Center for Studies in Higher Education

Students, faculty, and the public expect undergraduate education in research universities to contribute to multiple developmental purposes.   While academic purposes remain pre-eminent, a singular focus on knowledge and skills development is no longer adequate. Based on data and analysis from the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Undergraduate Survey, this essay identifies and discusses five widely endorsed purposes of student development during the college years: social, personal, academic, civic, and economic.  It also identifies the characteristics of classroom and extra-curricular settings that contribute to the achievement of these purposes.  In turn, the resulting SPACES model provides a theoretical framework for SERU intended to guide future survey design and research.