A core mission of public universities is to provide access to a quality higher education to students from all different backgrounds.
Degree Completion & Student Success
Powered by Publics is convening nearly 125 change-ready institutions within 16 “transformation clusters” focused on solving different pieces of the student success puzzle. Participating institutions are working collaboratively to increase college access, eliminate the achievement gap, and award hundreds of thousands more degrees by 2025.
ACCESS & DIVERSITY
Funded by NSF, the report examines trends in engineering degrees cto determine areas of growth among various groups, changes in racial, ethnic, and gender diversity in engineering, and which colleges and universities graduate a larger number of underrepresented groups in specific engineering disciplines.
URBAN INITIATIVES
Public research universities located in urban centers play a crucial role anchoring the community, fostering neighborhood and economic development of their cities, and advancing the health, education and well-being of city residents.
URBAN INITIATIVES
With funding from the Kresge Foundation, APLU & USU examined the magnitude of the pandemic’s impact on food insecurity on college students and outlining steps better address food insecurity.
STEM EDUCATION
Aspire: The National Alliance for Inclusive & Diverse STEM Faculty is an NSF-backed initiative to expand the diversity of STEM faculty by increasing the number and percentage of traditionally underrepresented groups, including women, members of minority racial and ethnic groups, persons with disabilities, and those from low socioeconomic backgrounds.
URBAN INITIATIVES
In an effort to ensure cash‐strapped students with a proven record of academic success do not drop out due to financial need, some pathbreaking public universities are offering completion grants of a few hundred dollars to help students make tuition payments as they near graduation. APLU and USU are now building on this work by undertaking a rigorous empirical review of completion grants’ efficacy.
DEGREE COMPLETION & STUDENT SUCCESS
The Degree Completion Award recognize universities that have made significant progress in successfully retaining and graduating students while promoting those schools as models for other institutions.
RESEARCH, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Funded by NSF, Envisioning & Enacting an Inclusive & Diverse STEM Professoriate is a series of collaborative think tanks for APLU leaders, STEM faculty, social science and diversity scholars, funders and other non-profits. Each think tank tackles a systemic gatekeeping function in the careers of STEM faculty that may be preventing institutions and the nation from realizing their goal of a more diverse and inclusive STEM faculty.
URBAN INITIATIVES
Diversifying the workforce starts with college admissions. That’s why APLU, USU, and other organizations led a landmark study of holistic review in admissions to assess the state of holistic admissions practices across health profession schools and examine the impact of those practices on diversity, student success, and community engagement. USU’s research outlines various admissions practices that can be adopted to improve diversity in health disciplines.
COLLEGE COSTS, TUITION & FINANCIAL AID
APLU’s Public University Values (#PublicUValues) campaign seeks to help better explain key facts about the value of public universities and to clarify some common misconceptions.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & ENGAGEMENT
Education for employment upon graduation is important, but a four-year degree should also put graduates in a better position to adapt as employment requirements change throughout their careers.
URBAN INITIATIVES
APLU and USU are working with public universities to research, develop, and test new, scalable university business models that boost student learning and degree completion. These transformations are aimed at establishing a comprehensive playbook for overhauling how students progress through college. USU shares the practices and findings identified through this work with APLU members to help better serve their students.
DEGREE COMPLETION & STUDENT SUCCESS
APLU and USU are engaged in a collaborative of university leaders, faculty, researchers and national education and improvement organizations who are committed to innovative, evidence-based practices that increase degree attainment by transforming the college student experience and creating equitable learning environments. The SEP will utilize more than a decade of social psychology research demonstrating positive experiences of community, belonging, and support on campus and in the classroom can increase a student’s likelihood of persevering through academic challenges toward graduation.
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