University of California, Los Angeles
Higher Education Research Institute
 http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/heri/heri.html


Contact Information:

UCLA Graduate School
of Education & Information Studies
3005 Moore Hall, Box 95121
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1521
Phone: 310-825-1925
Fax: 310-206-2228
E-mail: HERI@ucla.edu



CENTER DESCRIPTION

The Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) is based in the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies (GSEIS) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). HERI is an interdisciplinary center that specializes in research, evaluation, information, policy studies, and research training in postsecondary education. Research covers such topics as leadership development, faculty performance and development, educational equity, the outcomes of post-secondary education, and federal and state policy.

AREA(S) OF EXPERTISE


RECENT PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES

  • Community Service
      • How Service Learning Affects Students. With the help of a two-year anonymous gift, HERI is conducting a longitudinal study on the cognitive, behavioral, and affective outcomes among students who participate in service-learning courses. The study will also examine the effects of service-learning on faculty and identify strategies for expanding service learning on campus.

      GSEIS and HERI Service-Learning Clearinghouse Project. The Service-Learning Clearinghouse Project is one of the partners of The Learn and Serve America National Service-Learning Clearinghouse Consortium (NSLCC). The NSLCC represents a collaborative effort among 12 national partner organizations whose mission is to collect and disseminate information for Learn and Serve America programs, as well as other K-12, higher education, community-based, and national service programs and practitioners. During the first year (1998-99), the primary activity for the clearinghouse was to conduct and analyze a needs assessment of service-learning practitioners. In 1999-2000, the focus will be on continuing to gather and disseminate information as well as addressing specific needs identified in the survey. A national service-learning symposium in October 1999 brought together recognized leaders in the field to discuss service-learning research and application. The clearinghouse project is funded by the Corporation for National Service and the University of Minnesota National Clearinghouse.

  • Higher Education
      • The Freshman, College Student, and Faculty Surveys. HERI and the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) administer national longitudinal surveys that focus on the American higher education system and academic life. The CIRP is the nation's largest and longest empirical study on higher education and includes the Annual Freshman Survey, the College Student Survey, and the Faculty Survey. Surveys address values and goals as well as student satisfaction, quality of campus life, student involvement, and campus issues.

      Strengthening Assessment of the First College Year.. Funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, and in collaboration with the Policy Center on the First Year of College, HERI is designing an assessment instrument for the first college year. The first-year survey will provide colleges and universities with information on the experiences, perceptions, and self-assessed changes of first-year students. When linked with Freshman Survey data, the new instrument will allow institutions to assess how their students change during the first year of college, as well as which aspects of the college experience contribute to those changes.

      Kellogg Forum on Higher Education Transformation (KFHET). Funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the KFHET project is a five-year initiative to "learn and work with institutions, helping them to transform themselves to be more flexible, accountable, collaborative, and responsive to the students, faculty, the communities, and the regions they serve." HERI is part of a collective effort to help the grantee institutions translate their experiences with transformation into "learning that can be adapted and replicated." This is a values-based initiative, "emphasizing the role of higher education in mobilizing its resources to help address social needs." HERI staff and faculty have created a graduate seminar on institutional transformation, synthesized current knowledge on transformation, and are using site visits to grantee institutions and CIRP data to better understand the process of transformation.


  • Leadership and Leadership Development
      • Applications of the Social Change Model of Leadership Development. . In January 1996, HERI published the guidebook, A Social Change Model of Leadership Development. The model is based in theory and empirical research, and presents an innovative model of leadership development based on the "seven C's": consciousness of self, congruence, commitment, collaboration, common purpose, controversy with civility, and citizenship.

      Evaluation of Leadership Education This longitudinal study investigates how participation in leadership programs affects student education and personal development.

      Kellogg Leadership Project. The goal of the Kellogg Leadership Project, funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, is the development of a monograph about the role of leadership in transforming higher education. Faculty and student affairs professionals from around the country have worked collaboratively to develop guiding principles for the type of leadership that can effectively foster change on college and university campuses. Specific attention is directed toward the respective roles that students, faculty, student affairs professionals, and presidents can play in this process.

  • Science and Technology
      • Graduate Education in Science, Math, and Engineering. This study, sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, explored gender differences in graduate education in the science, math, and engineering disciplines.


    PUBLICATIONS

  • Higher Education
      • The American Freshman: The American Norm 1998. (Editions available from 1967)

      The American Freshman: Thirty-Year Trends.

      The American College Teacher. (National norms available from 1989-1998)

      Meaning and Spirituality in the Lives of College Faculty.

  • Higher Education
        Cultural, Racial and Ethnic Diversity