Archive
Research Report
September 26, 2018
The First-Year Experience in Two-Year Public Postsecondary Programs
Results of a National Survey
A student’s first year at a new college is a critically important period—academically, socio-emotionally, personally, and professionally. Whether transitioning from high school, other postsecondary education, or the labor market, students often need to adjust to a myriad of changes beyond just the new academic environment. They may be relocating, starting a new job in order to pay for tuition and living expenses, or facing new demands as they balance family responsibilities, work, and school deadlines. Students learn to navigate new…
Research Report
September 20, 2018
Interrogating Institutional Practices in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Lessons and Recommendations from Case Studies in Eight Art Museums
In 2015, a demographic survey of the staff of North American art museums conducted by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), American Alliance of Museums (AAM), and Ithaka S+R found that the staff composition of museums in the United States is not remotely representative of the country’s population....In 2015, a demographic survey of the staff of North American art museums conducted by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), American Alliance of…
Research Report
September 19, 2018
CIC Consortium for Online Humanities Instruction II
Evaluation Report for the Second Course Iteration
Introduction The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) Consortium for Online Humanities Instruction began in 2014 with the support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to determine if small, independent colleges could collaborate in developing online, upper-level humanities courses that would give students at these institutions a broader range of courses from which to choose. The success of the first Consortium (2014–2016) motivated the Mellon Foundation to support a second Consortium that was formed in the summer of 2016 with…
Research Report
August 13, 2018
Amplifying Student Voices
The Community College Libraries and Academic Support for Student Success Project
The Community College Libraries & Academic Support for Student Success (CCLASSS) project examines student goals, challenges, and needs from the student perspective. Through this project, we aim to provide community colleges and their libraries with strategic intelligence on how to adapt their services to most effectively meet student needs. In spring 2018, we conducted semi-structured interviews with students at seven partner community colleges on student objectives and goals, definitions of success, challenges faced, and coursework practices. Key findings Across…
Research Report
July 19, 2018
Library Acquisition Patterns: Preliminary Findings
Several years ago, we set out to better understand how both library acquisition practices and the distribution patterns of publishers and vendors were evolving over time.[1] Within the academic publishing community, there is a sense that academic libraries are acquiring fewer and fewer books and that university presses are struggling amid declining sales. The latter may certainly be true—a recent UK study found that between 2005 and 2014, retail sales of academic books dropped by 13 percent…
Research Report
June 27, 2018
The Talent Blind Spot
The Case for Increasing Community College Transfer to High Graduation Rate Institutions
In addition to expanding access and enhancing educational quality, there is a compelling economic case to be made for increasing transfer students. Specifically, supporting community college transfer pathways may offer four-year colleges a financially sustainable strategy to provide an affordable education to substantially more low- and moderate-income students.
Topics:
Research Report
June 21, 2018
Supporting the Changing Research Practices of Asian Studies Scholars
Danielle Cooper, Katherine Daniel, Jade Alburo, Deepa Banerjee, Tomoko Bialock, Hong Cheng, Su Chen, Sanghun Cho, Karen Stoll Farrell, Ralph Gabbard, Judith A. Henchy, David Hirsch, Michael Hopper, Michael J. Hughes, Ramona Islam, Michaela Kelly, Richard Lesage, Xiang Li, Carrie Marsh, Kuniko Yamada McVey, Mary Rader, Bonnie Brown Real, Zhijia Shen, Cynthia Sorrell, Meng-fen Su, Azusa Tanaka, Yukako Tatsumi, Brian Winterman, Lijuan Xu, Hyokyoung Yi, Xiuying Zou
Executive Summary Ithaka S+R’s Research Support Services Program investigates how the research support needs of scholars vary by discipline and includes reports on history, chemistry, art history, religious studies, agriculture, and public health. In 2017-2018, Ithaka S+R examined the changing research methods and practices of Asian studies scholars conducting research through U.S. institutions. This project was undertaken collaboratively with research teams at 11 academic libraries with the goal of identifying services to better support Asian studies scholars. This report…
Topics:
Research Report
May 22, 2018
College and University Endowments
In the Public Interest?
The fact that a handful of colleges and universities control billions of dollars in endowment funds has captured the attention of Congress and the public. Is it in the public interest for these institutions to continue to receive the full exemption from income taxation for the donations to and income from endowments?[1] The passage of the recent federal tax bill, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which imposes an excise tax of 1.4 percent on the net investment…
Tags:
Research Report
April 4, 2018
Monitoring Advising Analytics to Promote Success (MAAPS)
Evaluation Findings from the First Year of Implementation
In 2015, estimated bachelor’s degree attainment rates by age 24 were nearly five times greater for those from the highest family income quartile than for those from the lowest quartile (58 percent vs. 12 percent). Lower graduation rates of low-income students are not fully explained by lack of academic preparation, and a growing number of research studies attribute this achievement gap, at least in part, to low-income students’ lack of “institutional know-how”—their ability to navigate the complex bureaucracies that characterize…
Research Report
February 28, 2018
Free Speech, Student Activism, and Social Media
Reflections from the Bowen Colloquium on Higher Education Leadership
“We don’t invite people here [to speak] because we agree with them. The right question, well phrased, can be far more effective than preventing people from speaking.” —William G. Bowen, quoted in Priscilla Van Tassel, “Bowen Reviews His Years at Princeton,” The New York Times, November 29, 1987…
Research Report
February 28, 2018
Technology in Higher Education
Reflections from the Bowen Colloquium on Higher Education Leadership
“Properly conceived, information technology will enhance, but not replace, traditional modes of teaching and learning. It will also permit the delivery of educational content to a wider variety of others interested in subjects that lend themselves to distance learning – at home and at odd hours.” —William G. Bowen, “At a Slight Angle to the Universe: The University in a Digitized, Commercialized Age,” Romanes Lecture, Oxford University, October 17, 2000.
Topics:
Tags:
Research Report
February 28, 2018
Postsecondary Access and Diversity
Reflections from the Bowen Colloquium on Higher Education Leadership
“[T]he twin problems before us are, first, an unacceptably stagnant level of overall educational attainment in spite of historically high returns to degree completion and, second, persistent disparities in BA completion rates by socio-economic status. The two are, as it were, linked at the hip because we can’t achieve significant increases in the overall level of educational attainment unless we do a better job of graduating students from poor families and from Hispanic and African American populations.” —William G. Bowen,…
Topics:
Tags:
Research Report
January 29, 2018
Faculty Collaboration and Technology in the Liberal Arts
Lessons from a Teagle Grant Program
In response to enrollment and revenue declines, residential liberal arts programs are seeking ways to contain costs and build institutional capacity, while maintaining the quality of a liberal arts education. Some institutions have banded together to form robust consortia to share resources and distribute burdens. And some of these consortia have focused their efforts on the creation and use of online teaching resources and courses, hypothesizing that doing so will increase institutional capacity to provide educational offerings at a fraction…
Topics:
Tags:
Research Report
December 14, 2017
Supporting the Changing Research Practices of Public Health Scholars
Danielle Cooper, Katherine Daniel, Caitlin Bakker, Jaime Blanck, Chris Childs, Ann Gleason, Rosie Hanneke, Shanda Hunt, Janna Lawrence, Jeanne Link, Annabelle Nuñez, Sarah Safranek, Kay Hogan Smith, Claire Twose, Sue Woodson
Ithaka S+R’s Research Support Services Program investigates how the research support needs of scholars vary by discipline. In 2016-2017 Ithaka S+R examined the changing research methods and practices of public health scholars conducting research through U.S. institutions. This project was undertaken collaboratively with research teams at seven academic libraries with the goal of identifying services to better support public health scholars. This report aims to provide actionable findings for the organizations, institutions, and professionals who support the research process of…
Tags:
Research Report
October 31, 2017
Higher Ed Insights: Results of the Spring 2017 Survey
In May and June of 2017, we surveyed the Ithaka S+R Higher Ed Insights panel—164 senior leaders and experts at colleges and universities, associations, research groups, and philanthropies—about the state of higher education and the likely impact of recent events and trends. While respondents were generally positive about the state of undergraduate education in the United States, they expressed urgency about the need to improve degree completion rates, the quality of student learning, and affordability for students. Respondents’ reactions to…
Topics:
Research Report
October 5, 2017
Save America’s Treasures: Impact and Lessons
As part of the National Historic Preservation Fund, Save America’s Treasures awarded nearly 500 grants between 1999 and 2010 through the National Park Service, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services to preserve collections that embody the American story. The collections contain major parts of the nation’s artistic, social, and intellectual history. The impact of these grants has not been assessed in any comprehensive way, and one of the…
Research Report
September 19, 2017
CIC Consortium for Online Humanities Instruction II
Evaluation Report for First Course Iteration
The CIC Consortium for Online Humanities Instruction began in 2014 with the support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The success of the first Consortium motivated the Mellon Foundation to support a second Consortium that was formed in the summer of 2016 with teams of faculty members and administrators from 21 institutions that were selected through a competitive process.[1] Each institution is represented by a four-member team including a senior academic administrator, two full-time faculty members in the…
Research Report
August 30, 2017
Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity: Members of the Association of Research Libraries
Employee Demographics and Director Perspectives
The library community considers diversity to be a core value.[1] But, the academic library sector has struggled with addressing equity, diversity, and inclusion. One key shortcoming has been in its efforts to ensure representative numbers of library employees of color.[2] In recent years, many academic librarians and observers of academic libraries have worked toward understanding this issue and the shortcomings of efforts to diversify, focusing on staffing, library education, and advocacy for diversity and social justice…
Research Report
June 8, 2017
Quality Assurance in U.S. Higher Education
The Current Landscape and Principles for Reform
The American higher education sector is diverse and creative. In 2014-15, the sector produced over 1 million associate’s degrees, nearly 1.9 million bachelor’s degrees, over 758,000 master’s degrees, and over 178,000 doctoral degrees.[1] The world leader in innovation for decades, the sector continues to produce cutting edge research and contributes mightily to the American economy. Recent estimates concluded that the United States spends a larger percentage of GDP on higher education than any other country.[2] But…
Research Report
June 7, 2017
Supporting the Changing Research Practices of Agriculture Scholars
Danielle Cooper, Sarah Bankston, Marianne Stowell Bracke, Beth Callahan, Hui-Fen Chang, Leslie M. Delserone, Florian Diekmann, Andrea L. Dinkelman, Diana Farmer, Shannon L. Farrell, Sharon Giovenale, Charlotte Glennie, Scott Hanscom, Inga Haugen, Liz Holdsworth, Marei Houpert, Claudine Arnold Jenda, Erin Kerby, Megan Kocher, Adam Kriesberg, Emily Marsh, Alesia McManus, Nan McMurry, Sarah Milligan, Carolyn Mills, Valrie Davis Minson, Jim Morris-Knower, Mary Ochs, Livia Olsen, Necia Parker-Gibson, Cynthia Parr, Hannah Gascho Rempel, M. Brooke Robertshaw, Ashley Shea, Megan Sheffield, Laura I. Spears, Suzanne Cady Stapleton, Sarah C. Williams, Jane Yatcilla, Sarah Young
For America’s land-grant universities, agriculture is a field of bedrock historical importance and vital current relevance. While it is sometimes perceived by the general public as a field to help small farmers modernize, today it also includes advanced genetic research, economic and policy issues around food security, and deep engagement with climate change. As a rich interdisciplinary field at the heart of so many research universities, the practices and needs of agriculture are of interest to many. For that reason,…
Topics: