McClure, Kevin Richard

Murphy Distinguished Scholar in Education

positions

Murphy Distinguished Scholar in Education, Educational Leadership , Watson College of Education

Dr. Kevin R. McClure is the Murphy Distinguished Scholar of Education and Associate Professor of Higher Education at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He also serves as Co-Director for the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges. He is an expert on college leadership, management, finance, and workplace culture, especially at broad-access institutions. He is the co-editor of Regional Public Universities: Addressing Misconceptions and Analyzing Contributions and Unlocking Opportunity through Broadly Accessible Institutions. Dr. McClure’s public scholarship covers a range of topics, and he writes a regular column for The Chronicle of Higher Education. His book, The Caring University: Reimagining the Higher Education Workplace after the Great Resignation, will be released with Johns Hopkins University Press in 2025.

McClure, Kevin Richard

Contact Info

mcclurek@uncw.edu

910.962.7819

Co-author Network

Co-investigator Network

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Selected Publications

Academic Article
- Higher ed is adrift. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2025-05-01
- Higher ed's paltry investment in training its own leaders. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2025-04-01
- Feeling unappreciated? You're not alone. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2025-02-01
- Research-based approaches to support and retain higher education staff. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning. 57:46-55. 2025-01-01
- Sick and still on the job. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2024-11-01
- Colleges are still failing their employees. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2024-10-01
- How college leaders can stand up for DEI workers and programs. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2024-05-01
- Your pay is terrible? You’re not alone. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2024-03-01
- New public management in U.S. higher education: Is privatization associated with lower costs?. Public Management Review. 26:1915-1940. 2023-01-01
- Privatization and cost inefficiency at U.S. public research universities. Studies in Higher Education. 48:1498-1515. 2023-01-01
- The hollowing out of higher education. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2023-01-01
- An expanded vision of value in postsecondary education: Regional public universities as broadly accessible anchor institutions. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning. 54:26-32. 2022-01-01
- Don’t blame the pandemic for worker discontent. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2022-01-01
- Educators are disengaged and distracted. Better workplace culture could win them back. EdSurge. 2022-01-01
- Having trouble hiring at your college? Try improving the jobs. EdSurge. 2022-01-01
- Higher ed is a land of dead-end jobs. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2022-01-01
- The future of work is flexible. Will higher ed stay stuck in the past?. EdSurge. 2022-01-01
- The great faculty disengagement. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2022-01-01
- Colleges are hiring. Does anyone want to work there?. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2021-01-01
- Higher ed, we’ve got a morale problem—and a free t-shirt won’t fix it. EdSurge. 2021-01-01
- Regional public universities don’t need rescuing. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2021-01-01
- Why we should care about college leaders’ morale, too. EdSurge. 2021-01-01
- Advice from college presidents on building trust to weather a crisis. EdSurge. 2020-01-01
- An uneven playing field: Fundraising at public regional universities in the aftermath of the Great Recession. Philanthropy & Education. 3:1-26. 2020-01-01
- Burnout is coming to campus. Are college leaders ready?. EdSurge. 2020-01-01
- College leaders make mistakes. Here’s why they should apologize for them. . 2020-01-01
- College leaders must explain why—not just how—to return to campus. EdSurge. 2020-01-01
- Proximity to power: The challenges and strategies of interviewing elites in higher education research. The Qualitative Report. 2020-01-01
- Putting people first: How colleges can communicate effectively about COVID-19. EdSurge. 2020-01-01
- Assessing campus climate for affordability to promote college student success. NASPA Knowledge Community Publication. 68-70. 2019-02-01
- All public universities get private money, but some get much more than the rest. The Conversation. 2019-01-01
- Amenities in higher education: Shifting from rhetoric to research. College Student Affairs Journal. 37:129-143. 2019-01-01
- Rural anchor institution: Examining a regional comprehensive university’s efforts to serve its rural region. Journal of Research in Rural Education. 35:1-19. 2019-01-01
- The cost of belonging: How spending money influences social relationships in college. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice. 55(2):196-209. 2018-04-01
- Economies of scale and scope at public master’s institutions: Evidence accounting for spatial interdependency. Education Economics. 26:516-533. 2018-01-01
- Institutions of opportunity: Using presidents’ narratives to re-tell the story of public regional universities. Journal for the Study of Postsecondary and Tertiary Education. 3:117-134. 2018-01-01
- Spending up the ranks? The relationship between institutional striving for prestige and administrative expenditures at public research universities. Journal of Higher Education. 89:961-987. 2018-01-01
- The problem with calling UMBC a Cinderella. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2018-01-01
- It all adds up: Examining and enhancing campus climate for affordability at a four-year university. Journal of Student Financial Aid. 47(2). 2017-08-01
- Public-private partnerships in college student housing: Lessons from three institutions. Journal of College and University Student Housing. 43(2):72-92. 2017-04-01
- Patterns in giving by philanthropic foundations to higher education institutions: A state-level social network analysis. Philanthropy & Education. 1:1-28. 2017-01-01
- Are public master’s universities cost efficient? A stochastic frontier and spatial analysis. Research in Higher Education. 58:469-96. 2016-01-01
- Building the innovative and entrepreneurial university: An institutional case study of administrative academic capitalism. Journal of Higher Education. 87:516-543. 2016-01-01
- Leading schools of education in the context of academic capitalism: How deans respond to state policy changes. Policy Futures in Education. 14:793-809. 2016-01-01
- The next generation of higher education management fads. Academe. 102. 2016-01-01
- Exploring curricular transformation to promote innovation and entrepreneurship: An institutional case study. Innovative Higher Education. 40:429-442. 2015-01-01
- How one building reveals what’s wrong with higher education. Chronicle of Higher Education. 2015-01-01
- Albert Einstein, Alt-Ac Pioneer. Vitae: A Service of The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2014-01-01
- Education for economic growth or human development? The capabilities approach and the World Bank's Basic Education Project in Turkey. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education. 44:472-492. 2013-01-01
- Higher education’s reform-industrial complex. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2013-01-01
- We just don't have the possibility yet: U.S. Latina/o narratives on study abroad. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice. 47:367-386. 2010-01-01
- Madrasas and Pakistan's education agenda: Western media misrepresentation and policy recommendations. International Journal of Educational Development. 29:334-341. 2009-01-01
- Arbiters of effectiveness and efficiency: The frames and strategies of management consulting firms in U.S. higher education reform. Journal of Higher Education Policy & Management. 39:575-89.
Book
- Unlocking opportunity through broadly accessible institutions. Routledge.. 2021-01-01
Chapter
- Introduction: Broadly accessible colleges and universities -- Unlocking opportunity through broadly accessible institutions. Routledge. 2021-01-01
- Presidential leadership at broad-access institutions: Analyzing literature for current applications and future research -- Unlocking opportunity through broadly accessible institutions. Routledge. 2021-01-01
- Unlocking opportunity: Towards a counter-narrative of broadly accessible colleges and universities -- Unlocking opportunity through broadly accessible institutions. Routledge. 2021-01-01
- Conclusion: Appraising asset-based themes for policy and practice -- Regional public universities: Addressing misconceptions and analyzing contributions. New Directions for Higher Education. 2020-01-01
- Leading schools of education in the context of academic capitalism: How deans respond to state policy changes (Reprint) -- Critical issues in democratic schooling: Curriculum, teaching, and socio-political realities.. Routledge. 2020-01-01
- Privatization as the new normal in higher education research: Synthesizing literature and reinvigorating research through a multi-level framework -- Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research. . 2020-01-01
- Vulnerable, fragile, and endangered? financial rhetoric and reality at regional public universities -- Regional public universities: Addressing misconceptions and analyzing contributions. New Directions for Higher Education. 2020-01-01
- Reframing the national narrative: Curricula reform and history textbooks in Turkey's EU era. Sense. 2016-01-01
- Reframing the national narrative: Curricula reform and history textbooks in Turkey’s EU era -- (Re)Constructing memory: School textbooks, identity, and the pedagogies and politics of imagining community: Vol. II. Textbooks, identity, nation and state. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. 2016-01-01
Document
- Understanding states’ dismantling of higher education. Academe. 2025-04-01
- Regional public universities: Addressing misconceptions and analyzing contributions -- New Directions for Higher Education. Jossey-Bass.. 2020-01-01
- Selling hope and college: Merit, markets, and recruitment in an unranked school by Alex Posecznick -- Teachers College Record. Teachers College Record. 2017-01-01
- Developments in Higher Education's Entrepreneurial Turn. Privatisation in Education Research Initiative. 2013-01-01
- Turkey’s eastern question: Educational disparities and EU accession. The Washington Review of Turkish and Eurasian Affairs. 2011-01-01
Report
- Competencies for the college presidency: A national study of effective leadership in higher education. Academic Search. 2024-01-01
- The role of organizational culture in crafting an employee value proposition. TIAA Institute. 2024-01-01
- Equity-minded principles for presidential searches in higher education. American Council on Education.. 2022-01-01
- Introducing our nation’s rural-serving postsecondary institutions: Moving toward greater visibility and appreciation. Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges.. 2022-01-01
- Recommitting to stewardship of place: Creating and sustaining thriving communities for the decades ahead. American Association of State Colleges and Universities.. 2022-01-01
- The impact of COVID-19 on faculty, staff, and students: Using research to help higher education heal through the pandemic and beyond. Association for the Study of Higher Education.. 2022-01-01
- Strengthening rural anchor institutions: Federal policy solutions for rural public colleges and the communities they serve. Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges.. 2021-01-01

Presentations

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