An alternative to college "choice" models

College choice theory has been a necessary framework for understanding the life-altering decisions students make to go to college and where. In the latest C&U, Dr. Constance Iloh of the University of California-Irvine, calls on education researchers and leaders to consider an alternative to framing college-going around “choice.” Her article looks at the “bidirectional relationship among three dimensions (information, time, and opportunity).”

 

Iloh writes: “I argue that not only is a departure from college ‘choice’ needed, but a three-dimensional ecological model can help us better understand the complexities, realities, and inequities of the college-going decisions and trajectories of today’s students.”

 

The model, she writes, was “developed explicitly to explore the realities of prospective students from the mainstream to the margins. By positioning three tangible and codependent dimensions embedded in an ecological framework, it is possible to better understand the complexities and vast inequities in contemporary college going while also providing answers and solutions.”

 

Other articles in this issue include: 

 

Institutional Autonomy and Academic Freedom in Hungary: A Historiography of Hungarian Higher Education by Laura Parson and Ariel Steele 

An Interview with Brad Myers by Louise Lonabocker 

Rethinking Institutional Readiness for Online Transfer Student Success by Melissa Allen 

 

Academic Fraud and the World’s Largest Diploma Mill by Allen Ezell 

The Transfer Mentor Program: How One University Enhanced the Transfer Student Experience by Brooke Lockhart 

 

Credential Engine: Use Case Scenarios for Registrars by Rodney Parks and Alexander Taylor 

Data, the Key that Unlocks Student Success (Another Personal Perspective from Across the Pond) by Philip Henry 

Servant Leadership, the College Bubble, and Saving Higher Education by James Wicks 

Enrollment through International Online Programs in which the Language of Instruction is Other than English by Nailya O. DeLellis and Anthony J. DeLellis

 

What’s Next for Student Veterans? Moving from Transition to Academic Success reviewed by Tara Horner 

Athena Rising:  How and Why Men Should Mentor Women reviewed by Adrienne Bricker