Promoting Equity in Higher Education
The world’s leading research center on student access and success in higher education, the Pullias Center for Higher Education advances innovative, scalable solutions to improve college outcomes for underserved students and to enhance the performance of postsecondary institutions. The Pullias Center is located within the USC Rossier School of Education, one of the world’s premier centers for graduate study in urban education. The school offers comprehensive master’s, EdD and PhD programs, as well as professional development opportunities and an affiliated Language Academy.
Our Mission
The mission of the Pullias Center for Higher Education is to bring a multidisciplinary perspective to complex social, political, and economic issues in higher education. Our work is devoted to the key issues of college access, retention, and accountability for underserved students—and the effectiveness of the colleges and universities that serve them. Both directly and through our research, we engage with institutional leaders, policymakers and the community at large to address the major challenges in educational equity today.
Our Vision
The vision of the Pullias Center is the realization of a world where higher education access and success is attainable among all first-generation, low-income, racially minoritized, and other currently underserved student populations. We envision this to be supported by the development of scalable and innovative solutions, a strong research-practitioner-policy relationship that enhances the impact of our research, and systemic work at the national, state, and local levels. The Pullias Center sees this achieved through our specific focus on the transformational areas of teaching and learning, leadership and culture change, and technology.
Our History
Founded in 1995 as the Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis, the Earl and Pauline Pullias Center for Higher Education was established in 2012 with a generous bequest from the Pullias Family estate. The gift allows one of the world’s leading research centers on higher education to continue its tradition of focusing on research, policy and practice to improve the field.
More about Earl V. Pullias
Our Impact
The Pullias Center is dedicated to sharing and disseminating its research and recommendations with policymakers and practitioners with the goal of helping move the needle on higher education success and access. Pullias research and programs have changed faculty policies and practices at hundreds of postsecondary institutions. Pullias faculty have authored and edited dozens of books on higher education and publish new research on an ongoing basis. Our researchers regularly participate in and host conferences session, lectures, webinars, round tables. and other opportunities to provide education and information across the higher education landscape.