Tasneem Sultana is a doctoral candidate in the Program of Higher Education Leadership and Policy (PHELP) at the University of Texas at Austin. She studies policies related to high school-to-college and career transition, college access, and community colleges. Her dissertation examines how feeder high schools for the states selective universities vary in their college-preparatory resources and their link with students postsecondary outcomes. Tasneem primarily uses state-administrative data and quantitative methods in her research.
Before starting her doctoral studies at UT, Tasneem served as a lecturer in Business and Economics at United International University in Bangladesh. Tasneem serves as a graduate research assistant for Dr. Matt S. Giani. Her collaborative work with Dr. Lauren Schudde and Dr. Matt S. Giani has been published in American Educational Research Journal, Educational Researcher, Review of Higher Education, and Social Forces.
High school to college and career pipeline, Admission and financial aid policies, Community colleges.
Lauren Schudde (Supervisor)Studies education policy and social stratification related to college entrance and completion in the United States; focuses on college pathways at broad-access institutions, including community colleges.
Matt S Giani (Committee Member)Focuses on policies, practices, and interventions that promote social mobility and reduce socioeconomic stratification in K12 and higher education.
Denisa Gandara (Committee Member)Higher education policy, politics, and finance with a focus on serving historically underserved groups
Giani, M., Schudde, L. & Sultana, T. (2026). Toward a Comprehensive Model Predicting Credit Loss in Vertical Transfer. American Educational Research Journal. doi:https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312251409063.
Giani, M., Schudde, L. & Sultana, T. (2026). Credit Loss, Institutional Retention, & Postsecondary Persistence Among Vertical Transfer Students. Review of Higher Education.
Giani, M., Andrews, ME., Sultana, T. & Medrano, F. (2026). Curricular-Credential Decoupling: How Schools Respond to Career and Technical Education Policy. Social Forces, 1–25. doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soag133.
Sultana, T., Andrews, MA. & Giani, M. (2026). Cheapskin Effects? The Heterogeneous Value of Industry-Recognized Certificates Earned by High School Students. EdWorkingPapers. doi:https://doi.org/10.26300/evgq-re17.
Sultana, T. (2026). More STEM Credentials at What Cost? Unpacking 2-Year Colleges Response to the STEM Incentive in Performance-Based Funding. EdWorking Papers. doi:https://doi.org/10.26300/2h4x-f187.
Sultana, T. (2026). High School College-Conduciveness and Its Association with the Top Ten Percent Students Academic Profiles. EdWorking Papers. doi:https://doi.org/10.26300/br4y-ez53.
Giani, M., Schudde, L. & Sultana, T. (2026). New Insights on Sources of Credit Loss. Educational Researcher. doi:https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X251410173.
Cheapskin Effects? The Heterogeneous Value of Industry-Recognized Certificates Earned by High School Students, Association for Education Finance and Policy, Chicago, IL (2026)
High School College-Conduciveness and Its Association with the Top Ten Percent Students Academic Profiles., Sociology of Education Roundtables, American Sociological Association, New York, NY (2026)
Credit Loss, Institutional Retention, and Postsecondary Persistence Among Vertical Transfer Students, Association for Education Finance and Policy, Washington, DC (2025)
Understanding IBC Receipt Among Texas High School Students, American Educational Research Association, Denver, CO (2025)
Helping or Hurting? Evaluating How the STEM Metric in Community Colleges Performance-Based Funding Influences Degree Outcomes and Compositions, Association for The Study of Higher Education, Virtual Conference (2025)
