Areas of Focus

Our faculty team-teach, co-author publications, and develop grant proposals with each other on subjects that are relevant to more than one concentration area. In our work with students, in their programs and on their dissertations, we are equally flexible and interdisciplinary.

College Student Personnel

The philosophy of the program is to educate students at the master's and doctoral level on using the different lenses of social, organizational and human development theories to analyze and solve issues challenging higher education. Students are encouraged to become well acquainted with the literature and research on student development, retention, organization theory and student outcomes. Students are encouraged to become well acquainted with the literature and research on student development, retention, organization theory, and student outcomes. Students in their second year work closely with administrators in student services and other campus administrative offices or off-campus agencies. Student internships provides students with opportunities to test knowledge and theory in an actual work setting.

Finance in Higher Education

Graduate students in this area take courses that provide them with a foundation in basic theories and concepts of the economics and finance of higher education and non-profit institutions. Courses in higher education are complemented by business courses, particularly in economics. Students explore a variety of finance issues in higher education, including student aid policies, student price response, economic impact of higher education, donor behavior and the politics of the budgetary process.

Higher Education, Science and Technology Policy

Graduate students in this area take courses on policy making at the institutional, local, state, national, and international levels. Faculty and students engage in research on political, economic, organizational and social-political factors and forces that shape higher education. They also explore ways in which students, faculty, and administrators as social actors influence a wide renge of higher education science and technology policies. Research opportunities are emphasized in this option.

Organization and Administration

Graduate students in this area may choose to specialize in any number of fields of research in organization and administration. Among the fields from which one might choose are decision-making, organizational behavior, organizational change, strategic planning and restructuring, governance, policy implementation, the sociology of organizations, gender in organizations, and culture and the political economy of organizations. Course-work, in addition to that in Higher Education, may be pursued in business-related departments and in various other departments (e.g. Sociology, anthropology, Women's Studies, and Political Science). Students and faculty will explore the socio-political and political economic dynamics of higher education systems and organizations, and the relationship between those dynamics and various social structures and insitiutions. They will develop proposals for affecting organizational change as well as for conducting research on organizations.

Comparative Higher Education

Graduate students in this area take courses on international and comparative issues that provide an understanding of global, regional, national and local patterns, and focus on interconnections among higher education institutions, systems and the societies which they are a part. In this area, students explore a broad cross-cultural perspective on important issues that affect higher education at all levels (i.e. policy reforms, student mobility, privatization, academic profession, etc.). Courses with content related to important policy issues internationally are offered by most of the Higher Education faculty. Classes specifically focused on comparative higher education include: Comparative higher education, Latin American higher education policies, international organizations and higher education, policy issues internationally, international student flows, labor markets, and international access to higher education.

In addition, courses may be taken in other departments, including Political Science, Anthropology, Public Administration, Sociology, and Latin American Studies, among others.

Most of the Center's Higher Education faculty have conducted significant research on international issues in higher education from organizational, policy, institutional change, student, and access perspectives. Currently, Dr. Maldonado-Maldonado is heading this area. Maldonado-Maldonado has been co-editor of two books, Private higher education: An international bibliography and Educación superior latinoamericana y organismos internacionales. Un análisis crítico [Latin American higher education and international organizations. A critical analysis]; she has published book chapters on international organizations and articles in journals such as Perfiles educativos and Revista de la educación superior (edited by CESU-UNAM and ANUIES respectively). She was recently invited to participate as an author in the Higher Education in the World Report 2006 organized by the Global University Network for Innovation (FUNI) on the topic of international cooperation. Her current research topics are on international organizations policies, brain drain issues and policies of sending-country governments, student flows and epistemic communities in higher education.