Administration and Leadership in Higher Education

Numerous reports have described the urgency of the impending ‘leadership crisis’ in higher education, noting the insufficient number of qualified candidates prepared to step into executive leadership roles that will be vacated by large numbers of retirements in the near future. Work by our faculty seeks to both understand and effectively address that leadership crisis.

College Access and Success

In Texas and across the nation a substantial gap continues to exist in the number of college graduates needed to meet current and future workforce and civic demands. Our faculty tackle that challenge through research that comprehensively and constructively addresses a full-range of related issues including financial aid, underrepresented student recruitment, access, completion, and success, and the important roles that community colleges play.

Higher Education Policy and Research Utilization

Our faculty engage in research that both evaluates and informs policy focused on improving P-20 education. We also undertake work that seeks to understand how research can be used with increasing effectiveness in policy decision making. Through this research we hope to improve educational quality and student success from preschool through college.

Advocacy and Social Justice

Across our work, faculty are grounded in a philosophical belief in the transformational nature of higher education as an institution of social change. Ultimately, our scholarship is intended to strengthen education at the local, state, national, and international levels and further equity of opportunity for all students, but particularly those traditionally underserved by our current systems.

International and Comparative Higher Education

The internationalizing of higher education demands a deep cross-cultural and transnational understanding. Our faculty engage in research focused on the social, cultural and political Contexts of Learning as well as the comparative outcomes of key policy interventions implemented transnationally.