Europe bound…

At the end of August, Ashley and I are going to travel to Lithuania where I’m going to present some of my dissertation research at an academic conference.

The conference is sponsored by the European Association of Institutional Research, where professors, researchers, and policy analysts from all over Europe get together to discuss higher ed issues. The conference focuses on European topics, but there is always a handful of US professors and researchers who attend to share their work.

I thought my dissertation work might be really relevant to this crowd because many EU countries are moving towards higher ed funding models that are similar to what we have in the US. So, here’s an abstract to my paper that I will be presenting:

“This study examines “tuition discounting” trends at public colleges in the U.S. It utilizes multilevel modeling to identify the effect state-level factors have on institutional spending on need-based and merit-based tuition discounts. It also examines the underlying micro-economic concepts of tuition discounting and provides empirical evidence of the cost drivers associated with discounting. As colleges become more reliant on tuition as a primary source of revenue, these findings will hold important policy implications related to college access, affordability, and enrollment management.”

The EAIR committee chair wants me to focus more on the ethics behind tuition discounting, which is something that I could probably talk about for hours! But I only have 30 minutes, so I better keep it brief!
Ash and I will get to do some exploring while we’re there, and we’re really excited about meeting new people on our trip. So, where the heck is Lithuania anyways?