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Measuring Undergraduate Success Trajectories (MUST) Project
Measuring Undergraduate Success Trajectories (MUST) Project
The UCI-MUST Project directed by Richard Arum has been following the educational experiences, trajectories and outcomes of undergraduate students beginning in Fall 2019. The project integrates administrative, learning management system, longitudinal survey, experiential sampling method, and performance assessment data with the goals of improving institutional performance, advancing educational equity, and enhancing knowledge of educational processes.
Universities often measure student success through narrow indicators such as grades, retention, graduation, or earnings. MUST broadens that picture by examining how undergraduate experiences shape learning, engagement, well-being, social capital, and long-term opportunity—providing evidence that can help institutions improve educational quality and equity.
College-to-Career Research: Co-ops, Internships, Career Services, and Labor-Market Outcomes
College-to-Career Research: Co-ops, Internships, Career Services, and Labor-Market Outcomes
In 2024, Richard Arum was awarded $1.95 million in grant funding from the Strada Education Foundation and Ascendium Education Group for research tracking and supporting improved college-to-career trajectories. The research team has been partnering with Northeastern University to study its nationally recognized Co-op experiential workplace learning program. In addition, research at UCI is being conducted on student engagement with career-oriented clubs and campus career services, including advisement, workshop and career fair attendance, and online job application behavior. The development of skills and intellectual dispositions in coursework is also examined.
The transition from college to meaningful work is one of the central challenges facing students, families, universities, and employers. This research examines how co-ops, internships, career services, coursework, and employer partnerships can help students build skills, clarify career goals, and move more successfully from undergraduate education into the labor market.
Intellectual Virtues in Higher Education: Curiosity, Humility, Integrity, and Tenacity
Intellectual Virtues in Higher Education: Curiosity, Humility, Integrity, and Tenacity
Higher education is an opportunity to strengthen intellectual virtues that prepare students for engaging reflectively and thinking critically about the world. While many universities excel at teaching knowledge and theory, less attention has been given to nurturing the intellectual character that underpins lifelong learning. At UCI, this work has been brought to life through the Anteater Virtues program, an online curriculum that introduces undergraduates to skills essential for academic success and for life beyond the university. Led by Dr. Duncan Pritchard, with Richard Arum as co-lead, the project explores how students can engage with curated, evidence-based modules to build four core intellectual virtues: curiosity, integrity, humility, and tenacity.
Higher education should cultivate not only knowledge and technical skills, but also the intellectual character students need to learn, adapt, and contribute across their lives. By studying virtues such as curiosity, humility, integrity, and tenacity, this project helps universities better understand how to support the deeper habits of mind that underlie critical thinking, civic responsibility, and lifelong learning.
Screenshot of a student's Anteater Virtues dashboard on Canvas, module taught by Richard Arum.
LIFTED (Leveraging Inspiring Futures Through Educational Degrees)
LIFTED (Leveraging Inspiring Futures Through Educational Degrees)
LIFTED is the first program in the University of California system to offer incarcerated students the opportunity to complete a bachelor’s degree while serving their sentence. Launched at UC Irvine (UCI) in partnership with Southwestern College (SWC), LIFTED creates a direct pathway for students to transfer to UCI as juniors. Richard Arum serves as a member of the LIFTED Campus Advisory Committee, supervises evaluation research on the program, and teaches coursework at the facility alongside other faculty and professors.
Expanding access to high-quality higher education for incarcerated students advances both educational equity and public reintegration. LIFTED demonstrates how universities can create rigorous degree pathways that support personal transformation, reduce barriers to opportunity, and contribute to stronger communities when students return home.
Inaugural graduates of the 2024 LIFTED cohort celebrate their degree accomplishments.
California Community College Evaluations: Calbright, Zero-Textbook-Cost Degrees, and Workforce Education
California Community College Evaluations: Calbright, Zero-Textbook-Cost Degrees, and Workforce Education
Working in collaboration with Dr. Di Xu, Richard Arum serves as co-PI conducting research and evaluation of innovative California community college initiatives. Calbright Community College is a fully online, self-paced competency based education set of programs focused on providing workforce training for non-traditional students. The Zero Cost Textbook study with the support of the Arnold Ventures foundation evaluates a $120 million state investment in creating zero cost textbook degree pathways in the California Community College System.
California’s community colleges serve a large and diverse population of students seeking affordable, flexible pathways to credentials and employment. Evaluating Calbright and Zero-Textbook-Cost degree pathways helps determine whether innovative models of online, competency-based, and low-cost education can improve access, persistence, completion, and workforce mobility.
ECCLPs (Environmental and Climate Change Literacy Projects)
ECCLPs (Environmental and Climate Change Literacy Projects)
ECCLPs are collaborative projects developed with input from educators, researchers, community partners, and the UC and CSU systems, aimed at ensuring all California high school students are literate in fundamental climate change issues and solutions. Richard Arum has served on the Executive Committee and as a faculty advisor to the project.
Climate change is a defining civic, scientific, and educational challenge for today’s students. ECCLPs help ensure that California high school students graduate with the knowledge, critical thinking skills, and civic capacity needed to understand climate issues and participate meaningfully in solutions.
Samueli Academy: A Public Charter School for All Students
Samueli Academy: A Public Charter School for All Students
Richard Arum has served on the board of the Samueli Academy since 2016. The Samueli Academy is a charter school in Santa Ana with a focus on serving foster youth and students from the local community. The school features a pedagogical commitment to project-based learning and summer internships with local businesses.
Samueli Academy offers a model of secondary education that combines project-based learning, career-connected experiences, and support for students from foster youth and underserved communities. Its approach highlights how schools can link rigorous academics with practical experience, community partnership, and pathways to postsecondary and career success.
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