Associate Professor
School of Education

Higher Education Policy, Program Evaluation, Community College Research, Online Learning

Curriculum Vitae (pdf)

Google Scholar Profile

Di Xu is an associate professor at the University of California, Irvine. She researches the labor market returns to different degree programs and major areas in higher education. She is also conducting research to explore the impacts of educational programs, interventions, and instructional practice on student course performance, persistence, and degree completion.

Xu earned a PhD in economics and education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research interests include economic returns to higher education, financial aid to higher education, and the use of quantitative research methods in evaluating the effects of governmental policies and projects on educational equity and efficiency.

• Investigating Virtual Learning Environments, National Science Foundation (NSF), 2015-2020, CO-PI, $2,500,000

• Online Collaborative Problem-Solving in Remedial College Mathematics Project Description, 2015-2017, CO-PI, $30,000

• The Impacts of Initial Enrollment in Two-Year Colleges on Student Academic and Labor Market Outcomes, Institute for Education Sciences (IES), CAPSEE, Columbia University Teachers’ College, 2015-2016, PI, $40,000

• Non-Credit Vocational Education in Community Colleges, NSF-AIR Research Grant, Association of Institutional Research, NSF, 2014-2015, CO-PI, $40,000

• Increasing College Completion and Equity Through Strengthened Transfer Partnerships, Carnegie Corporation Research Grant, 2014-2015, CO-PI, $380,000

• NYU-ECNU Research Grant, Institute for Social Development at NYU Shanghai, 2014-2015, PI, $5,000

• AEFP New Scholar Grant, Association for Education Finance and Policy, 2014, PI, $3,000

• NSF-AIR Dissertation Grant, Association of Institutional Research, National Science Foundation, 2011, PI, $20,000

Journal Referee
Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis; Economics of Education Review; Journal of Higher Education; Research in Higher Education; Community College Review; Journal of Online Learning and Teaching; International Journal of Vocational and Technical Education; Education Finance and Policy

Community College Research Center: Research Affiliate (http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/)

UCI Postsecondary Education Research & Implementation Institute (https://educationresearch.uci.edu)

Online Learning Research Center (olrc.us)

Link to this profile
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=6178

Last updated
08/27/2023