Affirmative action in Brazilian universities: Effects on the enrollment of targeted groups

This paper investigates how the adoption of affirmative action for college admission affected the enrollment of students from disadvantaged backgrounds in Brazil. We explore the time heterogeneity of policy adoption by universities to identify the policy impacts while accounting for contemporaneous confounding effects. Our study shows that the adoption of affirmative action increased the enrollment of students from groups explicitly targeted by each policy, particularly public high-school students and Blacks.¹ We also demonstrate that these effects were concentrated within more competitive and more prestigious academic programs. Lastly, we find that universities that adopted affirmative action policies with explicit racial criteria experienced an increase in the enrollment of Black students whereas universities that adopted race-neutral policies had no significant changes in the racial profile of their students. These results indicate that affirmative action policies were successful in improving access to higher education for targeted groups. However, we also identify important limitations of these policies.     

Admissions quotas in university education: Targeting and mismatch under Sri Lanka’s affirmative action policy

The state university system in Sri Lanka is characterised by free tuition, central administration and an affirmative action policy based on geographical region aimed at reducing inequality in access to higher education. Using administrative data on applicants for university admission, we study the effectiveness of the policy in targeting under-privileged regions and students and test for academic mismatch among medical students. We find that the policy ensures representation of disadvantaged regions while effectively targeting disadvantaged students. However, beneficiaries of the policy lag slightly behind the rest and this mismatch cannot be explained away by differences in university quality, though the estimated mismatch is likely to be an upper bound of mismatches occurring across the university system. These results suggest that region-based targeting is a viable alternative to the more common race/caste based affirmative action policies.     

如何更好地补偿弱势群体？——机会平等理论视角下高校招生倾斜政策的比较研究

在基础教育与家庭社会经济背景尚存不平等的情况下,采取合适的高校招生倾斜政策对弱势群体进行补偿是十分必要的。在此基础上,通过对分配正义的理论分析,并结合优绩主义对才能的定义及其批判,探寻高校招生倾斜政策产生的理论渊源。基于约翰·罗默机会平等理论,从划分环境组别、确定努力类别、给予同等努力同等结果三个维度,分析了美国百分比计划、英国背景招生政策、中国三大专项计划的高校招生倾斜措施。结果发现,美国的百分比计划最接近机会平等理论的诉求,而英国的背景招生政策则在上述三维度均有改进空间,我国三大专项计划对弱势群体的识别较为粗糙,但政策执行更加有效。综合理论与实践,我国高校招生倾斜政策应进一步扩大覆盖面,重视对更多不利环境的补偿,且需通过多维度指标更加精准识别弱势群体。     

生源减少背景下江苏省高职招生聚类分析及启示

排除注册入学、提前录取两个因素,在不分批次,不分公办民办的前提下,选取最高分、最低分、平行志愿录取率和非服从志愿录取率4个指标,用聚类分析法将江苏省2011年76所高职招生情况分为5类。分析表明:面对生源减少,高职招生应考虑区域经济、扶持特殊教育、确保生源质量;与此同时,高职办学也要注意增强办学实力、重视专业建设。     

State affirmative action bans and STEM degree completions

This paper investigates the effect of statewide affirmative action bans on minority STEM degree completions at US public four-year colleges. The number of minority students completing STEM degrees at highly selective colleges falls by 19% five years after affirmative action bans, while there is no change in the total number of students completing STEM degrees. This indicates that a nontrivial number of minority students only admitted to highly selective colleges because of affirmative action graduate in STEM during periods of race preferences in college admissions. There is no convincing evidence of effects at moderately selective colleges. These findings speak to the recent debate about the extent to which minority students admitted to top ranked colleges due to affirmative action may have higher probabilities of graduating in the sciences if they had attended lower ranked colleges. Results are presented with the caveats that changes in race reporting caused by affirmative action bans may upwardly bias estimated effects, and that estimated aggregate effects may not fully capture all student-level responses.     

Choosing differently? College application behavior and the persistence of educational advantage

We use administrative data from Ireland to study differences in college application behavior between students from disadvantaged versus advantaged high schools. Ireland provides an interesting laboratory for this analysis as applicants provide a preference-ordering of college programs (majors) and marginal applications are costless. Also, college admission depends almost completely on grades in the terminal high school examinations. Thus, we can compare the application choices of students who have equal chances of admission to college programs. Conditional on achievement and college opportunities, we find that students from advantaged high schools are more likely to apply to universities and to more selective college programs. They are also more likely to have preferences that cluster by program selectivity rather than by field of study. Our results suggest that, alongside differences in achievement, differences in college application behavior also cause persons from advantaged high schools to be more likely to enrol in selective colleges and enter more selective programs. Importantly, we find that enrolment gaps for equally qualified applicants are smaller than differences in application behavior; the relatively meritocratic centralized admissions system based on achievement undoes much of the effect of the differences in application behavior.     

就业单一型专业大学生的就业问题研究

就业单一型专业是指由于专业的行业性、职业性强,就业面狭窄,毕业后只能从事所学专业,否则所学专业就会无用武之地的专业。这部分大学生的就业涉及到行业发展、个人发展和合理利用教育资源的问题,应充分认识这部分大学生就业问题的重要意义,借鉴计划体制下招生的有益做法,适当控制招生规模,在课程设置上重视通识课程、素质教育理论与技能课程,提高就业单一型大学生适应社会的能力,按照专业内就业、专业外就业和继续深造的适当比例分流制定相应的培养计划。     

“双一流”大学招生倾斜政策下弱势学生发展的追踪研究

倾斜性招生政策是近年来我国面向贫困地区弱势学生实施的重要举措。使用国内某“双一流”大学追踪调查数据,分析国家专项与高校专项两类学生的在学发展情况。研究发现,两类专项学生受惠于倾斜性招生政策得以被录取,尽管高考成绩显著更低,但在各类能力自评得分方面没有劣势。不过,进入大学后,国家专项学生在自我认知方面和高校专项学生在批判性思维发展方面的自评得分均存在显著劣势。此外,高校专项学生入学时的毅力优势也在大三消失。在学业成绩方面,受学业基础较差影响,两类专项学生大一课业成绩显著偏低,且均在人文学科方面表现不佳。国家专项学生所获得的高考降分越多,大一挂科率和挂科数均显著越高,平均成绩显著越低,且在人文学科中尤为明显。研究认为,“双一流”高校在制定和实施国家专项招生政策时,应根据各自往年生源情况科学分配各学科专项招生名额,给予专项生更多的志愿填报指导,尝试放宽专项生转专业限制,并为专项生提供富有针对性的发展支持,在保障弱势学生入学机会的同时,更好地促进其在大学期间的良性发展。     

Affirmative action strategies and professional schools: case illustrations of examplary programs

Increases of women and minority students at professional schools have been reported but disadvantaged populations still suffer underrepresentation. The literature indicates that effective affirmative action may be realized through early identification programs and pre-professional contact during recruitment; role modeling, and mentoring used from early identification through professional licensure; resocialization techniques for both faculty and students used after matriculation; and academic, social, and psychological support services used during the program that aid retention. A survey of law, medical, dental, and veterinary schools revealed various affirmative action strategies used for the recruitment, admission, and retention of women and minorities. Seven case illustrations of affirmative action programs are detailed. These cases demonstrate that an eclectic grouping of strategies is less effective than a concise, directed program of strategies complementary to the professional school, its faculty, their geographic location, their targeted clientele, and their specific goals for cultural diversity.     

Rethinking Graduation and Time to Degree: A Fresh Perspective

Graduation and time to degree are paramount concerns in higher education today and have caught the attention of policy makers, educators and researchers in recent years. However, our understanding is limited regarding the factors related to graduation and time to degree beyond students’ pre-college characteristics (demographics and academic preparation), especially how student decision and performance in college affect their graduation. This study employs longitudinal data and applies event history analysis to track 12,096 first-time freshmen in a large public university from 2002 to 2014. Students’ academic progress is conceptualized into eight time-dependent variables whose values change over time, including major status (major change, double majors/minors and major declaration), enrollment intensity (enrolled term units and extra enrollment), and academic performance (term GPA, cumulative units and cumulative GPA). Discrete-time hazard models were used to answer the following question: beyond pre-college characteristics, what aspects of students’ decisions on majors and enrollment and their performance affect graduation and time to degree? The findings reveal that academic performance is the most important factor, followed by students’ decisions on majors (such as having double majors/minors). Pre-college characteristics only accounted for a very small proportion of the total variance after students’ performance and decisions are controlled. The study goes further in investigating how the effects of these factors change over time by enrolled terms.     

Creating Pathways to College for Migrant Students: Assessing a Migrant Outreach Program

Migrant students are among the most disadvantaged of any groups in the United States, yet little is understood about factors that facilitate their college access. College access outreach programs rarely collect data on whether and where their students go to college. This longitudinal study tracked the college-going behaviors of migrant students who participated in the Migrant Student Leadership Institute (MSLI), a program whose goals include increasing migrant students' 4-year college access. The program emphasizes developing students' capacity for critical thinking about sociopolitical conditions, as well as their academic preparation for, and knowledge about, college. Results from analyses using an equivalent comparison group suggest that the program positively affected participants' application rates to, and enrollment rates in, more selective California public higher education institutions, including campuses of the University of California (UC) system. This article addresses factors that potentially accounted for these outcomes.     

Do bans on affirmative action hurt minority students? Evidence from the Texas Top 10% Plan

In light of the recent bans on affirmative action in higher education, this paper provides new evidence on the effects of alternative admissions policies on the persistence and college completion of minority students. I find that the change from affirmative action to the Top 10% Plan in Texas decreased both retention and graduation rates of lower-ranked minority students. Results show that both fall-to-fall freshmen retention and six-year college graduation of second-decile minority students decreased, respectively, by 2.4 and 3.3 percentage points. The effect of the change in admissions policy was slightly larger for minority students in the third and lower deciles: fall-to-fall freshmen retention and six-year college graduation decreased, respectively, by 4.9 and 4.2 percentage points. Moreover, I find no evidence in support of the minority “mismatch” hypothesis. These results suggest that most of the increase in the graduation gap between minorities and non-minorities in Texas, a staggering 90%, was driven by the elimination of affirmative action in the 1990s.     

Student response to tuition increase by academic majors: empirical grounds for a cost-related tuition policy

This study explored the responses of students in different academic majors to tuition increase, with a particular focus on the relationship between tuition increase, and future earnings and college expenditures. We analyzed effects of tuition increase on enrollment in six academic majors—Engineering, Physics, Biology, Mathematics, Business, and Education—where disciplinary enrollment data were available. The main findings are that students are elastic to tuition level in Physics, Biology, and Business, but not in Engineering, where the rate of return is the highest among the six majors and the college expenditure are the highest. The findings suggest that student enrollment in various academic majors is affected differentially by tuition. Further, the findings support a cost-related tuition policy, one designed to charge students higher tuition for higher-cost majors and lower tuition for lower-cost majors.

高考志愿设置改革对地方高校生源的影响与对策

生源直接关系到高校的教育质量,招生政策是影响生源的杠杆。某地方高校生源在高考志愿改革后,出现城市生源和中心城市生源比例上升,生源分数段呈现扁平化趋势,且专业志愿满足率下降。它与信息不对称、高校综合实力差异存在因果关系。要改变新政策所造成的生源质量弱化现象,地方性高校应当从培养师资增强实力、制定合理的分专业制度、构建新的人才培养模式等方面着手,增强对优质生源的吸引力。     

An Exploratory Study of Undergraduates’ Attitudes Toward Affirmative Action Policies for Asian Americans in College

This exploratory study examined white undergraduate students’ (a) racial attitudes towards Asian Americans, (b) principled policy attitudes toward affirmative action, and (c) self-interest in relation to their support for college-based affirmative action policies for Asian Americans at a Midwestern university. A sample (n = 264, 28% male, 72% female) of white undergraduate students from a mid-sized public university in the Midwest was surveyed. The findings indicate that white undergraduate women have significantly more favorable principled policy attitudes toward affirmative action in general and for an affirmative action college policy for Asians, in particular, than do undergraduate males. Implications for issues of equity and social justice are shared.     

赞比亚高等教育中的性别平等问题研究——以赞比亚大学为例

随着性别平等问题在教育领域受到越来越广泛的重视,赞比亚政府为此颁布了一系列旨在解决性别不平等问题的政策。高等教育机构在政府政策的推动下也纷纷采取了一系列措施鼓励女性入学,如开展新生确认行动,采用降分措施,改善女生在校硬件设施等。通过对赞比亚大学女生就学情况的分析可知,女性接受高等教育的情况得到了一定程度的改善,国家解决性别不平等问题的政策和高校相关措施得到了有效的贯彻和落实。但赞比亚高等教育中尚未实现性别平等,在某些学科领域性别不平等问题仍然较为严重。     

地方高校可持续发展路径探析--以江西农业大学为例

地方高等院校承担着吸纳本省生源的责任,而毕业于地方院校的学生也大多就职于高校所在地,这是当地社会经济发展所需人力资源的重要保障。通过对近10年来江西农业大学招生和各专业发展情况的分析发现,随着办学水平的不断提升,地方院校招生稳步发展,热门专业是适应社会需求的新兴专业,而传统优势专业与特色专业建设有待加强。上述情况表明,地方高校未来承担的主要任务依然是培养本地学生,服务于地方经济发展,因此,在学校发展的过程中,应注重热门专业与特色专业的平衡发展,保持地方高校可持续发展。