college campus quad

Why College Could Become Even Further Beyond the Reach of Underprivileged Students

“What this means is that the American Dream for many low-income students has been deferred, perhaps permanently. Young people not born to well-off families will not surpass their parents in income and home ownership, they will not surge into promising careers, and they will not trust the American system to do right by them.”

– Source: “New Data: College Enrollment for Low-Income High School Grads Plunged by 29% During the Pandemic” by Richard Whitmire, the 73million.org blog, December 10, 2020 Read more

High School Classroom during the pandemic

Teaching in a Pandemic: 3 Resources for Surviving and Thriving

As teachers persevere bravely through the resurgence of COVID-19, it is easy to forget that they walk a fine line between helping students and avoiding burnout. At the Student Research Foundation (SRF), we are committed to magnifying the voices of teachers and their students to strengthen education. We have found several articles to encourage you during the final months of the pandemic. Read more

College Campus at Night

Positive Educational Trends that Have Emerged from the Pandemic

When you ask a group of college administrators to summarize the effects that the pandemic has had on their institutions, most of them are likely to use adjectives like, negative, threatening, horrible, terrible, and even catastrophic.

There’s a reason for those answers. Thanks to the pandemic, many colleges have seen enrollments fall, spent too much of the funds they had available to offer students for financial aid, lost their valuable foreign students, had to put building and expansion plans on hold, and experienced a host of other problems. Read more

college student studying online

What Do Distance Learners Want from their Colleges?

A new survey from SurveyMonkey provides answers

For years, high-end polling firms like Gallup, Nielsen and Pew have been researching trends in American higher education.

Now a new entrant has appeared in the world of educational research – SurveyMonkey. Actually, this company has been gaining importance as a polling company over the last few years. It only makes sense that this company would start conducting research of its own. After all, SurveyMonkey already has all the technology to conduct surveys and analyze the results. Read more

college student thinking while looking out a window

How Has the Pandemic Affected Students’ Mental Health?

Important findings from the College Student Fall 2020 Mental Health Report

Okay, we know you’re a student. And because you’re a student, we also know you’re under a lot of stress.

We understand that. But what we really want to know today is, how much has the Coronavirus added to your stress and harmed your overall mental health? That’s another way of asking how happy you are and also asking what you are currently most worried about.

We are not only asking those questions. We are actually able to answer a number of them, thanks to the College Student Fall 2020 Mental Health Report, an important survey conducted in September 2020 by the Hi, How Are You Project and American Campus Communities (ACC). Read more

student walking on a college campus - student research foundation

Are These Radical Changes About to Affect American Higher Education?

As you have noticed, American higher education has just gone through a period of cataclysmic change. Can you think of another four-year period when colleges have removed the names of their slave-holding founders from buildings, and when students have been expected to continue to pay full tuition while attending classes remotely?

Those are only two of the changes we have seen, some of which we have come to accept as a new and normal way of educating students. They are very big changes.

Read more

Empty college classroom- student research foundation

Study Finds the Pandemic Has Caused More Students to Question the Value of College

“Doubts about Going to College,” an article that Scott Jaschik published in Inside Higher Ed on December 3, 2020, reports the findings of a survey of 528 students that was conducted by Lane Terriliver, a marketing and advertising agency in the educational sector.

The study, “The Pandemic’s Impact on Higher Education Marketing in 2020 and Beyond,” is a real eye-opener for all of us in higher ed. Read more