Three dimensions of equity of access to higher education

Concerns over equity of access to higher education are widespread, but there is significant disagreement over what should constitute a fair system. This article assesses diverse conceptualisations of equity and explores the ways in which they embody themselves in the policies of three systems, those of England, Brazil and Kenya. While showing significant disparities of income level and enrolment ratio, all three have made concerted efforts to expand higher education access, accompanied by increasing stratification in terms of the quality and prestige of institutions. Analysis of policy options and outcomes leads to a proposal of three principles for understanding equity of access: availability, accessibility and horizontality. The third of these principles addresses the little-acknowledged safeguard that disadvantaged students should not be confined to lower-quality institutions, while at the same time allowing for diversity of ethos and disciplinary focus.     

我国不同社会阶层少数民族的高等教育入学机会差异分析

从家庭所处社会阶层、父母受教育程度、家庭收入三方面对少数民族高等教育入学机会差异的实证研究表明:不同社会阶层少数民族接受高等教育的机会及学校的层次、类型有显著差异;在一般公办本科院校中,少数民族的社会阶层差异最小;在公办高职高专院校中,学生父母受教育程度的差异最小;家庭收入高低对于少数民族是否进入民办院校就读有一定影响。     

Changing lives: improving care leaver access to higher education

ABSTRACT

Australian and international research documents the limited access of young people transitioning from out-of-home care (OOHC) to further and higher education. This paper examines the processes, outcomes, and key findings of the Raising Expectations project, a collaborative university and industry approach to promote higher education among care leavers at two Australian universities. That approach was informed by the co-authors' previous research, including interviews with enrolled care-leaver students. The paper highlights the relevance of that research in the design and implementation of Raising Expectations. Our findings reiterate the importance of policy and practice reforms informed by rigorous research, particularly involving the voices and agency of care leavers. We outline strategies adopted by the participating universities resulting in a fourfold increase in enrolments, growth in school outreach activities, and significantly improved retention rates. The paper also highlights barriers to higher education access and success, through care-leaver student interviews and policy analysis. These interviews revealed the need for better university outreach and information to prospective care-leaver students, improved support for enrolled care-leaver students, and better capturing of data by universities and governments. The paper also highlights policy barriers to the greater expansion of care-leavers at university, especially in the absence of extended state care.     

State authorization reciprocity agreement: participation and access to higher education

The State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement initiative was launched in 2014 to provide a uniform standard for the regulation of distance education across states in the United States. The system established by the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (NC-SARA) allows willing post-secondary institutions to participate voluntarily through a member state where their home campus is located. Since implementation, several states and institutions in the approved states have joined the interstate agreement. About 36 states and 613 institutions in the United States are participating in the interstate agreement as of January 2016. This study analyzed the pattern of participation among various institution types (public, private for-profit and private not-for-profit) and finds that participation amongst states and institutions has continued to increase since implementation of the interstate agreement. With the flexibility that distance learning offers, increased participation in SARA may translate into greater opportunities for participation in higher education.     

Effects of a college access program for youth underrepresented in higher education: A randomized experiment

This article describes EXCEL, a program that encourages youth underrepresented in higher education to enroll in higher education, specifically at the sponsoring university. Eighty-three eighth grade students with GPA of B and above and standardized test scores at grade level or above were randomly assigned to the program or to a control group. The program guaranteed a scholarship to the sponsoring university and provided enrichment activities throughout high school. Program students were more likely to enroll at the sponsoring university than were control students. However, program and control students enrolled in higher education at rates that did not differ significantly. No differences were detected in self-esteem or high school GPA. Program students desired more education than control students. The results suggest that scholarship incentive and support programs that target average to above average achieving students in the eighth grade may not raise the overall number of aspiring minority youth attending college, but may be useful to specific universities to raise their minority enrollment.     

规模扩大与高等教育入学机会均等化

This paper explores the role of socio-economic status in determining access to higher education over time. Findings show that the overall equality of higher education opportunity has improved because of the inclusion of more marginal students into lower-tier higher education institutions (HEIs); however, students from higher socio-economic status have benefited disproportionably from the expansion in elite universities. A brief discussion of the potential implications is presented. Translated from Beijing Daxue Jiaoyu Pinglun 北京大学教育评论 (Peking University Education Review), 2006, (1): 24–33     

论民族院校独特的文化功能

民族院校是党和国家为解决国内民族问题而建立的综合性普通高等院校,是培养少数民族高素质人才、研究我国民族理论和民族政策、传承和弘扬各民族优秀文化的重要基地,是展示我国民族政策和对外交往的重要窗口。民族院校作为一种特殊的教育形式,符合多元文化教育的世界发展趋势,依据文化的平等与繁荣这一中国社会主义民族关系的目标要求,促进一体多元中华文化的整合是民族院校的基本功能,并且具有其独特的优势;继承、弘扬和发展我国少数民族的优秀传统文化是民族院校的神圣使命。     

Mind the gap: privileging epistemic access to knowledge in the transition from Leaving Certificate music to higher education

In recent years, music at Leaving Certificate level has come under increasing focus in media and higher education discourse as an easy option. In particular, scant attention has been paid to the musical knowledge and skills needed in the transition to higher music education within the Irish context. This paper addresses the perceived gap in knowledge through an examination of documents and student and lecturer experiences in higher music education. Findings reveal that students who have access to private music tuition because of their greater cultural, social and economic capital have a distinct advantage in higher education over those who have relied on the state for music education. Moreover, there would appear to be a shift in emphasis from practical to theoretical knowledge in the transition to higher education. More critically, the paper argues for a reappraisal of curriculum and knowledge at both levels in light of the implicit privileging of epistemic access to ‘powerful’ knowledge in private music education.     

世界高等教育发展趋势及其启示

随着经济全球化和知识经济的发展,世界高等教育正在发生着深刻的变化。这主要表现在规模速度、结构形式、资金筹措、绩效责任和对经济发展贡献等方面。世界高等教育发展的基本趋势是:办学体制多元化,社会功能日益突出,高等教育终身化以及与企业界密切合作。对此,中国高等教育的改革发展有必要借鉴国内外先进的办学经验,树立可持续发展观,建设充满活力的高等教育体系,构筑质量保障机制,完善经费来源,逐步建立"创业教育"新模式,促进中外合作办学和课程的世界化。     

荷兰高等教育入学政策变革及其启示

荷兰政府近期从发展学生资助系统、开展信息运动、扩大"未被充分代表"群体的入学率、排除教育系统结构障碍等几个方面对高等教育入学政策进行了一系列重大变革,这无疑是提高高等教育入学率、加快高等教育普及化进程的有效举措。     

河北省高等教育对区域经济增长的贡献研究

对河北省高等教育对区域经济增长的贡献程度进行研究,是了解河北省高等教育资源配置的社会效益的重要途径。利用生产函数对河北省高等教育对区域经济增长的贡献进行了实证研究,测算出高等教育对经济增长的贡献度,并与已有文献的结果进行对比,分析河北省高等教育对省域经济增长贡献不明显的原因,进一步分析了推动河北省经济增长的主要因素。     

Some prerequisites for access programmes that contribute to academic success in higher education

Abstract

The balance between the cost and value of access programmes is a concern in higher education. The function of access programmes is to provide support and additional time for under-prepared students to cope with the academic workload during the first year. This article aims to indicate the value students place on participation in an access programme. In this qualitative study, group interviews were conducted and the findings indicate that Engineering students attribute their success in the mainstream to the way in which participation in an access programme had integrated them academically into the university and exposed them to discipline related experiences in a non-threatening environment. The findings of this study indicate what aspects of the access programme students considered helpful for perseverance in mainstream studies. It is recommended that institutions that offer access programmes should not only be aware of the reciprocal influence of the cognitive and non-cognitive factors that affect students' success, but also purposefully combine these factors in the design of their access programmes.     

Challenging discourses of aspiration: The role of expectations and attainment in access to higher education

Raising the proportion of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds progressing to higher education has been a key policy objective for successive governments in the UK since the late 1990s. Often this has been conceptualised as a problem with their ‘aspirations’, with the solution being seen as the provision of ‘aspiration‐raising’ activities to promote higher education to those thought to have the potential to progress. Recent large‐scale studies cast strong doubt on this hypothesis by demonstrating that aspirations are not generally low, that different social groups have similar levels of aspiration and that school attainment accounts for nearly all the differences in participation rates between social groups. This article draws on data from a national project exploring efforts to widen participation across two generations of practitioner‐managers in England, focusing on their conceptualisations of the field and their constructions of ‘successful’ activities. It uses the lens of ‘possible selves’ (Markus & Nurius, 1986 ) to argue that too much policy emphasis has been placed on the aspirations of young people, rather than either their academic attainment or their expectations, which are shaped by the normative expectations of the adults surrounding them. In addition, the more expansive concepts of widening participation that were present a decade ago have become less common, with a shift towards activities with a clear role in institutional recruitment rather than social transformation. The article concludes with alternative suggestions for policy and practice.     

高教全面质量管理刍议

把全面质量管理这一科学管理方法移植到高教质量管理中来,论述了高教质量的全面含义,阐述了高教全面质量管理的内容特征和基本原则,设计了高教全面质量管理的评估指标体系框架。     

当前获取高等教育机会的不均等——依附于经济之上的社会资本的作用

本文首先分析了教育与社会的关系,教育在社会中的重要地位,从社会学的角度分析了社会系统中教育的功能,然后进一步分析了我国当前社会中高等教育存在的机会不平等的现状,最后从社会资本的角度来对当前社会中高等教育机会不平等的问题进行分析。     

高等教育国际化的动因探析

高等教育国际化不仅是高等教育的重要理念，而且将成为席卷世界的实践。高等教育自身特点、世界经济全球化、现代政治的需要、信息网络化的发展是影响、决定高等教育国际化的重要原因。     

全球化时代高等教育的文化批判

在全球化境域中,高等教育应秉持学术诉求,在全面分析全球化文化逻辑和文化主体的基础上,充分发挥其文化批判功能,以促进我们的文化不仅与全球化发展趋势相适应,而且与现代社会发展的要求相吻合。     

Cultural capital and gender differences in parental involvement in children's schooling and higher education choice in China

This article employs the concept of cultural capital to examine the ways in which social difference in terms of gender are played out in parental involvement in children's schooling and higher education choice. The intention has been to provide an in-depth analysis of the ways in which Chinese mothers and fathers are involved in the process. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 47 secondary school students and 50 parents in Beijing. This article reveals that the transmission of cultural capital is gendered. Mothers have a different and more direct relationship to the generation of cultural capital than fathers. This article reveals that patriarchal relationships are common among Chinese families, with fathers having a controlling role and mothers having a servicing one. I suggest that the traditional cultural norms, such as that based on Confucian patriarchy, have had influences on gender relationships in the transmission of cultural capital to children's educational achievement.     

河北省人口变动与普通高等教育的发展

自上个世纪末期以来,河北省普通高等教育规模出现了跨越式的发展,招生人数由1998年的17.85万剧增到2011年的48.53万,高校数量由48所增至110所。通过对河北省未来10年的人口预测分析表明,未来几年普通高等教育适龄人口将快速减少,到2015年将降至374.51万人,不及2008年峰值725.27万人的52%;适龄人口迅速锐减与高校招生规模急剧扩张"剪刀式"发展趋势,将导致高考录取率在2015年突破百分之百,千军万马拥挤"高考独木桥"的历史行将结束,高等学校将面临生源短缺危机。