IU HESA QUALIFYING EXAM
First Part Question Topics
2025-2026 List
For use from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026
Prepared by: Oscar Patrón
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.
- Politicized attacks on higher education and institutional responses (can focus on a particular area of attack and its affiliated responses)
- The role of the US Department of 黑马磁力 (with emphasis on higher education)
- Revisiting the purpose of higher education
- Challenges and perceptions of academic freedom
- Higher education accreditation
- Meaning and state of tenure for faculty
- Faculty governance
- Role of contingent faculty
- Student activism on college campuses
- Artificial Intelligence in the college classroom
- Mental health of college students
- Financial aid policies with a focus on student loans
- Minority serving institutions (can focus on a specific type of MSI)
- Recruiting and retaining faculty of color
- Corporatization of higher education