Higher Education Research Institute

HERI data was used in this The American Prospect piece!

How can we better understand why students choose higher education and the challenges they face?

School’s Out Demographic crashes and rising costs threaten an entire segment of higher education.

Our surveys are designed to gather data to help leaders make decisions that support their students, staff, and faculty.

American Council on Education recently used some data to address reasons for students leaving college; their report is featured in Inside Higher Ed today.

Academic struggles compel many students to leave college Academic challenges, financial constraints and family responsibilities were among the biggest reasons students said they left, according to a recent survey.

The American Council on Education (ACE) released the second brief in a series planned in partnership with the UCLA School of Education and Information Science (UCLA Ed&IS): Reasons Students Consider Leaving or Stopping Out, The brief includes a series of quesitons the authors think administrators should ask when analyzing student stop out trends. The brief uses data from our 2023 Diverse Learning Environments Survey (DLE).

ACE Brief on Student Stop Out Uses HERI Data – HERI ACE Brief on Student Stop Out Uses HERI Data Posted by HERI Categories announcements, Blog, News Date August 2, 2024 The American Council on Education (ACE) released the second brief in a series planned in partnership with the UCLA School of Education and Information Science (UCLA Ed&IS): Reasons St...

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Great news -- Registration for both the 2023-2024 Diverse Learning Environments Survey (DLE) and the Staff Climate Survey (SCS) is now open! The administration periods run from now until April 30, 2024. We’re also pleased to announce our new Survey Portal is open & ready for account registration.

Data from the DLE survey and the SCS can help institutions respond to incidents or existing climate issues, in addition to offering critical and timely information to proactive institutions that recognize the importance of assessing how student and staff community members experience the campus climate for diversity at the institution.

Follow these steps to log into the new portal and register for DLE and SCS:
1. Visit the HERI Survey Portal: https://surveyportal.heri.cresst.org/
2. Click on "Login" on the portal's homepage
3. Select "Sign up now", enter your email address in lowercase, verify it, and establish a new password to complete the one-time registration process

CRESST HERI Web Portal Higher Education Research Institute Welcome to the CRESST / HERI Web Portal To continue, please login Login Release v.0.0.17

A recent publication by two UCLA researchers, Kevin Eagan and Ana Romero, explores how the NIH Diversity Program Consortium BUILD undergraduate training program impacts science identity growth for participants.
Read more about the “BUILD Boost” at https://bit.ly/47aCTc9

features scientists who share their stories using

UCLA School of Education & Information Studies Higher Education Research Institute

What factors impact STEM persistence rates for African American undergraduate students? Harris and Nagle (2023) utilized data from the 2009 Freshman Survey and 2013 College Senior Survey to answer this question. The authors found that faculty mentorship plays a pivotal role in persistence in STEM majors for African American students. To read more, visit https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12111-023-09629-2.

Registration for the 2023 Freshman Survey is still open and can be administered until October 10, 2023. To learn more, visit https://heri.ucla.edu/cirp-freshman-survey/.

Curious how to make use of sensitive data on understudied populations from HERI’s Diverse Learning Environments (DLE) survey?

Libster et al. (2023) utilized data from the DLE survey to study college students’ experiences with unwanted sexual contact and sexual assault. More specifically, are students on the autism spectrum more likely to experience unwanted sexual contact and sexual assault than neurotypical students? What about students with other conditions, such as ADHD or psychological disorders?

To read more, visit https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-023-06064-w.

Are you interested in diving into data from the 2022 Freshman Survey? If so, check out the tables we prepared. The data is broken out by gender, institution type, institution control, and more. To view, visit https://heri.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/DATA-TABLES-TFS-2022.pdf.

There’s still time to administer the 2023 Freshman Survey! The Freshman Survey asks a variety of questions regarding student goals, expectations for college, academic preparedness, and more. To learn more and register, visit https://heri.ucla.edu/cirp-freshman-survey/.

We are excited to announce that the 2022 Diverse Learning Environments Survey (DLE) Infographic has been published on our website! The DLE focuses on diverse student populations, and the survey can be used to evaluate campus climate, collect information about institutional practices, foster/initiate dialogue about diversity, and more. Topics addressed in this infographic include discrimination, mental health, availability of classes, and climate.

To view the infographic, click here:https://www.heri.ucla.edu/infographics/DLE-2022-Infographic.pdf

For more information on the DLE, click here: https://heri.ucla.edu/diverse-learning-environments-survey/

Diverse Learning Environments Survey – HERI The Diverse Learning Environments Survey (DLE) captures student perceptions regarding the institutional climate, campus practices as experienced with faculty, staff, and peers, and student learning outcomes. Diverse student populations are at the center of the survey, and the instrument is based on....

In regard to pluralistic orientation, approximately 81% of students who took the 2022 Freshman Survey* (TFS) rated themselves above average in terms of their ability to work cooperatively with diverse people. Additionally, almost three out of four (74%) rated their critical thinking skills above average, and about 72% stated that their tolerance of others with different beliefs was better than average.

The CIRP Freshman Survey collects a plethora of information that provides a snapshot of what your incoming students are like before they experience college. 2023 TFS registration is open: https://heri.ucla.edu/cirp-freshman-survey/. The survey is open until October 10, 2023.

*Includes first-time, full-time freshmen only

We are excited to announce that UCLA’s School of Education and Information Studies (UCLA School of Education & Information Studies) and the American Council on Education (American Council on Education) are partnering to strengthen and lead HERI.

Moving forward, ACE will help with survey outreach and recruitment efforts, while UCLA’s CRESST will continue to manage and administer HERI’s surveys. We are looking forward to advancing HERI’s intellectual and practical impact through this partnership.

To learn more, visit https://seis.ucla.edu/news/ace-and-ucla-edis-announce-partnership-on-higher-education-research-institute.

How do management majors rate their skills, such as critical thinking and problem solving, upon graduation? How do their self-perceptions compare to other students? In a 2023 article, Routon et al. tackled this issue by making use of HERI’s CIRP Freshman Survey and College Senior Survey. To read the article, visit https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09504222231175857.

Are you interested in utilizing HERI’s data in your own research? This article utilized historical data available in our free, public data archive (https://heri.ucla.edu/heri-data-archive/). If you’re interested in data between 2008 and 2020, you can submit a data access request. For more information, please visit https://heri.ucla.edu/data-access-for-researchers/.

What is known about the mental health of autistic college students? A recent article by Rosenau et al. used HERI’s Freshman Survey data to look into the characteristics of autistic first-year college students with frequent depression or anxiety. To read more, visit https://assets.cureus.com/uploads/original_article/pdf/129049/20230405-22100-11ml9sd.pdf.

Registration for the 2023 CIRP Freshman Survey is open now, and the survey can be administered until October 10, 2023. To register, please visit http://www.cirpsurveys.org/.

Students who took the 2022 Freshman Survey* (TFS) indicated that they expect to get involved in certain activities while in college. Close to four out of five students (78%) said there was at least some chance they would participate in student clubs/groups, and 73% stated there was at least some chance they would participate in volunteer or community service work. By contrast, only 31% reported there was at least some chance they would participate in student government.

Did you know that to date, over 15 million students at over 1,900 institutions have participated in the CIRP Freshman Survey? TFS is conducted before students start their college careers and can be administered until October 10, 2023. Visit https://heri.ucla.edu/cirp-freshman-survey/ to learn more and register today!

*Includes first-time, full-time freshmen only

We recently published our 2022 Staff Climate Survey (SCS) Infographic! The anonymous, web-based SCS evaluates the campus climate for staff; collects information about institutional cultures and practices such as working conditions and compensation packages; assesses baseline strengths, areas for improvement, and progress on diversity efforts; and initiates and fosters dialogue about diversity. Topics highlighted in the infographic include relationships with supervisors, career development, and disclosing disabilities.

To view the infographic, click here:
https://www.heri.ucla.edu/infographics/SCS-2022-Infographic.pdf.

For more information on the SCS, click here: https://heri.ucla.edu/staff-climate-survey/.

Biden’s student loan relief plan has been hotly debated, with the issue reaching the Supreme Court.

For college seniors who took the 2022 College Senior Survey and provided information about their loan amounts, more than 60% of those students borrowed $10,000+ throughout college to help pay for college expenses. In addition, over 60% of students reported taking on loans in the past year to cover educational expenses.

Given the recent Supreme Court case regarding affirmative action, what do college students think about affirmative action?

Looking at the 2019 Freshman Survey, 50% of freshman students agreed that affirmative action should be abolished. This statistic takes into account the opinions of more than 1.5 million first-time, full-time undergraduate students who began college at 1,427 four-year colleges and universities across the U.S. in the fall of 2019.

To read more, please visit https://www.heri.ucla.edu/monographs/TheAmericanFreshman2019-Expanded.pdf.

The CIRP Data Institute is quickly approaching! The virtual institute will take place June 21-23, with the pre-institute on June 21.

Through the institute, you’ll learn about many topics including but not limited to SPSS, regression, item response theory, retention/completion, and the conceptual framework of the CIRP surveys. This institute is hands-on and interactive as you will learn how to design, analyze, and report your own study using CIRP data.

The institute is led by Dr. Ellen Bara Stolzenberg (Senior Research Scientist at HERI) and Dr. Kevin Eagan (Associate Professor, former director of HERI).

To learn more and to register, please visit https://heri.ucla.edu/cirp-summer-institute/.
Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing UCLA School of Education & Information Studies

For students who took the 2022 CIRP Freshman Survey*, three out of four (76%) said that in going to college, learning more about the things that interested them was very important. In addition, 61% of students said that in their decision to attend their college, the fact that their college had a very good academic reputation was very important to them. Additionally, 45% of students said that a visit to their campus was very important in choosing their college.

There’s still time to administer the 2023 CIRP Freshman Survey! Key sections of the survey examine behaviors in high school, academic preparedness, expectations of college, student values and goals, student demographic characteristics, and more. To learn more and to register, please visit https://heri.ucla.edu/cirp-freshman-survey/. Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing

*Includes first-time, full-time freshmen only

Did you know that for the students who took the 2022 CIRP Freshman Survey*, almost three out of four (73%) were accepted by their first-choice college? Additionally, 57% of students attended their top-choice college, and approximately the same percentage of students reported attending a college more than 100 miles from their permanent home.

What would these percentages look like for your institution? Registration for the 2023 CIRP Freshman Survey is open now, and the survey can be administered until October 10, 2023. Entering its 58th administration, the CIRP Freshman Survey continues to provide data on incoming college students’ background characteristics, high school experiences, attitudes, behaviors, and expectations for college. To register, please visit http://www.cirpsurveys.org/.

*Includes first-time, full-time freshmen only

The Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at UCLA’s CRESST is excited to host the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Data Institute, taking place June 21-23, 2023.

This virtual Institute will instill emerging and experienced scholars, institutional researchers, and assessment leaders with the skills and knowledge needed to make sense of campus-level or multi-institutional data collected from HERI-administered surveys. Regardless of level of expertise or statistical background, this Institute will allow participants to gain valuable skills and connect with experts in the field. Through engaging activities, participants will learn to create a mini-study using HERI data, receive comprehensive training on survey frameworks and data analysis, and discover new applications across campuses.

Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to expand your research skills and network with renowned experts. UCLA Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing UCLA School of Education & Information Studies

For more information, please visit https://heri.ucla.edu/cirp-summer-institute/.

CIRP Data Institute: June 21-23, 2023 – HERI CIRP Data InstituteJune 21-23, 2023 (Pre-Institute June 21)* In this intensive, hands-on program you will learn how to design, analyze, and report your own study using CIRP data. You will also learn about the latest research findings on relevant issues ranging from retention and student-faculty inte...

For the students who took the 2022 College Senior Survey, approximately 4 out of 5 students agreed their institution has contributed to their understanding of national issues, preparedness for employment after college, and/or their knowledge of people from different races/cultures.

Registration for the 2023 College Senior Survey is open! The CSS provides your institution with detailed information on your students’ post-college plans, satisfaction, faculty-student interaction, service learning, leadership development, and other important topics. The 2023 CSS can be administered any time through June 30, 2023. To register, please visit https://heri.vainc.com/.

Over half of students (55%) who took the 2022 Your First College Year Survey reported that they planned to work for pay during the summer after their freshman year. Around 47% planned to travel, and 27% stated that they were going to perform volunteer work.

Don’t forget to register for and administer the 2023 Your First College Year Survey! Administration is open until June 15, 2023. For more information and to register, please visit https://heri.ucla.edu/your-first-college-year-survey/.

College rankings continue to be a hot topic in higher education. Data from several years of the CIRP Freshman Survey was cited in a recent Chronicle of Higher Education article, which looked into students’ use of college rankings.

To read the article, visit https://www.chronicle.com/article/college-rankings-are-in-trouble-do-their-users-care.

To view the CIRP Freshman Survey publications, please visit https://heri.ucla.edu/publications-tfs/.

Interested in the CIRP Freshman Survey for your college or university? Visit https://heri.ucla.edu/cirp-freshman-survey/. Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing

Learn from HERI scholars at the 2023 CIRP Data Institute!

The 2023 CIRP Data Institute will be held virtually June 22-23, 2023, with the pre-institute on June 21st. The pre-institute is an introduction to SPSS.

The popular CIRP Data Institute provides participants with opportunities to learn how to design, analyze, and share findings on their own study using a sample longitudinal CIRP data set. You will also learn about the latest research findings on relevant issues ranging from retention and student-faculty interaction to campus climate and diversity.

For more information and to register, please visit https://heri.ucla.edu/cirp-summer-institute/.

The Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) is home to the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP), the oldest and most comprehensive longitudinal study of the American higher education system. HERI is now housed at UCLA’s Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing (CRESST).

We are excited to announce registration for the 2023 CIRP Freshman Survey is now open! You can register for and administer the 2023 TFS any time between April 14 and October 10, 2023 via the CIRP Web Portal.

CIRP Web Portal: https://cirpsurveys.org

TFS gathers critical information about students’ background characteristics, high school experiences, attitudes, behaviors, and expectations for college. Rooted in decades of research, results from the 58th administration of TFS will help illustrate your institution’s unique qualities, addressing issues that matter to you and the various audiences you work with.

cirpsurveys.org