Assistant Professor of Higher Education at the University of Mississippi
About
Frank Fernandez is an assistant professor of higher education at University of Misssissippi. He researches educational policy issues, particularly around graduate education, comparative or international education, and legal issues. He is the author or co-author of articles that are published or forthcoming in Penn State Law Review, Belmont Law Review, Journal of College Student Development, Educational Policy, Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, Teachers College Record, and Review of Higher Education.
He is a co-editor of Affirmative Action and Racial Equity: Considering the Fisher Case to Forge the Path Ahead (Routledge, 2015) and The Century of Science: The Global Triumph of the Research University (Emerald, 2017). The Century of Science received the 2017 award for significant research in international higher education by the Association for the Study of Higher Education's (ASHE) Council on International Higher Education.
Frank earned an AA in social science and an AS in business administration from Imperial Valley College. He transferred to the University of San Diego, where he earned a BA in political science. Frank also earned a MA in policy, organization, and leadership studies from Stanford University. He took a PhD in higher education from The Pennsylvania State University.
Current Work:
Dr. Fernandez examines how higher education contributes to society and supports different state and national goals. When he researches educational policy issues, Dr. Fernandez tends to address topics related to graduate education, comparative or international education, and legal issues. In his research, he uses a range of methodological approaches, including quantitative (statistical), qualitative (interview), and legal analyses.
Dr. Fernandez is currently leading two funded research projects. One of the research projects uses multi-level statistical modeling to examine race and gender intersectionality in law school admissions and enrollment to consider whether women of color are as likely to be admitted as white men. The second project uses qualitative methods to understand the ways that administrators at minority serving institutions navigate the accreditation process in the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools' Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) region. Dr. Fernandez is examining the institutional accreditation process to identify opportunities to facilitate organizational learning and capacity building to improve student success.
Research Area Keyword(s):
Latina/os; graduate education; minority serving institutions; policy; legal issues
