USC CERPP (Center for Enrollment Research, Policy and Practice)

Name

USC CERPP (Center for Enrollment Research, Policy and Practice)

Legal name

Pullias Center for Higher Education

Website

https://cerpp.usc.edu

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Higher Education Research and Policy

NAICS

Educational Support Services (61171), Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (61131)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

College Access, Scholarships & Student Success Nonprofits (BPAGADAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Transfer/University-Parallel Community Colleges (EDAHADAF), College Readiness & Admissions Prep Centers (Small-Group Workshops) (EDANAHAI)

Keywords

• Higher education research
• College access programs
• Equity policy research
• Enrollment management research
• Faculty development programs

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

USC CERPP (the Pullias Center for Higher Education) is a nonprofit university research center that conducts research and produces publications, tools, dashboards, and professional development programs aimed at promoting equity, college access, and student success in higher education. It serves postsecondary institutions, policymakers, and higher education professionals through nine research and practice areas, the USC College Advising Corps, certificate programs such as the Leadership in Enrollment Management Certificate, the Change Leadership Toolkit, the annual Delphi Award (presented jointly with AAC&U), and statewide data dashboards tracking student equity outcomes.

Product overview

The Pullias Center for Higher Education operates as a research center offering multiple interconnected programs and research areas rather than a commercial product. The portfolio includes nine core research and practice areas (Admissions & Enrollment Management, Career & Workforce Development, College Access & Success, Community Colleges, Faculty & Teaching/Learning via the Delphi Project, Graduate Education, Leadership, Racial Equity, and STEM Education), supplemented by the USC College Advising Corps program and professional development offerings including the Leadership in Enrollment Management Certificate. The Center also produces knowledge products including the Change Leadership Toolkit (CLT), Shared Equity Leadership (SEL) framework, the annual Delphi Award ($15,000), and the BSI Statewide Dashboard for tracking Black student success in California.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Leadership in Enrollment Management Certificate Professional development certificate program providing leadership training for higher education enrollment management professionals.
• USC College Advising Corps Program providing college advising capacity and support to underserved schools and communities to change lives through college access initiatives.
• Black Student Success (BSI) Statewide Dashboard Public-facing statewide dashboard tracking Black student success metrics across California's 31 Black-Serving Institutions.
• Change Leadership Toolkit (CLT) / Shared Equity Leadership (SEL) Change leadership model and toolkit combining the Change Leadership Toolkit (CLT) and the Shared Equity Leadership (SEL) framework, developed to support equity-focused institutional transformation in higher education.

Quantifiable outcome

• New Statewide Dashboard Tracks Black Student Success Across California's 31 Black-Serving Institutions

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Others

• Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU): APLU is an association of public universities and systems that commissions and disseminates research on student success, equity, and institutional effectiveness. It is thematically adjacent — both serve institutional leaders with research on completion and equity — but APLU is an association of institutions rather than a research producer itself.

Broad incumbents

• American Council on Education (ACE): ACE is a broad-incumbent higher education association representing presidents and senior leaders of accredited institutions. It overlaps with the Pullias Center on leadership, policy, and equity research targeting the same institutional audiences but operates at a much larger association scale.
• American Educational Research Association (AERA): AERA is the broad-incumbent professional society for education researchers, publishing peer-reviewed research across higher education, equity, policy, and methodology. It is a comparator on the research output side — both produce and disseminate higher education scholarship — but AERA is a professional membership body rather than a focused equity research center.
• Lumina Foundation: Lumina Foundation is a much larger, established philanthropy funding and producing research on higher education attainment, equity, and workforce outcomes. It is a broad incumbent in the same mission space — funding research, dashboards, and equity initiatives — but at a national foundation scale rather than as a university research unit.

Emerging players

• Center for American Progress (CAP) — Education Policy: CAP's education policy program produces research and policy recommendations on higher education access, affordability, and equity. It is an emerging peer on the policy-research side — overlapping with the center's equity and policymaking focus — but as a broader think tank rather than a dedicated higher education unit.

Direct peers

• The Education Trust: The Education Trust is a direct peer — a national nonprofit conducting research and advocacy on equity and access in P-16 education, including college access, completion gaps, and racial equity. Both organizations produce policy research, dashboards, and reports targeting higher education institutions and policymakers on similar equity outcomes.
• Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP): IHEP is a direct peer nonprofit research organization that conducts data-driven policy analysis on college access, affordability, completion, and equity. Both share a higher-education policy research focus and routinely produce publications targeting institutional leaders and federal/state policymakers.
• American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U): AAC&U is the direct peer and partner — they jointly administer the annual $15,000 Delphi Award with the Pullias Center, share the same equity-in-higher-education mission, and serve overlapping institutional audiences (colleges, universities, faculty, and administrators) with research, frameworks, and professional development programs.
• Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education: The Pell Institute focuses on educational opportunity, college access, and success for low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented students. It is a direct peer in producing equity-focused higher education research, indicators of access, and reports used by institutions and policymakers.

Regional players

• National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA): NASFAA is an adjacent higher education membership organization producing research and policy analysis on college access, affordability, and financial aid. It is thematically related to the Pullias Center's college access work but focuses on financial aid administrators rather than direct equity research.

Market position

Competitive moat4 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/uscpullias
• Facebookfacebook.com/USCPulliasCenter
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/usc-cerpp
• Instagraminstagram.com/uscpulliascenter

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about USC CERPP (Center for Enrollment Research, Policy and Practice)