Frontiers in Psychology 01 frontiersin.org How college experiences impact student learning outcomes: Insights from Chinese undergraduate students Hua Bai 1 , Hongwei Yu 2 , Rogerland Bantsimba N. 1 and Li Luo 3 * 1 School of Education, Minzu University of China, Beijing, China, 2 Center for Community College Student Engagement, University of Texas Austin, Austin, TX, United States, 3 College of Preschool Education, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China In recent years, student development and learning outcomes have become a central focus of quality higher education research. Identifying factors associated with student learning outcomes is the key to continuous quality improvement. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of college experiences on student learning outcomes. A sample of 17,609 undergraduates from 23 Chinese colleges/universities were selected for the study and asked to complete the Chinese version of the College Student Experiences Questionnaire. Structural equation modeling analyses suggested academic and social activity involvement was an important factor infuencing student learning outcomes. Campus facilities and the college environment also predicted student learning outcomes. Family background, on the other hand, exerted minimal infuence on student learning outcomes. Students’ involvement in academic and social activities served as strong mediators between campus facilities/environment and student learning outcomes. The results highlighted the signifcance of providing high-quality college experiences. They also informed policymakers and practitioners of possible pathways to support student learning outcomes by enhancing students’ involvement in social and academic activities. KEYWORDS undergraduate education, student learning outcomes, social and academic activities involvement, structural equation modeling, China Introduction From a global perspective, higher education is an important pursuit involving multiple stakeholders, such as government agencies, social and business organizations, and parents. Quality education is a lifeline for higher education; providing and pursuing quality higher education is a major goal for universities and students, respectively. Te outcomes for students enrolled in higher education institutions (HEIs) have long been of interest to educational scholars and policymakers. In China, the enrollment expansion policy of higher education has been in place since 1999, and today, higher education has entered the TYPE Original Research PUBLISHED 08 November 2022 DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1021591 OPEN ACCESS EDITED BY Xiaoyu Lan, University of Oslo, Norway REVIEWED BY Jorge Expósito-López, University of Granada, Spain Mohammad Amini Farsani, Iran University of Science and Technology, Iran *CORRESPONDENCE Li Luo luoli@cnu.edu.cn SPECIALTY SECTION This article was submitted to Educational Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology RECEIVED 17 August 2022 ACCEPTED 17 October 2022 PUBLISHED 08 November 2022 CITATION Bai H, Yu H, Bantsimba N. R and Luo L (2022) How college experiences impact student learning outcomes: Insights from Chinese undergraduate students. Front. Psychol. 13:1021591. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1021591 COPYRIGHT © 2022 Bai, Yu, Bantsimba N. and Luo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.