Search results

Humans care about things. The truth of this claim is obvious, yet scholars who have evaluated student interventions and outcomes in higher education have largely neglected how student values might inform their experience with those interventions and outcomes. This chapter will rely on a philosophical conceptualization of a particular type of value known as “caring” to explore what students value as they weigh various collegiate decisions. Elaborating on findings from a qualitative study of 143 college students from eight American universities, I will summarize previous findings related to what students cared about, how those cares were structured, and what the cares and structures meant for students' pathways through college. The categorical and theoretical patterns I share demonstrate how students approached values in ways that have not typically been considered by scholars or institutional administrators. After summarizing my previous findings, I offer a conceptual argument for a “dialectical” approach that considers the mutually formative interaction between student and institutional values. The practical result of naming and understanding the dialectic realities of values in higher education is the opportunity for institutions to use their relatively greater agency to help individual students pursue what is worth pursuing without reducing the agency of those students. Thus, the dialectic places necessary boundary lines on both the institution and the student while also clarifying the opportunity to help students develop moral expertise and navigate their collegiate pathways successfully.

The number of students from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds continue to increase in classrooms across the United States. These students have complex needs as they experience more barriers to success when compared to their peers. These barriers are further compounded when CLD students are also identified as having disabilities. To address the barriers and meet the needs of CLD students with disabilities, teaching professionals should move away from the traditional American educational values of individual freedom and self-reliance, equal opportunity and competition, and material wealth and hard work. Conversely, schools and teaching professionals should incorporate the modern values of social justice, diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and belonging when working with students from CLD backgrounds who have disabilities. This chapter presents these values and provides recommendations for teaching professionals and schools.

The phenomenon of student mobility in higher education is influenced by several factors, including the infrastructure provided by institutions in different countries as student support services. These student support services play a pivotal role in fostering students’ adaptability within a new environment, thereby significantly impacting their academic performance and social integration. The study focuses on international students in Uganda and investigates how student support services (as part of institutional infrastructure) support students’ adaptability. Based on Leask’s conceptual model of internationalisation, the study reveals that the presence of such services is essential; in addition, the need to provide newly arriving students with orientation is crucial for them to effectively navigate their surroundings. Offices dedicated to international students are also instrumental in facilitating the students’ orientation and settling-in process and they enhance their overall experience. By recognising the significance of both student support services and orientation, education institutions can create a more conducive and supportive environment for international students, ultimately enriching their academic journey and social interactions.

Black male student veterans enter postsecondary education with three intersecting identities that should be acknowledged through the academic and student support services provided by the institution they attend. The academic guidance provided by competent and compassionate advisors coupled with student affairs engagement contribute to the graduation of this unique population.

The purpose of this literature is twofold: (a) identify and highlight effective academic support methods that contribute to Black male veteran graduation and (b) identify and highlight effective Student Affairs engagement strategies that contribute to Black male veteran graduation. The literature will further inform higher education professionals in both Academic Affairs spaces and Student Affairs spaces of collaborative partnerships that can be formed to increase the graduation rates of Black male veterans. Black male student veterans are not a monolithic population nor are the institutions they are attending. Therefore, it is also important to examine how the literature addresses advising and engagement of Black male veterans at diverse types of postsecondary institutions.

Higher education institutions (HEIs) in Australia shape the country's economic, social, and political landscape and equip students with the skills they need to succeed in ever-changing work environments. Embedded within Australian HEIs are sets of values that reflect and reinforce collective Australian values, which describe the shared beliefs of the leadership, academic staff, students, and the local community. These shared values then direct all members of the university community. Using a top-tier university in Melbourne, Australia, as a case study, this chapter explores how the values of accessibility, inclusion, and collaboration are embedded into the curriculum, teaching, and assessment practices. Relationship-building and positive student interaction within learning contexts are also crucial to learning contexts in higher education (HE) and are essentially driven by values in HE. Furthermore, values identified in this chapter align with broader Australian values relating to fairness, equity, cooperation, and support. Utilizing the experience and reflection of four contributing academics in HE, this chapter offers ideas and strategies on how these values can be fundamentally rooted within learning and teaching programs, thereby increasing student engagement, interaction, and success. This chapter acknowledges that the needs of contemporary education have changed, as the HE sector now accommodates students from all walks of life. Additionally, a fundamental premise of the discourse is that learner diversity can be accommodated more effectively if it is spurred by values that respect and appreciate learner diversity.

Students in full-time higher education are increasingly combining work with study. This can present challenges and conflicting priorities which may result in stress and compromised academic performance. However, working can also afford students a better quality of life and enhanced employability. The growth of student employment creates implications for universities and employers. In this chapter, we report the results of our research which explored experiences of students at a business school in a large UK university who were working while studying. We examine the experiences and perceived consequences of combining employment with full-time study and seek to understand why students work during their degree program, the challenges and benefits of balancing work and factors which may help and hinder their efforts. The chapter builds on the existing knowledge base about the effects working has on students’ academic performance and well-being, and considers how universities, employers and social circumstances may support students in managing their complex lives.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused an unprecedented crisis in all industries. In the education sector, the pandemic led to the immediate closure of university and college campuses and the migration to online delivery in more than 190 countries in order to prevent the spread of the virus and mitigate its impact. The current study explores students’ perceptions of online accounting course delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Arab Emirates. Using an online survey, the findings show that student perceptions regarding online course delivery varied based on students’ years in the program. Specifically, underclassmen (freshmen and sophomores) reported greater enjoyment than upperclassmen (juniors and seniors) from studying classes online and were more likely than upperclassmen to extol the benefits of online learning such as the ability to view classes anytime, anywhere as well as the enhanced opportunity to utilize technology in learning. These differences may result from the familiarity of upperclassmen with the traditional learning format. The analysis also reports differences in perceptions of online learning between students of different ages and gender. The results from this research can help inform institutional policies by providing insight into students’ views on the efficacy and challenges associated with transitioning to a fully online learning environment in the midst of a major disruption of United Arab Emirates.

We conducted both a field study and an experiment to examine why college students use laptops for note-taking, and how it impacts their performance in a managerial accounting course. Our study is unique because it takes place in an accounting setting, it incorporates the use of an interactive note packet, and it compares the effect of computer use among students in the lower half versus upper half of academic performance. We found that students chose to use a laptop to complete the notes primarily because of its ease, while those taking longhand notes did so because they felt it enhanced their learning. There was no significant difference in average test scores and course grades between the two groups overall or among students in the upper half of academic performance. However, the use of a laptop had a strong negative effect on students in the lower half of academic performance.

This chapter presents theoretical and empirical studies that investigate the influence of digital culture on the educational process of university students where mobile devices and the internet have become increasingly present as resources in everyday school life. The researchers investigate how such devices and the internet interact with university environments in ways that change the more traditional academic practices, such as reading, writing, and studying. Moreover, in the context of what has been widely labeled as humanities studies, interest has grown in understanding how “culture” may be studied via varied strands of interpretative lines of inquiry, each configured by different methods and ways of reflection. At master education levels, digital technology becomes even more present as a means of academic activity and, as a result, amplifies the impacts of digital culture on contemporary university culture. The purpose of this work is to study the concept of culture, digital culture, and scholarly culture, and, on a second approach, to review aspects of the development of communication methods and their impacts on university educational environments. As a methodological theoretical procedure, this research builds on authors who have raised practical and scholarly cultural questions, such as Pierre Bourdieu, Pierre Levy, Raymond Williams, Roger Chartier, Anne Marie Chartier, and Bernard Lahire, among others. This study engages in empirical research with students in an Advertising and Marketing course in a private higher educational institution in the city of Araraquara, which is located in the “interior” of the state of São Paulo in Brazil.