
Robert Kelchen, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Higher Education and Chair
Department of Education Leadership Management and Policy
(973) 761-9106
Email
Jubilee Hall
Room 413
Robert Kelchen, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Higher Education and Chair
Department of Education Leadership Management and Policy
Robert Kelchen's research interests include higher education finance, accountability policies, and student financial aid. Kelchen is the author of Higher Education Accountability (Johns Hopkins University Press) and has recent articles published in Economics of Education Review, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, and The Journal of Higher Education. Kelchen regularly teaches courses on the organization and governance of higher education, higher education finance, how to write a dissertation proposal, and institutional research and planning. He is frequently quoted in national and international media outlets and has been recognized as one of the most influential faculty members on social media by Education Week and The Chronicle of Higher Education. He recently was awarded the Robert Huff Golden Quill Award by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators for his research and public outreach on college affordability.
Education
- Ph.D., Educational Policy Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- M.S., Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- B.S., Economics and Finance, Truman State University
Scholarship
- "Experimental Evidence on the Impacts of Need-Based Financial Aid: Longitudinal Assessment of the Wisconsin Scholars Grant" Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 2019
- "How to Create and Use State-Level Policy Data Sets in Education Research" AERA Open, 5(3), 1-14, 2019.
- "An Empirical Analysis of the Bennett Hypothesis in Law School Prices" Economics of Education Review, 73, 2019.
- "Exploring the Relationship between Performance-Based Funding Design and Underrepresented Student Enrollment at Community Colleges" Community College Review, 47(4), 382-405, 2019.
- "Does the Bennett Hypothesis Hold in Professional Education? An Empirical Analysis" Research in Higher Education, 2019.
- "Do Financial Responsibility Scores Affect Institutional Behaviors?" Journal of Education Finance, 43(4), 417-439, 2018.
- "Examining the Interstate Mobility of Recent College Graduates" Educational Researcher, 47(3), 213-215, 2018.
- Higher Education Accountability. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018.
- "The Costs and Consequences of Excess Credit Hours" Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 2018.
- "Institutional Accountability: A Comparison of the Predictors of Student Loan Repayment and Default Rates" The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 671, 202-223, 2017.
- "The Costs of College Attendance: Examining Variation and Consistency in Institutional Living Cost Allowances" The Journal of Higher Education, 88(6), 947-971, 2017.
- "The Distributional and Cost Implications of Negative Expected Family Contributions" Journal of Student Financial Aid, 47(1), 4-24, 2017.
- "An Analysis of Student Fees: The Roles of States and Institutions" The Review of Higher Education, 39 (4), 597-619, 2016.