This quantitative quasiexperimental study examined the extent to which web design elements and personal psychographic and demographic attributes correlated with accurate consumer perceptions of online university web site credibility through a survey instrument. The problem is that e-commerce merchants and online universities have credibility issues that are exacerbated by rampant online fraud and web-based diploma mills. This topic is important because consumers are easily deceived and will abandon interaction with web sites when they discover that trust perceptions are inaccurate. The variables examined were chosen because their relationships with online trust formation remain controversial in the literature. Participants included 158 students and employees at a community college in Virginia. Age, gender, Internet experience, trust disposition, people photographs, and accreditation claim did not correlate to overall trust accuracy. Accuracy positively correlated with education, r(156) ＝ .25, p ＝ .002. Disposition to distrust positively correlated with accuracy scores, r(156) ＝ .17, p ＝ .037. Gullibility errors differed between sites without a .edu domain suffix (M ＝ 31.06, SD ＝ 14.88) and sites with a .edu suffix (M ＝ 44.13, SD ＝ 11.58), t(23) ＝ -2.40, p ＝ .025. Incredulity errors for sites without a .edu suffix (M ＝ 62.24, SD ＝ 12.44) differed from sites with a .edu suffix (M ＝ 40.28, SD ＝ 9.89), t(23) ＝ 3.52, p ＝ .002, confirming the importance of a .edu suffix as a trust-builder for online universities. Gullibility errors differed between sites without an academic icon (M ＝ 21.68, SD ＝ 14.86) and with an icon (M ＝ 39.69, SD ＝ 13.27), t(23) ＝ -2.45, p ＝ .022, indicating that gullibility was more common when sites used an academic icon. Similarly, incredulity differed between sites without icon (M ＝ 48.68, SD ＝ 10.42) and with icon (M ＝ 38.38, SD ＝ 12.09), t(23) ＝ 2.24, p ＝ .035. In this study, well-educated individuals and those individuals with high distrust disposition were significantly more accurate in their ratings. Additional research using trust accuracy as a variable may further illuminate superior web credibility evaluation tactics and make valuable contributions to the development of consumer education materials.

This dissertation examines the effects of demographic, economic, and political variables on states’ decision to adopt science and technology policy innovations. By exploring the effects of a range of variables (income, legislative control and professionalism, gubernatorial power, postsecondary education attainment and governance structure, and EPSCoR participation) on the diffusion of state science and technology policy innovations (strategic plans, councils, and cooperative technology programs), this dissertation makes an original contribution to the limited literature on state science and technology policy, as well as the more extensive literature on innovation diffusion. This dissertation employs event history analysis (EHA) as its primary research strategy, following the examples of the leading policy diffusion studies. Using EHA, this dissertation examines the relationship between the timing of the transition of entities from one condition to another and the factors–and the variation in these factors over time–that affect the timing of that transition.

This dissertation, in the format of three interrelated manuscripts, uses panel data models to analyze the international indicators and examines the statistical relationship between education finance policies and higher education access among OECD nations Chapter II) and among 98 countries Chapter III) respectively. Then the dissertation uses the analytical framework and empirical findings from Chapters II and III to reframe the discourse of education finance policy and access for Chinas higher education Chapter IV). Chapter II concludes that scholarships/grants as a percentage of public tertiary expenditure and student loans as percentages of public tertiary expenditure do not exert statistically significant effect on college access among OECD nations. This chapter also finds that the growth of GDP per capita, and public spending on education as a percentage of GDP have a statistically significant, positive impact on college enrollment. Chapter III concludes that public spending on education as a percentage of GDP, public expenditure per secondary student as a percentage of GDP per capita, and GDP per capita have no statistically significant main effects on tertiary enrollment ratios among the 98 nations. However, the study finds that the growth of GDP per capita and public spending on education as a percentage of GDP have a greater impact on access for developed countries than for less developed countries. Both Chapters II and III conclude that public expenditure per tertiary student as percentage of GDP per capita, an indicator examined in both chapters, bears a statistically significant but negative association with tertiary enrollment. This finding implies that for a fixed total budget on higher education and a rising total enrollment, various nations appear to have reduced spending on each student and drawn on more private resources to increase higher education access. Chapter IV finds that, although Chinas dramatic economic growth has strongly driven higher education access, the increasing economic disparities have intensified unequal access between rural and urban students and between eastern and western regions. The role of education finance policies in promoting equal access to higher education is too limited to mitigate the negative influence of income disparities in China.

College retention rates are a growing problem for many universities. Previous researchers focused on the inconsistencies between high school exit exams and college entrance exams, marginalized groups, and students with disabilities. However, a gap remains in the current literature regarding other external variables that may affect college transition. The purpose of this study was to examine two nonacademic constructs, (specifically, perceived parenting style and locus of control orientation) as predictors of college adjustment from Bandura’s social learning perspective. Thirty college freshmen, from a suburban community in the Northeastern U.S., participated in this study. Participants reported their high school grade point averages on a demographic survey, as well as completing (a) a parent authoritative questionnaire, (b) the adult Nowicki-Strickland locus of control survey as predictors of college adjustment, and (c) the student adaptation to college questionnaire. The student adaptation to college questionnaire served as the criterion variable in the hierarchical multiple regression analysis. The results of a correlation analysis revealed no significant relationship between perceived parenting style and locus of control orientation and successful college adjustment. However, in MANOVA, using parenting style as the predictor variable and the four subscales of the SACQ as the dependent variables, results revealed a significant difference between authoritative parenting style and the other styles in the areas of academic adjustment and personal/emotional adjustment. The study may help effect positive social change by providing insight to professionals to help them counsel and support incoming freshmen and their parents about nonacademic and academic success factors and improve retention rates and first-year success.

This study investigated in what ways alumni relations officers use relationship marketing principles, concepts, and bonding levels to strengthen the ties between alumni and their alma maters. Alumni programs and services at select high intensive research institutions of higher education were explored and an explanation was offered for how using relationship marketing in alumni relations might be beneficial. A literature synthesis, drawn from an extensive examination, evaluation, and interpretation of alumni relations and relationship marketing literature, helped to inform this exploratory study. Using a qualitative method of study, data was gathered through interviews with senior alumni relations officers, by observing their departments web page, and by reviewing specified applicable documents. Themes, patterns, and categories emerged providing meaningful findings from this study. The researcher found that relationship marketing principles were used by select alumni relations officers in higher education. These alumni relations officers designed programs and services that apply relationship marketing principles, concepts, and bonds at the financial, social, and structural level to strengthen the relationship between alumni and alma maters, much like that seen in business literature. What differs from in business were the emotional and intellectual bonding levels found in the university setting. Emotional bonds, as seen through strong passion and a sense of belonging alumni, also seem to elicit alumni wanting to give back to their alma mater. Intellectual bonds seem important to alumni, as well, when alumni engage in educational experiences with fellow alumni and with their alma maters. Treating prospective students as valued customers before students first arrive on campus until their graduation and well beyond apply relationship marketing in a higher education setting. This application helps to strengthen ties that bind alumni to their alma maters. This study should assist the development of comprehensive and consistent alumni programs and services that encourage alumni to participate at the financial, social, structural, emotional, and intellectual bonding levels. Intended to provide alumni relations officers with a preliminary theoretical framework of relationship marketing, this study should benefit the growth and advancement of institutions of higher education.

Although institutions of higher education incessantly profess multiple commitments to “diversity,” scholarship reveals that instructors who explicitly teach race at Predominantly White Institutions (PWI) consistently experience vexing challenges, called “racial issues.” The literature does not address the broader sociopolitical context that shapes the persistence of these racial issues, and professors’ interpretations and responses. Scholars are conspicuously silent about professors’ perceptions of race, in courses not designed to teach the topic. This study used critical qualitative methods and critical race theory to investigate perceptions of race among mostly white professors, who do not teach race courses, at one PWI. Data was collected using ethnographic interviews, field notes, and document review. It was analyzed using critical race methodology. Most participants expressed inconsistent and contradictory perceptions about race in academia. Many said they did not think about or experience issues related to race, because it had nothing to do with their work. Nevertheless, they thought it was important to hire a professor of color, because it would provide diversity to their nearly all-white departments. They could not explain how a person would provide diversity beyond a racialized identity, yet they insisted that this diversity was imperative. Some participants, however, sensed that race is always already present, but felt fearful, isolated, and uncertain about how to articulate this. Two participants were unique and had elaborate examples and experiences of how PWIs, acting in institutional self-interest, feigned an interest in race through diversity policies, which actually incited racism and provided no benefit to students and faculty of color. Critical race theory and critical ethnography revealed that PWIs’ relentless and obsequious attention to “diversity” functioned to thwart any critical and authentic knowledge, scholarship, teaching, and collaboration among the faculty, regarding race and racism. Additionally, institutional structures such as tenure criteria inhibited professors from exploring innovations that could contribute to new ways to free ourselves from the prism and prison of race. Recommendations were made for practice, policy, and future research.

This dissertation examines universities and the development of middle-class politics in Brazil in the latter half of the twentieth century. It asks: how did the middle class become increasingly important to Brazilian politics and society? By focusing on the university system as both a physical and discursive site of negotiation, the dissertation traces how the military, bureaucrats, business leaders, pedagogues, students, and parents entered into complex debates over education and national development. Drawing from police records, bureaucratic archives, private collections, and oral interviews, it studies how the middle class and the state under military rule strengthened the role of the middle class by connecting university education, development, and white-collar professions. Thus, the analysis moves beyond narratives of repression and resistance to examine the complex nature of state-society relations before and during Brazils military dictatorship, and reveals considerable ideological heterogeneity within the student population. In doing so, it contributes to the political and social history of Brazil, as well as adding to the small but increasingly important scholarship on the middle class in Latin America. The dissertation shows how universities became increasingly central to middle class politics. Early chapters trace the rise of universities importance to different visions of national development. When the military dictatorship rose to power in 1964, universities functioned both as physical sites to resist the dictatorship as well as discursive fields where society and the state debated Brazils future. In these discursive struggles, groups with widely varying ideologies coalesced around the idea of expanding the middle class as the primary vehicle for national development. As increasing economic turbulence and gradual political opening took place after 1975, students and university-trained professionals with particular material and political expectations became a major force in the push for a return to democratization. By the dictatorships end in 1985, the emphasis on university education across the previous thirty years had helped the middle class emerge as a major voice in Brazilian society and politics.

In order to examine the Black college experience, I analyzed data from the University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey (n ＝ 51,819) and collected 39 interviews with Black undergraduates at one University of California campus. The prominent work on Black students in college was done during the time of Affirmative Action. In this post-Affirmative Action era, I found that Black students have low levels of intellectual integration into the university, which has a deleterious effect on their persistence. The extant literature suggests that African Americans (native Blacks) differ from Black immigrants and children of Black immigrants (immigrant Blacks) in their ethnic identities, social networks, perceptions of discrimination, and educational outcomes. I contribute to this growing body of work, showing that there is no difference between these two groups. Although interview respondents have the expected narratives of cultural difference between immigrant and native Blacks, regression analyses and the interview data point to similarities in college experiences and outcomes. The findings from this study also address the timely question of the color line. Researchers are struggling with the place of the post-1965 immigrants and their descendants in contemporary U.S. society, given the differences from the immigrant wave in the early 1900′s. Based on regression analyses across ethnic groups, I found that Black students have a unique college experience. These findings suggest that, on college campuses, the color line is drawn between Black and non- Black. I conclude with suggestions on how the university can improve the intellectual integration and overall college experience of Black students. There is a Black college experience； it transcends immigrant generation； it has an impact on the academic attainment； it is less favorable than the experiences of non-Black students； and it can be ameliorated by institutional policies.

College administrators and faculty members are facing financial cutbacks and must justify program offerings； however, the problem is administrators and faculty members do not understand what information sources students rely upon when choosing courses and the influence of these resources on students’ decision-making processes. By understanding information source factors such as usage frequency, influence, and reliability, faculty members may develop effective marketing strategies to promote their courses while taking advantage of word-of-mouth communications. The purpose of this quantitative, nonparametric analysis of variance design study was to discover the usage frequency, influence, and reliability of 4 information sources: (a) academic advisors, (b) parents, (c) peers, and (d) RateMyProfessors.comRTM. To understand the role of these information sources, 467 students at a Midwestern college were recruited to take an electronic survey, resulting in 281 completed surveys and a response rate of 60.17%. Respondents rated the factors of usage frequency, influence, and reliability for the 4 information sources on 5-point Likert-type scales. The null hypotheses were rejected, as Kruskal-Wallis tests indicated statistically-significant differences among the 4 information sources for each of the 3 factors: usage frequency (H＝ 447.486, df ＝ 3, p &lt； .001), influence (H＝ 477.075, df ＝ 3, p &lt； .001), and reliability (H ＝ 375.212, df ＝ 3, p &lt； .001). All pairwise comparisons of the 4 information sources were found to be statistically significant for each of the 3 factors at the .05 level of significance through Mann-Whitney tests and Spearman correlations. Family-wise Type I error was controlled for all tests with a modified Bonferroni procedure. Academic advisors were found to be the most frequently used, most influential, and most reliable sources, followed by peers, parents, and RateMyProfessors.comRTM on all 3 factors. These findings supported the media richness theory that states equivocal situations require richer media sources. Researchers could expand upon findings by exploring whether these results are present at other colleges, investigating differences between genders, and analyzing the role of information sources in other consumption situations. College administrators and faculty members may use the results of this study to improve program recruitment efforts through better marketing strategies.

This study explored the experience of adults between 60 and 75 years of age, referred to as young-old, who were enrolled in advanced professional education—in doctoral studies or psychoanalytic training. The objective was to understand essential psychological experiences that resulted from professional education after 60 years of age. Motivations, challenges, personal enrichment, and professional benefits were explored. The research used heuristic methodology which was informed by case study perspectives. Data from 8 Caucasians, 6 women and 2 men between 63 and 74 years old, were collected through semistructured interviews. In prior education they completed 21 academic degrees. Thematic content analysis was used for data analysis. Results showed that this education involved high levels of stress but also facilitated deeply meaningful personal and professional growth. Education focused on personally important areas of psychology, involved quest-like pursuit of something greatly valued. Five significant new perspectives on aging were identified in relation to later-in-life professional education: Coresearchers sought new achievements to enhance professional skills and roles. They considered continued growth an essential element of this part of life. Their ability to manage educational difficulties came from skills honed throughout life. Eldering was redefined as 2-way communication between younger and older people to create new meaning. Most striking was their vibrant self-awareness, a heightened self-reflective vitality based on changes they considered authentic and profound. Informal observation indicated that extant adult developmental models did not adequately encompass the dynamic late life growth that this study identified. Transpersonal elements included transformational understanding of self and with others, reduced egoism, epistemologies of the heart and mind, and compassion. The young-old in intensive new professional education are a minority but their outlier voices may foreshadow future social patterns as the baby boomer generation enters these years in greater numbers.