Benefit-cost analysis of becoming certified pollinator friendly

Despite significant drop in pollinator abundance, no studies exist on the benefits and costs of pollinator conservation in the public domain. An in-person survey was conducted at three large, public US universities to estimate benefits to become Bee Campus USA certified. We test whether different types of reminders on existing student sustainability fees affect Willingness to Pay. Costs of achieving this certification per university were obtained. Net Present Value demonstrates that the net benefits to each school are largely positive, except under the most restrictive assumption. Information reminders of existing fees lead to little change in support of pollinator conservation.

Universities' Scientific and Technological Transformation in China: Its Efficiency and Influencing Factors in the Yangtze River Economic Belt

Universities are important sources of knowledge and key members of the regional innovation system. The key problem in Chinese universities is the low efficiency of the scientific and technological (S&T) transformation, which limits the promotion of regional innovation and economic development. This article proposes the three-stage efficiency analytical framework, which regards it as a complex and interactive process. Avoiding the problem of considering the input and output of university S&T transformation as a "black box" and neglecting the links among different transformation stages. The super efficiency network SBM model is applied to the heterogeneous region of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Empirical research proves that university S&T transformation has not been effectively improved and the scientific resources invested in universities have not been efficiently utilized in recent years. Generally, Despite the correlation between regional economy and transformation efficiency, the exclusive increase in resources is not enough. Regional openness and the quality of research talents are key factors for the application of technological innovation and technology marketization. Universities should not only pursue the number of research outputs but pay more attention to high-quality knowledge production to overcome difficulties in research achievements transformation.

Applying the goal programming in the management of the 7P marketing mix model at universities-case study

The decision-making relating to effective marketing is less supported by operational methodologies and optimizing methods in high education sectors than in the companies. This paper presents an application of goal programming as an aid for the optimizing marketing mix elements. It describes a project undertaken at one of the Universities in Poland considering the marketing mix includes all 7Ps elements at University. The constraints are first identified based on interviews with academic experts and survey. The analytic hierarchy process method is used to select the forms of promotional activities and Activity-Based Costing method are performed to determine the costs of the activities. Then, based on constraints, the multiple-criteria-programming model is built and applied to construct the marketing mix model at university, and it was solved using LP-Solve software AMPL. A comparison between the newly designed marketing mix and the existing one in terms of each of the criteria shows that the overall objective function could be greatly improved, optimized value can be obtained, and the model can be easily applied in any other high education sectors. The consequence of using the model is the optimal selection (with existing limitations) of promotional activities, taking into account their impact on the perception of the image of the university, significant from the perspective of students and impact on profitability, which is important from the perspective of the university management.

Systematic shifts in scaling behavior based on organizational strategy in universities

To build better theories of cities, companies, and other social institutions such as universities, requires that we understand the tradeoffs and complementarities that exist between their core functions, and that we understand bounds to their growth. Scaling theory has been a powerful tool for addressing such questions in diverse physical, biological and urban systems, revealing systematic quantitative regularities between size and function. Here we apply scaling theory to the social sciences, taking a synoptic view of an entire class of institutions. The United States higher education system serves as an ideal case study, since it includes over 5,800 institutions with shared broad objectives, but ranges in strategy from vocational training to the production of novel research, contains public, nonprofit and for-profit models, and spans sizes from 10 to roughly 100,000 enrolled students. We show that, like organisms, ecosystems and cities, universities and colleges scale in a surprisingly systematic fashion following simple power-law behavior. Comparing seven commonly accepted sectors of higher education organizations, we find distinct regimes of scaling between a school's total enrollment and its expenditures, revenues, graduation rates and economic added value. Our results quantify how each sector leverages specific economies of scale to address distinct priorities. Taken together, the scaling of features within a sector along with the shifts in scaling across sectors implies that there are generic mechanisms and constraints shared by all sectors, which lead to tradeoffs between their different societal functions and roles. We highlight the strong complementarity between public and private research universities, and community and state colleges, that all display superlinear returns to scale. In contrast to the scaling of biological systems, our results highlight that much of the observed scaling behavior is modulated by the particular strategies of organizations rather than an immutable set of constraints.

Conflicted and confused? Health harming industries and research funding in leading UK universities

Jeff Collin and colleagues review how the UK’s leading universities deal with research funding from health harming industries and call for more effective governance of conflicts of interest

Effects of double-dose algebra on college persistence and degree attainment

In 2003, Chicago Public Schools introduced double-dose algebra, requiring two periods of math-one period of algebra and one of algebra support-for incoming ninth graders with eighth-grade math scores below the national median. Using a regression discontinuity design, earlier studies showed promising results from the program: For median-skill students, double-dose algebra improved algebra test scores, pass rates, high school graduation rates, and college enrollment. This study follows the same students 12 y later. Our findings show that, for median-skill students in the 2003 cohort, double-dose significantly increased semesters of college attended and college degree attainment. These results were not replicated for the 2004 cohort. Importantly, the impact of the policy on median-skill students depended largely on how classes were organized. In 2003, the impacts on college persistence and degree attainment were large in schools that strongly adhered to the cut-score-based course assignment, but without grouping median-skill students with lower-skill peers. Few schools implemented the policy in such a way in 2004.

Mock grant application roleplay as an alternative to lab-based activities in molecular biology

Many universities resort to online teaching due to COVID-19 pandemic. It is a challenging endeavor, especially in Molecular Biology courses that require lab access. Mock grant application roleplay is one alternative to lab-based activities. Students are engaged in three aspects: (i) targeted literature review, (ii) research proposal writing and (iii) 5-min project pitching. The design of this module is flexible and, other lab-based courses can adopt it. This module encourages undergraduate students to explore the lab techniques they learnt and concisely present their research proposal.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Future of Science Careers

As COVID-19 swept across the world, it created a global pandemic and an unpredictable and challenging job market. This article discusses the future of the 2020-2021 job market in both academia and industry in the midst and aftermath of this pandemic.

Unidirectional and bidirectional relationships between financial parenting and financial self-efficacy: Does student loan status matter?

Using longitudinal data and a cross-lagged, multigroup panel design, we examined unidirectional and bidirectional relationships between financial parenting and young adults' financial self-efficacy during the transition to adulthood. Because increasing college costs and student loan debt have changed the financial landscape of achieving higher education, we examined effects over time under 2 distinct conditions: a debt-financed college education and a debt-free college education. Analyses included the effects of 2 types of financial parenting: implicit role modeling and explicit communication. The sample was drawn from the Arizona Pathways to Life Success (APLUS) project, a cohort study of college students enrolled full time at a public university in the fall of 2007. Participants provided data at 3 time points across 5 years. The sample included 850 student loan borrowers and 800 nonborrowers. We found unidirectional patterns for both nonborrowers and borrowers depending on the type of financial parenting: Parents' explicit financial communication before college predicted higher levels of financial self-efficacy during freshman year for nonborrowers, whereas parents' implicit modeling before college predicted higher levels of financial self-efficacy during freshman year for borrowers. Financial self-efficacy led to less frequent explicit parental financial communication for nonborrowers after college but was associated with more frequent explicit parental financial communication during college for borrowers. Our findings suggest that explicit communication regarding basic finance principles is likely sufficient to support financial self-efficacy in a debt-free context, whereas observing parents' responsible financial behaviors may be beneficial for young adults who incur student loan debt. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

A blueprint for academic laboratories to produce SARS-CoV-2 quantitative RT-PCR test kits

Widespread testing for the presence of the novel coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in individuals remains vital for controlling the COVID-19 pandemic prior to the advent of an effective treatment. Challenges in testing can be traced to an initial shortage of supplies, expertise, and/or instrumentation necessary to detect the virus by quantitative RT-PCR (RT-qPCR), the most robust, sensitive, and specific assay currently available. Here we show that academic biochemistry and molecular biology laboratories equipped with appropriate expertise and infrastructure can replicate commercially available SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR test kits and backfill pipeline shortages. The Georgia Tech COVID-19 Test Kit Support Group, composed of faculty, staff, and trainees across the biotechnology quad at Georgia Institute of Technology, synthesized multiplexed primers and probes and formulated a master mix composed of enzymes and proteins produced in-house. Our in-house kit compares favorably with a commercial product used for diagnostic testing. We also developed an environmental testing protocol to readily monitor surfaces for the presence of SARS-CoV-2. Our blueprint should be readily reproducible by research teams at other institutions, and our protocols may be modified and adapted to enable SARS-CoV-2 detection in more resource-limited settings.

Will colleges survive the storm of declining enrollments? A computational model

The approaching decline in the U.S. college-age population, sometimes referred to as a “demographic storm,” has been identified as an existential threat to the future of American colleges and universities. This article conducts a model-driven analysis of three plausible college-level responses to declining applications. It draws on systems theory to conceptualize a tuition-dependent college as a complex service system and to develop a system dynamics model that captures key causal interrelationships and multiple feedback effects between faculty, facilities, tuition revenue, financials, reputation, and outcomes. Simulations with the college model suggest that common solutions such as reducing faculty or adding campus facilities may improve the college’s short-term financial position, but they are insufficient to ensure its long-term viability. This model contributes to the research literature on the economics of higher education, and model-driven academic management and strategy. It also provides useful implications and insights that can inform policy-makers and college leaders.

Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 Screening Strategies to Permit the Safe Reopening of College Campuses in the United States

Importance

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic poses an existential threat to many US residential colleges; either they open their doors to students in September or they risk serious financial consequences.

Objective

To define severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) screening performance standards that would permit the safe return of students to US residential college campuses for the fall 2020 semester.

Design, Setting, and Participants

This analytic modeling study included a hypothetical cohort of 4990 students without SARS-CoV-2 infection and 10 with undetected, asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection at the start of the semester. The decision and cost-effectiveness analyses were linked to a compartmental epidemic model to evaluate symptom-based screening and tests of varying frequency (ie, every 1, 2, 3, and 7 days), sensitivity (ie, 70%-99%), specificity (ie, 98%-99.7%), and cost (ie, $10/test-$50/test). Reproductive numbers (Rt) were 1.5, 2.5, and 3.5, defining 3 epidemic scenarios, with additional infections imported via exogenous shocks. The model assumed a symptomatic case fatality risk of 0.05% and a 30% probability that infection would eventually lead to observable COVID-19-defining symptoms in the cohort. Model projections were for an 80-day, abbreviated fall 2020 semester. This study adhered to US government guidance for parameterization data.

Main Outcomes and Measures

Cumulative tests, infections, and costs; daily isolation dormitory census; incremental cost-effectiveness; and budget impact.

Results

At the start of the semester, the hypothetical cohort of 5000 students included 4990 (99.8%) with no SARS-CoV-2 infection and 10 (0.2%) with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Assuming an Rt of 2.5 and daily screening with 70% sensitivity, a test with 98% specificity yielded 162 cumulative student infections and a mean isolation dormitory daily census of 116, with 21 students (18%) with true-positive results. Screening every 2 days resulted in 243 cumulative infections and a mean daily isolation census of 76, with 28 students (37%) with true-positive results. Screening every 7 days resulted in 1840 cumulative infections and a mean daily isolation census of 121 students, with 108 students (90%) with true-positive results. Across all scenarios, test frequency was more strongly associated with cumulative infection than test sensitivity. This model did not identify symptom-based screening alone as sufficient to contain an outbreak under any of the scenarios we considered. Cost-effectiveness analysis selected screening with a test with 70% sensitivity every 2, 1, or 7 days as the preferred strategy for an Rt of 2.5, 3.5, or 1.5, respectively, implying screening costs of $470, $910, or $120, respectively, per student per semester.

Conclusions and Relevance

In this analytic modeling study, screening every 2 days using a rapid, inexpensive, and even poorly sensitive (>70%) test, coupled with strict behavioral interventions to keep Rt less than 2.5, is estimated to maintain a controllable number of COVID-19 infections and permit the safe return of students to campus.

Measurement of sustainable higher education development: Evidence from China

This paper constructs the 6E evaluation index system, a comprehensive index including the dimensions of economy, effectiveness, efficiency, equity, earnings and equality, to measure the sustainable higher education development of the 31 provincial regions of China by utilizing the information entropy weight-TOPSIS method. This paper then makes a spatial and temporal analysis of the coupling coordination relationship among the dimensions of sustainable higher education development by using the coupling coordination model. In addition, this paper proposes specific and applicable countermeasures for sustainable higher education development. The results show that the comprehensive degrees of sustainable higher education development in most regions are not high, and the coastal regions and the Central-south China regions have higher grades; in addition, for most regions, the coupling coordination degrees mainly remain stable, with mild growth in the respective classifications, and the gap between the west and other regions is declining. The improved method is applicable to measure the sustainable development of higher education and to propose detailed and appropriate suggestions for further development.

Development of low-cost cardiac and skeletal muscle laboratory activities to teach physiology concepts and the scientific method

Anatomy and Physiology courses taught at community colleges tend to focus laboratory hours primarily on anatomy as opposed to physiology. However, research demonstrates that, when instructors utilize active learning approaches (such as in laboratory settings) where students participate in their own learning, students have improved outcomes, such as higher test scores and better retention of material. To provide community college students with opportunities for active learning in physiology, we developed two laboratory exercises to engage students in cardiac and skeletal muscle physiology. We utilized low-cost SpikerBox devices to measure electrical activity during cardiac (electrocardiogram) and skeletal muscle (electromyogram) contraction. Laboratory activities were employed in Anatomy and Physiology courses at two community colleges in southeast Michigan. A 2-h laboratory period was structured with a 20-min slide presentation covering background material on the subject and experiments to examine the effects of environmental variables on nervous system control of cardiac and skeletal muscle contraction. Students were asked to provide hypotheses and proposed mechanisms, complete a results section, and provide conclusions for the experiments based on their results. Our laboratory exercises improved student learning in physiology and knowledge of the scientific method and were well-received by community college students enrolled in Anatomy and Physiology. Our results demonstrate that the use of a SpikerBox for cardiac and skeletal muscle physiology concepts is a low-cost and effective approach to integrate physiology activities into an Anatomy and Physiology course.

COVID-19 Hits Cancer Research Funding

As the COVID-19 pandemic stretches on, investigators are becoming increasingly concerned about longer-term effects on grants and funding for cancer research. Institutions and philanthropic organizations are especially likely to be hit hard by the economic crisis, with effects that will be particularly acute for early-career investigators.

Partition dependence in financial aid distribution to income categories

When allocating resources, people often diversify across categories even when those categories are arbitrary, such that allocations differ when identical sets of options are partitioned differently (“partition dependence”). The first goal of the present work (Experiment 1) was to replicate an experiment by Fox and colleagues in which graduate students exhibited partition dependence when asked how university financial aid should be allocated across arbitrarily partitioned income brackets. Our sample consisted of community members at a liberal arts college where financial aid practices have been recent topics of debate. Because stronger intrinsic preferences can reduce partition dependence, these participants might display little partition dependence with financial aid allocations. Alternatively, a demonstration of strong partition dependence in this population would emphasize the robustness of the effect. The second goal was to extend a “high transparency” modification to the present task context (Experiment 2) in which participants were shown both possible income partitions and randomly assigned themselves to one, to determine whether partition dependence in this paradigm would be reduced by revealing the study design (and the arbitrariness of income categories). Participants demonstrated clear partition dependence in both experiments. Results demonstrate the robustness of partition dependence in this context.

The innovation value chain of patents: Breakthrough in the patent commercialization trap in Chinese universities

The innovation value chain is an effective tool for analysing innovation activities and reflects the process of value creation and increase in innovation activities. From the perspective of innovation value chains, we divided patent innovation activities into three stages: knowledge innovation stage, applied research stage and patent commercialization stage. The panel data from 64 universities directly managed by the Ministry of Education from 2009 to 2017 were used and several conclusions were drawn: 1) In the initial stage of knowledge innovation, the fundamental research fund plays a crucial promoting role, and knowledge innovation achievements are mainly published academic papers. 2) In the applied research stage, the knowledge innovation in the early stage and the fund investment in R&D activities have a significant positive effect on the patent output of universities, but the personnel investment has a negative effect. 3) In the final stage of patent commercialization, preliminary research results have a positive impact on patent commercialization, whose marginal effect depends on the industry-university-research relationship, external competition and reputation of the university. The evidence showed that there is a feedback channel between university patent commercialization and knowledge innovation, and new knowledge generated by the interaction with the outside world in the process of patent commercialization was transmitted to the subject of knowledge innovation through this channel, forming a virtuous dynamic cycle. By analysing the driving factors of the value chain of patent innovation in colleges and universities, we provided empirical evidence for the operation mechanism and policy formulation of college patents in China.

A cross-cultural comparison of psychology of working theory among U.S. and Korean college students

The cross-cultural validity of a modified version of psychology of working theory (PWT; Duffy, Blustein, Diemer, & Autin, 2016) was tested in samples of United States (n = 346) and Korean (n = 319) undergraduates. Participants completed measures of economic resources, work volition, career adaptability, occupational engagement, and future decent work perceptions. The results illustrated measurement invariance between the two samples. Thus, the hypothesized models were tested separately in the two samples and the results were compared regarding parameter significance, direction, and magnitude. Overall, the modified model generally fit well with both samples. However, there were notable cross-cultural differences: economic resources significantly predicted work volition, occupational engagement, and future decent work perceptions only in the United States sample and the future decent work perceptions and occupational engagement were negatively associated in the Korean sample. Explanations about the cross-cultural differences and invariances were provided and practical and research implications were discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Family Systems and Parents' Financial Support for Education in Early Adulthood

Young adults raised outside of two-parent families receive less financial support from their families for education compared with peers who always lived with both parents. We consider how parents' union status over time shapes contributions for young adult children's education. Our approach emphasizes the dynamic relationship between family structure and family economic resources. Marginal structural models with inverse probability weights estimate the association of parents' union status history with eventual financial transfers while not overcontrolling for the effects of union status operating indirectly through time-varying characteristics, such as coresident family composition and economic circumstances. The analytic sample includes parents of a recent cohort of young adults (Panel Study of Income Dynamics, 1983-2013, N = 2,754). Compared with parents who lived continuously with a child's other parent, unpartnered parents' transfers to children were 44 % to 90 % smaller, and repartnered parents' transfers were one- to two-thirds smaller, depending on how long the parent was unpartnered or repartnered. Through its influence on subsequent coresident family composition and family economic resources, parents' union status has indirect as well as direct associations with financial transfers to adult children for education.

A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Teaching and Learning Technology in a Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Objective. To conduct a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of investment in teaching and learning technology (TLT) by a college of pharmacy in a large, research-intensive university in Canada. Methods. Document analysis was used to determine the goals and objectives of the university and college for TLT use. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with faculty members to understand their perspectives on the value of technology for teaching and learning, their metrics to assess value, and an estimate of social value using a willingness to pay (WTP) exercise. A CBA was used to compare the social value against the cost of the investment in TLT. Results. Twenty-one faculty members participated in semi-structured interviews. National, university, and college goals for TLT were diffuse and nonspecific in terms of the intended use or the metrics by which implementation and impacts on the quality of teaching could be assessed. The mean WTP for this technology was Can$4.38M and the cost of investment was Can$4.25M. The primary analysis showed a small positive net benefit of the investment (Can$134,456), although this difference was not significant. All dollar figures are given in Canadian dollars (CAD). Conclusion. The college's monetary investment in TLT was approximately equal to the social value placed on TLT by faculty users. Conducting a CBA on technology can bring greater understanding among faculty members of the college's curriculum and pedagogical practices as well as financial decision-making. Greater clarity about the goals and objectives for TLT could help to maximize the value of investment in this area.

Does an early rural life influence selected health-related parameters of female university students?

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the study was to define whether in a group of young women the place of residence in their childhood and adolescence, as well as moving from a rural to an urban area, have affected their biological condition.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The data were obtained from 1,305 unmarried and childless women aged 18-25. The respondents were university students. Each person's height, weight and waist circumference were measured, and the BMI, WHR, and WHtR indices were calculated. A survey was used to collect data on the females' socio-economic status, their health condition and course of menstruation cycle.

RESULTS

In the whole sample, apart from WHR, there was no significant difference in anthropometric characteristics depending on the urbanization degree of the place of residence before commencing studies. In comparing the two groups of women, changing place of residence from a village to a city and from a city to another city, more differences were visible. Women of rural origin presented significantly higher values of BMI, waist circumference and WHtR than those from the city. They were also more frequently characterized by overweight and abdominal obesity. The women from other cities were characterized by underweight and too low amount of abdominal adipose tissue. Health problems were found in both groups. Students of rural origin more rarely declared changes in body weight and health condition after beginning studies. Students of urban origin were more often affected by sleeping problems and spine pains.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of the study do not indicate that a change of place of residence has a stronger effect on the biological condition of rural women than their urban peers.

Impact of funding allocation on physical therapist research productivity and DPT student graduates: an analysis using panel data

Financial support for institutional research is relatively stagnant, and thus institutions are likely to seek tuition revenue to offset the costs of research and teaching. It is likely that this has led to increases in tuition driven activities, and thus has limited research activities of academic physical therapy (PT) programs in particular. However, the relationships between sources of program revenue, the number of graduates from PT programs, and the scholarly production of PT faculty have not been studied. The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of types of funding-including research grants and tuition-on the number of physical therapy graduates from each program and the research productivity of physical therapy faculty. Data from 2008 to 2016 were utilized to perform a fixed-effects panel analysis. Panel models created predictions for the number of graduates and the number of peer-reviewed publications for programs from grant funding, annual tuition, and number of funded faculty members. In any given program, a 1% increase in annual tuition is associated with 24% more graduates per year, but a single percentage point increase in the mix of NIH grant funding over other funding types is associated with 8% fewer graduates, all else equal. For every 1% increase in annual tuition, a program can expect to have 41% fewer publications per year. Those institutions with higher numbers of graduates tended to have higher numbers of publications. Higher annual program tuition appears to be associated with both higher numbers of physical therapy graduates and lower levels of publications. Different funding sources have variable effects on degree production and scholarly productivity. Data are self-reported by programs on the Annual Accreditation Report, and cause and effect cannot be established through observational design.

Parental Investments in College and Later Cash Transfers

Parents often provide generous financial transfers to their adult children, perhaps assisting with college expenses, recognizing major life course events, or cushioning against negative financial shocks. Because resources are limited, a transfer made to one child likely affects transfers made to others in the family. Despite such possibilities, data limitations have led previous authors to focus almost exclusively on a single type of transfer made at a single point in time. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, we examine the relationships among parental transfers for college and later cash transfers to all children within a family. We find that parents typically spend differentially on the postsecondary schooling of their children but find no evidence that this differential spending is offset by later cash transfers.

The graduation shift of German universities of applied sciences

In research into higher education, the evaluation of completion and dropout rates has generated a steady stream of interest for decades. While most studies only calculate quotes using student and graduate numbers for both phenomena, we propose to additionally consider the budget available to universities. We transfer the idea of the excellence shift indicator [1] from the research to the teaching area, in particular to the completion rate of educational entities. The graduation shift shows the institutions’ ability to produce graduates as measured against their basic academic teaching efficiency. It is an important advantage of the graduation shift that it avoids the well-known heterogeneity problem in efficiency measurements. Our study is based on German universities of applied science. Given their politically determined focus on education, this dataset is well-suited for introducing and evaluating the graduation shift. Using a comprehensive dataset covering the years 2008 to 2013, we show that the graduation shift produces results, which correlate closely with the results of the well-known graduation rate and standard Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Compared to the graduation rate, the graduation shift is preferable because it allows to take the budget of institutions into account. Compared to the DEA, the computation of the graduation shift is easy, the results are robust, and non-economists can understand them results. Thus, we recommend the graduation shift as an alternative method of efficiency measurement in the teaching area.

Information barriers and social stratification in higher education: evidence from a field experiment

Our contribution assesses the role of information barriers for patterns of participation in Higher Education (HE) and the related social inequalities. For this purpose, we developed a large-scale clustered randomised experiment involving over 9,000 high school seniors from 62 Italian schools. We designed a counseling intervention to correct student misperceptions of the profitability of HE, that is, the costs, economic returns and chances of success of investments in different tertiary programs. We employed a longitudinal survey to test whether treated students' educational trajectories evolved differently relative to a control group. We find that, overall, treated students enrolled less often in less remunerative fields of study in favour of postsecondary vocational programmes. Most importantly, this effect varied substantially by parental social class and level of education. The shift towards vocational programmes was mainly due to the offspring of low-educated parents; in contrast, children of tertiary graduates increased their participation in more rewarding university fields. Similarly, the redistribution from weak fields to vocational programmes mainly involved the children of the petty bourgeoisie and the working class, while upper class students invested in more rewarding university fields. We argue that the status-maintenance model proposed by Breen and Goldthorpe can explain these socially differentiated treatment effects. Overall, our results challenge the claim that student misperceptions contribute to horizontal inequalities in access to HE.

Using cost-analyses to inform health professions education - The economic cost of pre-clinical failure

BACKGROUND

Student failure creates additional economic costs. Knowing the cost of failure helps to frame its economic burden relative to other educational issues, providing an evidence-base to guide priority setting and allocation of resources. The Ingredients Method is a cost-analysis approach which has been previously applied to health professions education research. In this study, the Ingredients Method is introduced, and applied to a case study, investigating the cost of pre-clinical student failure.

METHODS

The four step Ingredients Method was introduced and applied: (1) identify and specify resource items, (2) measure volume of resources in natural units, (3) assign monetary prices to resource items, and (4) analyze and report costs. Calculations were based on a physiotherapy program at an Australian university.

RESULTS

The cost of failure was £5991 per failing student, distributed across students (70%), the government (21%), and the university (8%). If the cost of failure and attrition is distributed among the remaining continuing cohort, the cost per continuing student educated increases from £9923 to £11,391 per semester.

CONCLUSIONS

The economics of health professions education is complex. Researchers should consider both accuracy and feasibility in their costing approach, toward the goal of better informing cost-conscious decision-making.

The UK Research Excellence Framework and the Matthew effect: Insights from machine learning

With the high cost of the research assessment exercises in the UK, many have called for simpler and less time-consuming alternatives. In this work, we gathered publicly available REF data, combined them with library-subscribed data, and used machine learning to examine whether the overall result of the Research Excellence Framework 2014 could be replicated. A Bayesian additive regression tree model predicting university grade point average (GPA) from an initial set of 18 candidate explanatory variables was developed. One hundred and nine universities were randomly divided into a training set (n = 79) and test set (n = 30). The model “learned” associations between GPA and the other variables in the training set and was made to predict the GPA of universities in the test set. GPA could be predicted from just three variables: the number of Web of Science documents, entry tariff, and percentage of students coming from state schools (r-squared = .88). Implications of this finding are discussed and proposals are given.

Scholarship Support for Veterans Enrolling in MD, JD, and MBA Programs

This study compares Veterans Administration (VA) scholarship support for veterans enrolling in degree-granting medical schools vs law or business programs at the same institutions.

State dream acts and education, health and mental health of Mexican young adults in the U.S

We investigate the education, health and mental health effects of state policies that allowed or explicitly banned tuition subsidy and financial aid to undocumented college students using the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) for 1998-2013. Our analysis suggests that an explicit ban on tuition subsidy or enrollment in public colleges lowered college education of non-citizen Mexican young adults by 5.4-11.6 percentage points. We find some evidence that in-state tuition and access to financial aid improved self-reported health and reduced mental health distress, and ban on in-state-tuition/enrollment increased mental health distress among non-citizen Mexican young adults: estimated effects are generally significant in first-difference models and models that include state-specific cubic trends, and often insignificant in difference-in-difference models.

Interdisciplinarity research based on NSFC-sponsored projects: A case study of mathematics in Chinese universities

We investigate the interdisciplinarity of mathematics based on an analysis of projects sponsored by the NSFC (National Natural Science Foundation of China). The motivation of this study lies in obtaining an efficient method to quantify the research interdisciplinarities, revealing the research interdisciplinarity patterns of mathematics discipline, giving insights for mathematics scholars to improve their research, and providing empirical supports for policy making. Our data set includes 6147 NSFC-sponsored projects implemented by 3225 mathematics professors in 177 Chinese universities with established mathematics departments. We propose the weighted-mean DIRD (diversity of individual research disciplines) to quantify interdisciplinarity. In addition, we introduce the matrix computation method, discover several properties of such a matrix, and make the computation cost significantly lower than the bitwise computation method. Finally, we develop an automatic DIRD computing system. The results indicate that mathematics professors at top normal universities in China exhibit strong interdisciplinarity; mathematics professors are most likely to conduct interdisciplinary research involving information science (research department), computer science (research area), computer application technology (research field), and power system bifurcation and chaos (research direction).

Community health workers on a college campus: Effects on influenza vaccination

OBJECTIVE

To assess the impact of a campus community health worker program (HealthPALs) on student influenza vaccination.

PARTICIPANTS

Undergraduate students at a northeastern US university (enrollment 6650), influenza seasons 2011-2012 through 2015-2016.

METHODS

Study design: Difference-in-differences analysis of student vaccination at campus dormitory influenza clinics during intervention vs. baseline.

INTERVENTION

In the first intervention year, HealthPALs conducted in-person peer outreach at several campus dormitory flu clinics. Subsequent years, HealthPALs conducted an enhanced intervention, with the addition of a personalized, dormitory-specific social media campaign appealing to students' community identity.

RESULTS

The initial intervention increased vaccinations by 66% (IRR = 1.66, 95%CI 1.39-1.97) at intervention clinics relative to control. The enhanced intervention increased vaccinations by 85% (IRR = 1.85, 95%CI 1.75-1.96).

CONCLUSION

Community health workers can be a highly effective, low-cost strategy for increasing influenza vaccination among college students. This model could also be used to address other campus health challenges where student engagement is key.

Food insecurity and Mediterranean diet adherence among Greek university students

AIM

To assess Mediterranean diet (MD) adherence and food insecurity (FI) among university students in Greece.

METHODS AND RESULTS

A non-probability sample of 236 students was recruited from Athens and Thessaloniki during 2016. FI was assessed with the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale and MD adherence with the MEDAS questionnaire. Mean MEDAS score of the sample was 6.4 ± 1.9, with women demonstrating greater MD adherence compared to men (p = 0.016) and Dietetics students exhibiting increased score compared to the rest (p ≤ 0.001). A low proportion of participants were food-secure (17.8%), 45.3% were severely food-insecure, 22.0% experienced moderate FI and the remaining 14.8% had low FI. Participants studying in the city they grew up exhibited lower FI compared to those studying in other cities (p = 0.009), while, additionally, a trend was noted for increased FI among students with an unemployed family member (p = 0.05). Students working night shifts had lower MD adherence and increased FI compared to the rest (p = 0.004 and p = 0.003, respectively). The same pattern was observed among participants who smoked (p = 0.003 for MD adherence and p = 0.009 for FI, respectively). Multivariate regression analyses did not reveal any connections between FI categories, waist circumference or BMI, but showed an inverse relationship between severe FI and MD adherence.

CONCLUSIONS

The majority of the surveyed university students from Greece demonstrate some degree of FI, with a great proportion being severely food-insecure. Increased FI is inversely associated with MD adherence.

Conceptualizing 20 years of engaged scholarship: A scoping review

Engaged scholarship, a movement that has been growing steadily since 1995, offers a new way of bridging gaps between the university and civil society. Numerous papers and reports have been published since Boyer's foundational discourse in 1996. Yet, beyond a growing interest in orienting universities' missions, we observed a lack a formal definition and conceptualization of this movement. Based on a scoping review of the literature over the past 20 years, the objective of this article is to propose a conceptualization of engaged scholarship. More specifically, we define its values, principles, and processes. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of this new posture for faculty and students, as well as for the university as an institution.

A 10-year case study on the changing determinants of university student satisfaction in the UK

Higher Education (HE), once the prerogative of a tiny elite, is now accessible to larger numbers of people around the world than ever before yet despite the fact that an understanding of student satisfaction has never been more important for today’s universities, the concept remains poorly understood. Here we use published data from the UK’s National Student Survey (NSS), representing data from 2.3 million full-time students collected from 2007 to 2016, as a case study of the benefits and limitations of measuring student satisfaction that might have applicability for other countries, particularly those that, like the UK, have experienced significant growth in student numbers. The analyses showed that the factor structure of the NSS remained generally stable and that the ability of the NSS to discriminate between different subjects at different universities actually improved over the ten-year sample period. The best predictors of overall satisfaction were ‘Teaching Quality’ and ‘Organisation & Management’, with ‘Assessment & Feedback’ having relatively weak predictive ability, despite the sector’s tangible efforts to improve on this metric. The tripling of student fees in 2012 for English students (but not the rest of the UK) was used as a ‘natural experiment’ to investigate the sensitivity of student satisfaction ratings to the real economic costs of HE. The tuition fee increase had no identifiable negative effect, with student satisfaction steadily improving throughout the decade. Although the NSS was never designed to measure perceived value-for-money, its insensitivity to major changes in the economic costs of HE to the individual suggest that the conventional concept of student satisfaction is incomplete. As such we propose that the concept of student satisfaction: (i) needs to be widened to take into account the broader economic benefits to the individual student by including measures of perceived value-for-money and (ii) should measure students’ level of satisfaction in the years post-graduation, by which time they may have a greater appreciation of the value of their degree in the workplace.

Benefit-Cost Analysis of Undergraduate Education Programs: An Example Analysis of the Freshman Research Initiative

Institutions and administrators regularly have to make difficult choices about how best to invest resources to serve students. Yet economic evaluation, or the systematic analysis of the relationship between costs and outcomes of a program or policy, is relatively uncommon in higher education. This type of evaluation can be an important tool for decision makers considering questions of resource allocation. Our purpose with this essay is to describe methods for conducting one type of economic evaluation, a benefit-cost analysis (BCA), using an example of an existing undergraduate education program, the Freshman Research Initiative (FRI) at the University of Texas Austin. Our aim is twofold: to demonstrate how to apply BCA methodologies to evaluate an education program and to conduct an economic evaluation of FRI in particular. We explain the steps of BCA, including assessment of costs and benefits, estimation of the benefit-cost ratio, and analysis of uncertainty. We conclude that the university's investment in FRI generates a positive return for students in the form of increased future earning potential.

Organizational resilience: Sustained institutional effectiveness among smaller, private, non-profit US higher education institutions experiencing organizational decline

BACKGROUND

Recent changes in the United States (US) economy have radically disrupted revenue generation among many institutions within higher education within the US. Chief among these disruptions has been fallout associated with the financial crisis of 2008-2009, which triggered a change in the US higher education environment from a period of relative munificence to a prolonged period of scarcity. The hardest hit by this disruption have been smaller, less wealthy institutions which tend to lack the necessary reserves to financially weather the economic storm. Interestingly, a review of institutional effectiveness among these institutions revealed that while many are struggling, some institutions have found ways to not only successfully cope with the impact of declining revenue, but have been able to capitalize on the disruption and thrive.

OBJECTIVE

Organizational response is an important factor in successfully coping with conditions of organizational decline. The study examined the impacts of organizational response on institutional effectiveness among higher education institutions experiencing organizational decline. The study's research question asked why some US higher educational institutions are more resilient at coping with organizational decline than other institutions operating within the same segment of the higher education sector. More specifically, what role does organizational resilience have in helping smaller, private non-profit institutions cope and remain effective during organizational decline?

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 141 US smaller, private non-profit higher educational institutions participated in the study; specifically, the study included responses from participant institutions' key administrators.

METHODS

60-item survey evaluated administrator responses corresponding to organizational response and institutional effectiveness. Factor analysis was used to specify the underlying structures of rigidity response, resilience response, and institutional effectiveness. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the direct and interaction effects between organizational decline, organizational rigidity response, organizational resilience response, and institutional effectiveness, controlling for age of institution and level of endowment.

RESULTS

The study validated previous threat-rigidity response findings that organizational decline alone does not adversely impact institutional effectiveness. The direct effect of Goal-Directed Solution Seeking and Role Dependency organizational resilience factors had a positive, significant correlation with the Student Personal Development institutional effectiveness factor. The interactive effect of Goal-Directed Solution Seeking organizational resilience factor during organizational decline had a positive, significant correlation with the Professional Development and Quality of Faculty institutional effectiveness factor. The interactive effect of Avoidance during organizational decline had a positive, significant correlation with the Faculty and Administrator Employment Satisfaction institutional effectiveness factor. The interactive effect of Diminished Innovation, Morale, and Leader Credibility rigidity response factor and Avoidance organizational resilience factor during organizational decline had a positive, significant correlation with the Professional Development and Quality of Faculty institutional effectiveness factor. Lastly, the interactive effect of Increased Scapegoating of Leaders, Interest group Activities, and Conflict rigidity response factor and Avoidance organizational resilience factor during organizational decline had a positive, significant correlation with the Faculty and Administrator Employment Satisfaction institutional effectiveness factor.

CONCLUSIONS

Factors of organizational resilience were found to have a positive effect among smaller, private non-profit higher educational institutions associated with this study toward sustaining institutional effectiveness during organizational decline. Specifically, the organizational resilience factors of Goal-Directed Solution Seeking (i.e., mission-driven solutions) and Avoidance (i.e., skepticism toward new ideas) play a significant, collaborative role among smaller, private non-profit higher educational institutions when it comes to sustaining institutional effectiveness during organizational decline.