Higher Education in CSHPE:
Research and Development Initiatives
Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education
International Higher Education
Institutional Transformation in Higher Education
For additional research summaries, please see our Features.
The Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education (WNSLAE)
The Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education (WNSLAE) is a large-scale, mixed methods, longitudinal study to investigate critical factors that affect the outcomes of liberal arts education. This is one of the most comprehensive national studies of the effects of American higher education on student learning and development ever conducted. The University of Michigan research team is lead by Dr. Patricia King.
This study focuses on the development of seven outcomes associated with undergraduate liberal arts education and the educational conditions and experiences that foster these outcomes. Through a combination of surveys and in-depth interviews with students at several points throughout their college enrollment, we are able to explore not only the development of students as a result of their collegiate experiences, but also why and how this development takes place. Our research will help faculty, staff, and administrators more effectively align educational programs and experiences to processes underlying student learning and development.
Web site: http://www.soe.umich.edu/liberalartstudy.
International Higher Education
CSHPE faculty and students continue to be actively involved in higher education in international contexts through both training and research endeavors.
Considering European Higher Education: Bologna Process and Beyond
As part of a three-year study, Drs Janet Lawrence and Michael Bastedo are collaborating on a set of interrelated instructional and research activities centered on the creation of a European Higher Education Area (EHEA) by the European Union (EU). The formation of the EHEA provides a unique opportunity to observe and understand how Europeans balance transnational, national and university interests, enabling members states to maintain sovereignty in higher education matters and the EU to develop education as a federal policy sector.
Additionally, the integration of ethnic and religious minorities is one of the most exigent policy problems facing Europe. A goal of the EU is to improve social cohesion using state programs and resources, particularly through universities. Is this possible using a top-down governance approach?
To answer this and other pressing questions, the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education, in conjunction with the EUCE-MI, will host an international symposium titled, "Toward a European Higher Education Area: Bologna and Beyond," March 6 & 7, 2009, in Ann Arbor.
In May, 2010, a seminar with the Erasmus Mundus program in Oslo, Norway, for European and U.S. graduate students and faculty will be convened. And, in May, 2011, a culminating seminar will be held in Ann Arbor. With the 2010 deadline for establishing a European Higher Education Area established by the Council of Europe, this is the optimal time to concentrate on this dimension of the EU.
The Democratization of Higher Education Administration in Kyrgyzstan
Associate Professor Janet Lawrence has implemented a USIA-supported project designed to foster collaboration among scholars and administrators from Kyrgyz universities undergoing major organizational transformations and higher education researchers in the United States for the purpose of understanding and assisting with the change processes. In particular, she is examining how faculty and administrators are experiencing recent changes in the emphasis placed on technical assistance to their country by both Russia and the United States.
Training of University Administrators from China
For the last five years, senior administrators from universities in China have taken workshops conducted by CSHPE faculty. This initiative has been coordinated by Dr. Janet Lawrence in cooperation with the Tianjin Educational Commission. In the last five years, over 70 Chinese administrators from colleges and universities within Tianjin and the Educational Commission have studied higher education at the University of Michigan. Through this experience, the Center has offered its resources to help meet the needs of a dramatically changing higher education enterprise in China.
For the last five years, senior administrators from universities in China have taken workshops conducted by CSHPE faculty. This initiative has been coordinated by Dr. Janet Lawrence in cooperation with the Tianjin Educational Commission and the Liaoning Education Department. Over the past several years, hundreds of Chinese administrators from colleges and universities within the municipality of Tianjin and province of Liaoning have studied higher education at the University of Michigan. Through this experience, the Center has offered its resources to help meet the needs of a dramatically changing higher education enterprise in China.
Training Russian Administrators
Professor John Burkhardt has been a faculty member at the Salzburg Seminar's Russian Universities Project. He has participated as special advisor to several Russian universities attempting to guide strategic institutional change.
Visiting Scholars
The Center has regularly sponsored Visiting Scholars from around the world, including scholars from China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, and Australia. These scholars work with CSHPE faculty on projects of mutual interest, and contribute to the vitality of the Center and its role in both national and international arenas in higher education.
Institutional Transformation in Higher Education
The National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good
The National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good (formerly, The Kellogg Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good) is designed to significantly increase awareness, understanding, commitment, and action relative to the public service role of higher education in the United States. Its Director is CSHPE Professor John C. Burkhardt.
In pursuit of its mission, the National Forum seeks to foster a renewed sense of common purpose among all those who are stewards for the values and responsibilities of higher education in our society through something of a social and professional "movement”. It seeks to align and amplify the efforts - those of scholars, teachers, practitioners, and students - whose work is directed toward achieving the public service mission of higher education, to expand, deepen and promote the application of scholarship that will lead to a clearer understanding of the public service role of U.S. colleges and universities, and to enhance the level of understanding within the general public about the contributions higher education makes to the improvement of our lives, the defense of our freedoms and the practice of democracy in a diverse society.
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which established the Forum in 2000, has extended its funding through 2006 and has recently awarded the Forum two new grants to support its work. Early this spring the National Forum announced a ground-breaking initiative, “Access to Democracy” which focuses new attention on the important relationship between higher education and the U.S. public.
