Higher Education Administration and Policy Ph.D. Program

HEAP Mission Statement: We prepare the next generation of publicly engaged scholars who seek to effect change within and beyond the professoriate, as practitioners, policymakers, academic leaders, and across disciplinary fields. Our collective work critically examines the sociohistorical, policy contexts of higher education, and focuses on issues of access and opportunity spanning from community college through the doctorate, and faculty/practitioner experiences. 

We are committed to recognizing community cultural wealth of our collaborators and modeling responsible, reciprocal, and respectful research, pedagogy, and praxis. We train students to take a race-conscious approach as they work to link theory with practice, scholarship with teaching, and academy with the community. Our program contributes to the diversity, equity, and inclusion mission of UCR, and is dedicated to the communities UCR aims to serve as a land-grant university on Tribal lands designated as a Hispanic serving, Minority Serving, and Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution.

The Higher Education Administration and Policy doctoral program is ideal for those who want to engage in higher education policy research or have a deep desire to improve their administrative practice. With its rigorous immersion in theory and methodology, this program will provide you with the tools and knowledge you need to research and understand the complex challenges facing higher education administration and policymakers today. You will be a part of a small group of doctoral students who work closely in an apprentice-style relationship with faculty on funded research projects. Among our students are faculty members, deans of community colleges, and administrators at state colleges and universities from throughout California.