Research

CERPP Research and Publications

The USC Center for Enrollment Research, Policy and Practice (CERPP) generates original research and publications germane to issues of enrollment management in higher education. We have categorized our research and publications in enrollment management in higher education into the following categories. Citations are provided in APA format and whenever available, we have made PDFs of the publications available for download.

Current Research Projects

We are pleased to provide a research report, COVID-19: Understanding Changes to Postsecondary Student Enrollment Patterns, based on a study funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In addition to mapping enrollment results during the pandemic, our findings will be very useful in understanding institutional responses to COVID-19-related enrollment challenges. We present a multi-layered picture by isolating community colleges, four-year public and private less selective institutions, and four-year public and private highly selective institutions from throughout the country.

Our data is rich with institutional reports collected directly from chief enrollment officers in each sector. We organize our findings in several sections:

  • Executive Summary
  • Introduction
  • Data Collection
  • Enrollment Trends
  • Recruitment
  • Test-Optional Admissions
  • Financial Aid
  • Retention
  • Conclusions and Lessons Learned

The full research team included:

  • Jerome Lucido, University of Southern California, Principal Investigator
  • Emily Chung, University of Southern California
  • Robert Massa, University of Southern California
  • Stephen Desjardins, University of Michigan, Co-Principal Investigator
  • Michael Bastedo, University of Michigan
  • Reuben Kapp, University of Michigan

Download the full research report here.

Or read the full research report below:

Full Gates Report
USA TODAY Politics All articles