How College Affects Students (Volume 3): 21St Century Evidence That Higher Education Works

How College Affects Students, Volume 3 carries on the tradition of the past volumes (which covered research years 1967-2001) as a critical review, synthesis, and analysis of the research on college impact that has accumulated between 2002 and 2012. Such synthesis and analysis helps the the field to understand how students are influenced by various facets of undergraduate education and provides empirical evidence on which to base future policies and practices.

The book will synthesize approximately 2500+ individual research investigations, and the authors will compare the conclusions from the research conducted between 2002 and 2012 with those based on the work conducted between 1991 and 2001 – which constituted the research base for the second volume of How College Affects Students.

Table of Contents:

1. Studying College Outcomes in the New Century: Overview and Organization of the Research

2. Theoretical Models of College Impact

3. Development of Verbal, Quantitative, and Subject Matter Competence

4. Cognitive Skills and Intellectual Growth

5. Psychosocial Change

6. Attitudes and Values

7. Moral/Ethical Development

8. Educational Attainment and Persistence

9. Career and Economic Impacts of College

10. Quality of Life after College

11. How College Affects Students: A Summary

12. Implications for Research Policy and Practice

13. Technical Appendix: Methodological Advances in Estimating the Impact of College

The research reviewed in Chapters 3 – 10 will, where appropriate, be organized around the following structure (which was used in the preceding two volumes): 

Change during College

Net Effects (Value Added) of College

Between-College Effects

Within-College Effects

Conditional Effects of College (are effects different for different kinds of students?)

Enduring Effects of College

Each chapter also summarizes the findings from the previous decade’s research so that the reader will be able to see the extent of agreement, disagreement, and change with the research findings from 2002-2012.

 

MATTHEW J. MAYHEW is faculty fellow in residence in the Student Affairs division at New York University.

ALYSSA N. ROCKENBACH is assistant professor in the department of leadership, policy and adult and higher education at North Carolina State University.

NICHOLAS A. BOWMAN is associate professor and director of the Center for Research on Undergraduate Education at the University of Iowa.

TRICIA A. SEIFERT is assistant professor of adult and higher education at Montana State University.

GREGORY C. WOLNIAK is clinical associate professor of higher education and director of the Center for Research on Higher Education Outcomes at New York University.

ERNEST T. PASCARELLA is a professor at the University of Iowa.

PATRICK T. TERENZINI is professor emeritus and senior scientist in the Center for the Study of Higher Education at The Pennsylvania State University.

Pascarella and Terenzini are co-authors of the first two volumes of How College Affects Students.