About Us

“How often do we encounter
a research program that
addresses a set of questions
so central, so pivotal, so critical
and in retrospect, so obvious

that we wonder aloud why
no one thought to ask
these questions before?”
- Lee S. Schulman
President
The Carnegie Foundation
for the Advancement of Teaching

UCLA Professors Alexander W. Astin and Helen S. Astin are founding directors of the Higher Education Research Institute and Co-Principal Investigators of the Spirituality in Higher Education Project. Dr. Jennifer A. Lindholm is the Project Director.

The Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) is widely regarded as one of the premiere research and policy organizations on postsecondary education in the country. Housed at the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies at UCLA, the Institute serves as an interdisciplinary center for research, evaluation, information, policy studies, and research training for postsecondary education.

A book, Cultivating the Spirit: How College Can Enhance Students’ Inner Lives, by Alexander W. Astin, Helen S. Astin, and Jennifer A. Lindholm, will be published by Jossey-Bass in the Fall of 2010.

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