Digital Commons Network^™

The Future Of Educational Equity In Post-Secondary Education: Student Loan Statutory Reforms Under The Big Beautiful Bill Act, Taylor Myers

Florida Atlantic University Undergraduate Law Journal

Significant reforms to federal student loans, as outlined in the Big Beautiful Bill Act, will have a substantial impact on students pursuing secondary education, including loan limits, income-based repayment plans, and the elimination of specific deferment plans. Subsequently, those most affected by these changes will be low-income borrowers, middle-income borrowers, and graduate students. Recent changes to federal higher education loan policies, such as borrowing limits, income-based repayment plans, and elimination of certain deferments, can leave greater economic barriers within education. Although the policy aims to provide debt relief to borrowers, it raises unresolved constitutional questions, particularly regarding the government's responsibility …

Impact Of Instagram Flyers In Higher Education: Within Resident Assistant Program Attendance Marketing, Mary J. Mcdonald

Liberal Studies (MA) Final Essays

This exploratory pilot study examines whether posting Instagram digital flyers affects Resident Assistant (RA) program attendance in the higher-education Housing and Residence Life (HRL) context. Instagram has emerged as a dominant channel of communication among Generation Z (1997-2012). As a result, higher education institutions have increasingly used social media to prompt student engagement and foster belonging, in hopes of strengthening retention. Using a quasi-experimental matched comparison design, attendance data from the 2024 academic year without Instagram flyers were compared to the 2025 academic year with Instagram flyers. The independent variable was the implementation of Instagram digital flyers, and the dependent …

An Academic Civilization?, Inbar Gotlib-Rivkin, Uri Cohen

Comparative Civilizations Review

Can institutions of higher education be defined as constituting a civilization that has emerged from modern civilization? This theoretical study defines a new concept of academic civilization and demonstrates how prominent characteristics that define the collective identity of modern civilization are manifested in institutions of higher education. The study focuses on six specific characteristics: expansion, flexibility and diversification, center-periphery relations, academic culture, autonomy and academic freedom, and the monopolization of professional training and the professional middle class. The conceptual analysis presented here provides a significant addition to sociological discourse, offering a refined conceptualization of civilizations. The goal is to expand …

Understanding The Underutilization Of The Campus Recreation Facility: A Mixed-Methods Examination Of Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction, Social Physique Anxiety, Sense Of Community, And Physical Environment Barriers, Caden M. Pfingsten

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Campus recreation facilities have been identified as important contributors to student well-being, academic persistence, and institutional belonging. Despite these documented benefits, a persistent gap exists between available services and actual student utilization at many institutions. This study examined the psychological, social, and environmental factors associated with students' underutilization of the Campus Recreation Facility (CRF) at a mid-sized Midwestern public university in favor of paid off-campus commercial gym memberships.

Using a cross-sectional survey design, 169 students completed a battery of validated and researcher-adapted instruments assessing basic psychological need satisfaction (autonomy, competence, and relatedness), Sense of Community, and social physique anxiety across …

Application Of Artificial Intelligence In Case-Based Teaching: A Qualitative Study In Mba Education, Tianjiao Xu, Mohd Nazir Bin Zabit

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

This study examines the incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) into case-based teaching (CBT) within Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs in China, amidst the rapid digital transition in higher education. Guided by the Context–Input–Process–Product (CIPP) evaluation framework, the study adopted a qualitative design and conducted semi-structured interviews with five instructors from three core MBA courses. The findings indicate that AI enhanced classroom interaction and reduced teachers’ workload by supporting real-time feedback and dynamic discussion processes. Institutional support, including teacher training, digital infrastructure, and technical assistance, was recognized as a vital facilitator of effective implementation. Despite its various benefits, the study …

The Digital Divide Among Urban University Students, J.B. Oleet, Chien Yu

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

The purpose of this study was to examine urban university students’ post-pandemic experiences with the digital divide, focusing on Motivational, Physical, Skills, and Usage Access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) based on van Dijk’s resources and appropriation theory. The study revealed students’ positive perceptions of their digital divide experiences. Intrinsic Motivational Access (IMA) scored particularly high, indicating a strong internal drive to engage with ICTs, while Physical Access (PA) showed discrepancies in access to specialized tools like programming software. Students displayed high competency in Operational, Informational, and Strategic Skills Access, with significant correlations between Physical and Operational Skills Access. …

Unveiling The Shadows: An Exploratory Study On Ghostwriting, Gray Markets, And The Ethics Of Contract Cheating, Micah Crawford

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

Contract cheating has become an increasingly complex challenge for higher education, particularly as digital platforms, global academic labor markets, and generative artificial intelligence reshape the production and detection of academic work. While much of the existing literature examines contract cheating from the perspectives of students, faculty, and institutions, less attention has been given to the individuals who produce ghostwritten academic work. This dissertation addresses that gap by exploring how shadow scholars understand their roles, ethical boundaries, and participation within the academic integrity ecosystem.

Using an exploratory qualitative design, this study draws on twelve semi-structured narrative interviews with six freelance academic …

Creating "An Exemplar Of A Better World": A Dialogic Analysis Of Academic Freedom Surrounding Columbia University Activism From 2023-2025, Ellanore Foltz

Theses and Dissertations

From October of 2023 to August 2025, the community at Columbia University engaged in a series of debates regarding the meaning of academic freedom. Academic freedom, first institutionalized in the United States during the first world war, has shifted over the decades as the purpose of higher education and the threats to higher education changed. In recent years, campus protests regarding Israel and Palestine have sparked new debates about academic freedom that reflect ongoing and sometimes fundamental disagreements about higher education. This study utilizes Relational Dialectics Theory (RDT; Baxter, 2011) to explore the interplay between different discourses of academic freedom …

Student Codes Of Conduct, Institutional Isomorphism, And Restorative Justice: Practice And Implementation In The State University Of New York (Suny) System, Alexandra Athens

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The student conduct field constantly must balance the legal requirements of the federal and state governments with providing an educational environment for students to learn and develop valuable skills in conflict management, problem solving, and communication. Each higher education institution has a student code of conduct detailing the policies and procedures by which students are expected to abide. These codes of conduct carefully combine the legal requirements and educational goals of each institution’s conduct office. This study analyzed the prevalence of restorative justice practices and other common practices in the codes of conduct at 4-year institutions in the State University …

Australian University Websites As Colonialities Of Gender, Emily M. Gray, Ampersand Pasley, Emma Fishwick, Mindy Blaise, Jacqueline Ullman, Maria Delaney

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This paper offers analysis of the first phase of a research project, Understanding and Addressing Everyday Sexisms in Australian Universities. This phase involved a critical content analysis of all 39 of Australia’s public university websites, focusing on how they represent gender, absences in relation to gender and the navigability of the websites in relation to gender equity policy. Drawing on Maria Lugones’s colonialities of gender, this paper demonstrates how university websites have the potential to reproduce or renegotiate inherited institutional everyday sexisms and broader gender inequities. Themes of reconfiguring acceptable gendering, conspicuous absences, and in-built obscurity that emerged from this …

An Ethnographic Study Of First-Generation Alumni At Dartmouth College: Perspectives From Alumni, Faculty, Staff, And Administrators, Brittney A. Roden

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

First- generation college students (FGCS) often face challenges adapting to the academic and social environments of elite institutions like Dartmouth College. Lacking familial experience in higher education, they must decode unspoken institutional norms, contributing to stress, social isolation, and barriers to accessing institutional support. This study examines how FGCS experience academic pressure, social belonging, and engagement with campus systems, and how these shape their personal and professional trajectories. Drawing on participant-generated audio diary journals with alumni, qualitative interviews with faculty and staff, and a review of existing literature, this research highlights the interplay of academic stress, coping strategies, cultural capital, …

Retention In A Community College In A Rural State In The Midwest: Factors Associated With Persistence And Withdrawal, Samantha Reeves Grady

Dissertations and Theses

This qualitative case study examined the factors associated with students’ persistence or withdrawals from courses during the Fall 2025 semester at a community college in the Midwest. Guided by research questions exploring what factors supported students in completing their courses and what prompts course withdrawals. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and focus groups with students who had withdrawn from one or more courses during the Fall 2025 semester. Using thematic analysis, several key themes emerged. Findings indicated that academic difficulties contributed significantly to student withdrawals. Additionally, course load intensity and competing external factors further hindered student persistence. Students, in …

Graduate Student Retention: Examining Why Master’S Students Leave And What Motivates Their Return In A Large Public University System, Sonja Prophete

Theses and Dissertations

Graduate student persistence is a relatively unexplored area in the literature of higher education studies; specifically, at a multi-institutional scale at the master's level. This research study examines the factors which cause students to discontinue their master's degrees, and what conditions could possibly support them returning to their program at a large urban public university system. The current study was guided by Hoyt and Winn's (2004) distinction between non-returning students, and Bean & Metzner's (1985) theoretical model of student attrition. A sequential mixed-methods study was conducted to examine the institutional and environmental influences on students' decision-making processes.

The quantitative data …

A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Racial Justice In Virginia Higher Education, Abigail Green

Honors Theses

This honors thesis examines the extent to which public Virginia higher education institutions engage their institutional histories in leadership rhetoric when responding to the Trump administration’s anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. Employing a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) following Mullet’s (2018) seven-step framework with an inductive coding approach and grounded in rhetorical history theory, this study analyzes official statements from the Offices of the President and Provost across four case study institutions: the University of Virginia (UVA), George Mason University (GMU), the College of William & Mary (W&M), and Longwood University (LU). Data sources span two time periods: May 2020 …

The Communicative Constitution Of Resilience In Graduate-Student Parenthood: Ventriloqual Analysis, Intersectionality, And Sociomaterial Assemblages, Lin Lin

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Graduate education is often organized around norms of uninterrupted productivity, flexibility, and professional availability, making graduate study especially challenging for students who are simultaneously raising children. Although prior research has documented the structural barriers faced by graduate student parents (GSPs), less attention has been paid to how resilience is communicatively enacted within the intersection of academic work and family life. This dissertation examines how GSPs communicatively constitute resilience while navigating work-life disruptions. Drawing on Communication Theory of Resilience (CTR) and the communicative constitution of organizations (CCO) perspective, particularly ventriloqual analysis, this study explores how resilience emerges through interactions among human …

Between Self, Family, And Becoming: Mindfulness And The Transition Experiences Of Latinx Clinical Counseling Graduate Students, Orlando R. Alvarez

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Latinx graduate students transitioning into their first semester of clinical counseling master’s programs often navigate substantial challenges as they embark on their academic journeys. While transitions into any new role can be difficult, the changes that accompany the beginning of a graduate program have been associated with increased role and identity strain, anxiety, depression, and feelings of fraudulence and imposterism, negatively impacting student success, performance, and attrition rates (Halladay et al., 2019; Murphy, 2021; Vidic & Cherup, 2019). Although mindfulness practices provide benefits for graduate student wellbeing, there is no current scholarship that has examined how mindfulness practices support Latinx …

Book Review: Exploring Student Loneliness In Higher Education: A Discursive Psychology Approach, Patrick Leung

Journal of Higher Education & Student Affairs

Book Review: Exploring Student Loneliness in Higher Education: A Discursive Psychology Approach

Social Dirt Or Fertile Soil: A Phenomenological Study Of Contingent Faculty, Ann M. Hiloski-Fowler

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

The experiences of contingent or adjunct faculty affect their professional identity development. Contingent faculty use has increased since the 1970s. By 2013, two-thirds of U.S. higher education faculty were contingent (Finkelstein et al., 2016). While institutions use contingent faculty to fulfill their educational missions (Haviland et al., 2017; Kezar & Sam, 2011; Kimmel & Fairchild, 2017), their status as academic laborers stigmatizes them in academia, developing what Levin and Shaker (2011) term a “hybrid identity” (p. 1479), as both professionals and laborers, professors and temporary employees. Historically, the professional status of the professoriate has been defined on the tenure track …

Sexisms And Gender-Washing In Australian Academia: Public Front, Private Realities, Jacqueline Ullman, Emily Gray, Mindy Blaise, Lucy Hobby

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This paper offers an analysis of selected survey findings from a mixed methods research project, entitled Understanding and Addressing Everyday Sexisms in Australian Universities. The project is situated within the context of the negative impact of gender-based discrimination upon the higher education sector in Australia and internationally. The findings discussed in this paper relate to quantitative analyses of selected items from a national survey of over 1200 Australian academics, recruited through 12 public universities. In this paper, the ways in which different participant groups responded to items designed to explore their attitudes towards sexism in the academic workplace, both broadly …

Science Sojourners: The (Un)Making Of Women Scientists From China To America, Jane Jia-Yin Wang

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Science is often imagined as a borderless profession in which knowledge, careers, and talent circulate freely across national boundaries. Yet scientific careers remain embedded within institutions that correspond to immigration regimes, geopolitical tensions, and unequal social structures. Drawing on 32 in-depth interviews with early-career Chinese women scientists trained in the U.S., this dissertation examines how globally mobile scientists navigate decisions about careers, migration, and everyday life between China and the U.S.

Rather than treating migration as a series of discrete decisions driven by labor markets or state policies, this dissertation argues that career and life orientations are fundamentally intertwined through …

From Deference To Dialogue: How International Gtas From High Power Distance Cultures Adapt To U.S. Classroom Dynamics, Deborah Akua Afi Appiah

Theses and Dissertations

International graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) from high power distance cultures play a significant role in undergraduate education at U.S. universities, yet they face challenges that go well beyond language proficiency. Coming from educational backgrounds where teacher authority is unquestioned and hierarchical, these GTAs must navigate American classrooms that operate on fundamentally different assumptions, where authority is earned rather than assumed, informality is the norm, and students expect to question, negotiate, and be personally known by their instructors. The present study examined how eighteen (18) international GTAs from seven (7) high power distance countries perceived and adapted to these differences while …

Staff Attitudes Toward Ai Adoption At A Private Research University, Ashley C. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This study addresses the limited research on university staff attitudes toward artificial intelligence use and adoption. Using the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) research framework, the General Attitudes towards Artificial Intelligence Scale (GAAIS), and quantitative survey methodology, the study examines the attitudes of higher education staff toward AI, specifically examining whether demographic or professional characteristics are factors. The findings indicate that staff had moderately negative attitudes toward AI while also expressing some concerns. The results suggest that more resources and support for AI are needed for staff to address concerns. It also suggests that construct-level analysis …

The American Dream And The Politics Of Promise: Presidential Rhetoric Against Reality On Inequality, Education, And Assistance Since 2000, Abigail Demonte

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Artificial Intelligence In Higher Education: A Bibliometric And Science-Mapping Analysis From An Institutional And Management Perspective, Kürşat Taştan, Nalan Sabır Taştan

Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

This article maps the field of artificial intelligence in higher education (HEI-AI) from an institutional and management perspective. We draw on 52,270 peer-reviewed articles and reviews indexed in Web of Science and Scopus between 1959 and 2025. Using the bibliometrix package and its biblioshiny interface in R, we combine descriptive indicators with science-mapping techniques, including co-authorship and co-citation networks, keyword co-occurrence, thematic mapping and thematic evolution. The initial corpus of 94,845 records was cleaned by merging the two databases, removing duplicates and restricting the sample to full-length journal articles and reviews that explicitly address AI in higher education.

The results …

From Gap To Growth? Examining Institutional And Legal Efforts To Bridge Gender Disparities In Higher Learning: The Case Of University Of Dar Es Salaam, Hadija K. Mwendah, Bernadeta Killian

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

Tanzania has adopted several institutional and legal frameworks to advance gender equality in higher learning. These include, national gender policies, affirmative action provisions and establishment of gender mainstreaming structures at universities. This paper examines how these frameworks have been implemented at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) and the extent to which they have bridged gender disparities in academia. Using secondary data and drawing from feminist institutionalism, the study explores how formal rules and informal practices interact to influence gender outcomes. Findings reveal that while institutional mechanisms such as the UDSM Gender Policy, Institute for Gender Studies, Gender Desks …

Academic Dishonesty In Higher Education, Nitza Davidovitch, Aleksandra Gerkerovaa, Ruth Dorota

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

Academic dishonesty has become a pervasive issue among students, often driven by environmental and social pressures and facilitated by opportunities such as the use of digital devices (e.g., smartwatches) that enable misconduct. The aim of the current study was to examine the associations between academic dishonesty and variables including class attendance, self-efficacy, and the use of digital learning methods. It was hypothesized that academic dishonesty would increase with higher absenteeism, lower self-efficacy, and greater reliance on Zoom lectures and exams. This study was conducted at a single academic institution in Israel, based on an anonymous structured survey completed by 121 …

Ending Gender-Based Sexual Violence On Canadian Campuses: Peer Educator Perspectives, Jason A. Laker

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Gender-based and sexual violence (GBSV) remains a pervasive problem in higher education, disproportionately affecting marginalized students and undermining their safety, well-being, and academic success. Post-secondary institutions (PSIs) increasingly rely on peer educators (PeerEds) to deliver prevention and response programs, leveraging their shared student experience to foster trust and engagement. This study explores the motivations and experiences of GBSV PeerEds in Canada and the United States, revealing how personal trauma, institutional critique, and allyship drive their involvement. Findings highlight the emotional labour, secondary trauma, and systemic constraints PeerEds face, alongside their contributions to campus culture and advocacy. The study critiques institutional …

Exploring The Experiences Of Higher Education Students With Invisible Disabilities, Haley Malinverno

Culture, Society, and Praxis

This research analyzes textual data derived from Reddit communities to examine the lived experiences of higher education students and alumni with invisible disabilities (swID). The application of concepts and models of critical disability theory (CDT) are adopted to contextualize student experiences. This study answers two research questions, the first being: R1 - How do reported barriers impact swID in higher education? I find that barriers faced by swID relate to inequities of systemic ableism, with difficulties being a direct side-effect of the inflexible nature of academia. These barriers impact swID in the following ways: The demands of higher education causes …

We Built This: Redesigning Higher Education From The Ground Up While They Try To Burn It Down, Shawntay King, Juanita E. Marquez, Keisha Rembert, Jolene Taylor, Thera Tilmon

SPACE: Student Perspectives About Civic Engagement

Our text, We Built This: Redesigning Higher Education from the Ground Up While They Try to Burn It Down, examines how recent federal policy shifts, particularly the 2025 Dear Colleague letter and the Project 2025 educational platform, function as deliberate acts of deconstruction. These measures threaten to dismantle equity infrastructures in higher education while intensifying the erasure of Black women’s labor, leadership and legacy in the academy. Through Critical Policy Analysis and Black feminist thought, we argue that these policies operate simultaneously as blueprint and wrecking ball, systematically unraveling decades of progress and constraining the very communities that have sustained …

Navigating The Digital Divide: A Quantitative Analysis Of The Digital Literacy Skills Of College Students Through The Lens Of Technological Self-Efficacy, Robert M. Spisak Jr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This quantitative dissertation addresses the digital literacy skills gap among college students and their ability to effectively use digital technologies in higher education. While many students arrive with technical skills, gaps exist in their ability to critically assess information, ethically engage with digital content, and apply these competencies across academic and professional contexts. Grounded in the framework of technological self-efficacy, which emphasizes the belief in one’s ability to perform digital tasks, this study examines both the digital literacy skills student bring from high school and their self-perceptions of those skills during college. This study was guided by the following research …