Do Liberal Arts Colleges Really Foster Good Practices in Undergraduate Education?

Abstract

Researchers estimated the net effects of liberal arts colleges on 19 measures of good practices in undergraduate education grouped into seven categories. Analyses of 3-year longitudinal data from five liberal arts colleges, four research universities, and seven regional universities were conducted. Net of a battery of student precollege characteristics, whether or not a student was enrolled full-time and lived on campus, and the academic selectivity of the institution attended, liberal arts colleges evidenced stronger positive impacts on a broad range of empirically vetted good practices in undergraduate education than did either research universities or regional institutions. The impact was most pronounced in the initial year of postsecondary education.