IU HESA QUALIFYING EXAM
First Part Question Topics
2024-2025 List
For use from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025
Prepared by: Cindy Ann Kilgo
Advisors will narrow this list down for each student taking the qualifying exam. The advisor will pick between 4 and 6 topics, making sure that the topic is not closely related to the topic for the second question, which typically focuses on the student’s dissertation research interests.
- DEI state legislation impacting higher education
- Creating equitable high-impact practices
- Faculty governance
- Student activism in higher education
- The use of technology in higher education (e.g., AI, online platforms)
- LGBTQ+ students in higher education
- Mental health of college students
- Federal student financial aid policy (e.g., federal student loan forgiveness, Pell Grants)
- College admissions policies and practices (e.g., test-optional policies, holistic admissions)
- Recruiting and retaining faculty of color
- Public perception of higher education
- Counterspaces on college campuses
- Grading and “ungrading” practices
- Labor organizing on college campuses
- Paying college athletes to participate (e.g., Names, images, and likenesses (NIL) deals for college athletes)
- College rankings
- Minority-Serving Institutions