bot could help applicants and university students to find information on academic and administrative processes with great certainty and without the need for human interaction. Tashi-Bot can be found at: https://web.telegram.org/#/im?p=@TashiE_Bot..

Measuring the Effect of Student Loans on College Persistence

Governments around the world use grant and loan programs to ease the financial constraints that contribute to socioeconomic gaps in college completion. A growing body of research assesses the impact of grants; less is known about how loan programs affect persistence and degree completion. We use detailed administrative data from Chile to provide rigorous regression-discontinuity-based evidence on the impacts of loan eligibility for university students who retake the national admission test after their first year of studies. Those who score above a certain threshold become eligible for loans covering around 85% of tuition costs for the duration of their program. We find that access to loans increases the fraction who return to university for a second year by 20 percentage points, with two-thirds of the effect arising from a reduction in transfers to vocational colleges and one-third from a decline in the share who stop post-secondary schooling altogether. The longer-run impacts are smaller but remain highly significant, with a 12-percentage point impact on the fraction of marginally eligible retakers who complete a bachelor's degree.

Can role models help encourage young people to apply to (selective) universities? Evidence from a large scale English field experiment

Under-participation in selective universities lowers social mobility in England, the United States, and elsewhere. English universities have standardized tuition costs, and strongly heterogeneous graduate earnings. Attending a selective university is therefore strongly incentivized, yet under-participation is extensive. The British Government sent 11,104 “nudge” letters to school students whose prior attainment made them competitive for entry into selective universities, urging them to consider that option. We evaluate this RCT and find it effective at raising the number of students who apply to, and accept offers from, selective universities. We find the cost to be low relative to outcomes.

Reputasi Universitas, Biaya Kuliah, Fasilitas Perkuliahan dan Keputusan Mahasiswa Memilih Program Studi Manajemen Universitas Flores: Studi Pada Mahasiswa Program Studi Manajemen Angkatan 2019

The decision to study in a major is a big challenge among most students. They will consider the existing conditions or circumstances. If the circumstances or conditions seem not in accordance with what is expected, there will be doubts which result in the decision not to choose the expected study program. Although in making a decision to take education in a study program, a consideration is needed, however, students of the Management study program have not conducted an analysis of the study program they are taking. The research approach used is a quantitative approach. From the calculation, the t-count value is 19.794 with a significance level of 0.000 or a sig value <0.05, the first hypothesis which states "the reputation of the university affects the student's decision to choose Management Study Program at the University of Flores" is accepted. From the calculation results, the t-count value is 0.887 with a significance level of 0.377 or sig> 0.05, thus the second hypothesis which states "tuition costs affect students' decisions to choose Management Study Program at the University of Flores" is rejected. From the calculation results, it is obtained that the t-count value is 5.295 with a significance level of 0.000 or a sig value <0.05, the third hypothesis which states "lecture facilities affect the student's decision to choose Management Study Program at the University of Flores" is accepted.

Decreased State Appropriations and their Impact on Texas Public Four-Year Higher Education Institutions Tuition Rates through Deregulated Tuition

The purpose of this nonexperimental quantitative correlational study was to examine the relationships between state appropriation decreases and the deregulated tuition cost increases in Texas public four-year higher education institutions. State appropriation decreases are those decreases in the state’s financial investment in higher education. Deregulated tuition is the tuition rate set by higher education institutions that is not regulated by the Texas Legislature. By studying the decreases in state appropriations and the increases in institution tuition rates, an understanding can take shape of what impact, if any, the disinvestment by state legislatures has caused to the operations of higher education institutions. Findings from this study showed no evidence of a correlation existing between the decrease in state appropriations and the increase of Texas public higher education institution tuition costs, when the analysis reviewed the timeframe from fiscal years 2003 to 2016.

A Question of Value: Exploring Perceptions of Higher Education Value in Academic and Popular Literature

Research purpose. The pursuit of higher education has, until recently, been viewed as a worthwhile pursuit. However, factors including rising tuition costs, graduate job-readiness, and the associated debt have diminished the perceived value of college degrees at all levels. This research seeks to explore both academic literature and popular publication sources to gain a deeper understanding of the value proposition of higher education in the dynamic 21st century.Design/Methodology/Approach. An aggregative qualitative synthesis of the selected academic and popular sources is examined for emergent themes. Drawing on theory from the disciplines of economics, marketing, education and humanities, a meta-matrix is then constructed from the content analysis, with the goal to not only more effectively describe the variant perceptions of value but also to reconcile and synthesizes these views where possible.Findings. The perceived value of a contemporary higher education has been challenged, requiring post-secondary institutions to find new ways to demonstrate the benefits that accompany an advanced degree. Through a more explicit understanding of the dichotomies that exist between the various perceptions of value, as well as the emergence of thematic agreements, a more holistic depiction of higher education’s value proposition may be created.Originality/Value/Practical implications. The creation of a framework that allows post-secondary institutions to gain a more explicit understanding of the perceptions of value held both within and outside the academy will allow colleges and universities to respond more directly to this critical challenge and more accurately demonstrate both the short-term and life-long value of a college degree.

Effective Approaches in Higher Education Development

Effective approaches in higher education development will look at a variety of topics ranging from corporate and foundation relations, to alumni participation, the importance of online giving, campaigns, top advancement trends in higher education, and the ever-critical cultivation of major and mega gifts. The education of a constituency about the importance of private gifts to both public and private institutions cannot be overstated as well given that tuition costs soar yet prospective students, parents, and boards continue to fight for the value proposition. After reading, reviewing, and studying this chapter, faculty, students, and professionals alike will have surveyed knowledge of effective approach in higher education development and will have a greater appreciation for the work that development staff encounter every day. The objective of this book “to explore contemporary and future philanthropy approaches and development theory in international higher education,” will certainly be enhanced exponentially by the thorough and useful information presented.

Designing Short-Term, Faculty-Led Study Abroad Programs

Study abroad education has become an increasingly important educational program for teaching global learning and intercultural competence, maturity, and sensitivity of students. However, tuition costs of study abroad tours can be daunting. Thus, the question arises how value can be defined and, more importantly, how value is created. This chapter adopts the lens of service-dominant logic (SDL) and value co-creation to suggest that students should be engaged as an active co-creator of their study abroad experience. Based on focus groups and an analysis of student reflection papers, this chapter proposes that the value process of short-term, faculty-led study abroad tours consists of three stages: (1) value proposition and potential, (2) resource integration and value co-creation, and (3) assessment of value realization. The framework provides faculty with a way to understand, adapt, and manage the resource integration and influence students' perceptions of their study abroad experience.