The Rise of the For-Profit Sector in US Higher Education and the Brazilian Effect*

What accounts for the rapid growth in the For-Profit (FP) higher education sector in the US? How will its growth influence educational opportunity and degree attainment rates in a country that first pioneered a mass higher education built largely on expanding public colleges and universities? The current US experience is a version of what I call the ‘Brazilian Effect’: when public higher education cannot keep pace with growing public demand for access and programmes, governments often allow FP's to rush in and help fill the gap, becoming a much larger and sometimes dominant provider. This is the pattern in many developing economies such as Brazil, Korea, Poland and other parts of the world. Despite new federal regulations intended to better regulate For-Profits, my prediction is that they will continue to grow over the long-term in the US not so much because they meet societal demands for diverse forms of higher education, but because of the inability of the public sector to return to the levels of public subsidies they had in the past. The result now, and in the future, is a kind of policy default: the future tertiary market will not be the result of a well thought out policy at the national or state levels, but a quasi-free market consequence that will foster lower quality providers and fail to meet national goals for increasing the educational attainment level of Americans. This article discusses how higher education policymaking is about broad issues of socioeconomic mobility and economic competitiveness, but it is also about money, big business, and political influence.     

Equity in an Educational Boom: lessons from the expansion and marketisation of tertiary schooling in Poland

This article shows how the probability of enrolment in tertiary schools has evolved for different social groups in Poland during the period of the educational boom. It also analyses how the socio-economic status influences the choices between full-time and part-time studies (the latter being of relatively low quality), and the probability of admission to subsidised, free programmes versus programmes with tuition fees. Between 1994 and 2008, Poland improved the participation of students with a low socio-economic status in university education. However, if we look at the change in the ratios of enrolment probabilities for different layers of the social strata, we find that the improvement refers to those with a low family educational background who live in small cities, but not to those from low income families. Further investigation shows that the policy makers should focus not only on ensuring equal access to tertiary education for all social strata, but on allowing the unprivileged groups access to education of acceptable quality.     

The influence of school tracking systems on educational expectations: a comparative study of Austria and Italy

School tracking is usually criticised as a mechanism for social and cultural reproduction. Evidence from the literature shows a significant effect of early tracking on social inequality. Some studies also show that early tracking has a negative effect on the probability of completing higher education. This study uses PISA 2009 data and the propensity score matching technique to compare the effect of academic and vocational tracks on students' educational expectations and whether the effect varies across different socio-economic status in Austria, a country with an early tracking system, and Italy, a country with a later tracking system. The results show that students in Italy have significantly higher educational expectations for academic tertiary degrees than students in Austria. However, the findings do not show any evidence that the effect of tracking on expectations varies by students' socio-economic status in either country. The findings suggest that a later tracking system is associated with higher probabilities of having academic educational expectations; however, this finding should be interpreted with caution as the higher education and vocational education systems are different between the two countries, as well as the valuation of tertiary degrees in the labour market.     

Private Education in Poland: Breaking the Mould?

The burgeoning private sector is perhaps the most tangible of the changes in education which followed the upheavals of 1989/90 in Central and Eastern Europe. This article sets out to analyse the growth of private education in Poland and its contribution to the ongoing processes of democratisation and educational development. The authors argue that the euphoria of the period immediately following the overthrow of one-party communism encouraged unrealistic expectations of educational reform. Their analysis of private sector schooling in Poland suggests that its development has occurred in a haphazard fashion, reflecting the uncertainties of a society undergoing a painful process of transition. Symptomatic of this has been the failure to establish a clear regulatory framework for the private sector – an omission which has undermined the credibility of private schools. Nevertheless, the authors argue that the development of private sector schooling in Poland has brought diversity and a degree of innovation to a system previously almost devoid of either. There is now an urgent need for the evaluation and dissemination of private sector initiatives, which can serve as examples for future educational decision-making in Poland.     

Determinants of higher education choices and student satisfaction: the case of Poland

The dynamic changes in tertiary education that were observed in Poland for the last 20 years transformed the Polish educational market and led to the immense expansion of educational institutions. The rapid increase in the number of students that continued until 2006 is however over and Polish universities have begun to compete for their clients. Increased competition along with the pessimistic forecasts for Poland with regard to demographic changes result in the growing demand for the knowledge on determinants of student educational choices and satisfaction. Although the amount of studies in this field is growing, Poland is still substantially underrepresented in the current research. The purpose of this article was to examine the underlying factors behind the choices that Polish students make while pursuing their tertiary education. The research method that combines focus groups’ discussions and a survey study among 1,420 business major students helped us to identify the factors behind three phases of the decision making process: pursuing higher education; information search along with final choice of a university; and satisfaction from chosen studies. Our research implies that decision making with regard to tertiary education is multifaceted and longitudinal as it combines a different set of factors in each stage of the decision making process.     

Expansion without equity: An analysis of current policy on access to higher education in Brazil

Access to higher education in Brazil is to a large extent restricted to the higher socio-economic groups. Public universities have limited places and entry is determined by highly competitive exams, thereby excluding those who have not had a high quality secondary education or attended an expensive preparatory course. There has been considerable growth in the private sector to absorb the excess demand, but the majority of Brazilians cannot afford the fees. This paper develops a concept of equity in higher education in which, firstly, there should be sufficient places in the system as a whole and, secondly, all people should have a fair opportunity of attending the university of their choice regardless of socio-economic background. Recent efforts to expand access are analysed, including incentives for the growth of private universities, student loans and the new Prouni initiative, in which private institutions provide free places to low-income students in return for tax exemptions. While these initiatives have the potential to increase the total number of places, they will not lead to an equitable expansion, as disadvantaged students will still be confined to courses of lower quality or with lower subsequent value on the employment market. Initiatives aimed at the public sector such as the introduction of quotas and changes to entry examinations are also discussed. Finally, some implications for future policy development are outlined. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the World Congress of Comparative Education Societies, Havana, 25th–29th October 2004.     

School sector and socioeconomic inequalities in university entrance in Australia: the role of the stratified curriculum

One of the more persuasive arguments for school sector differences in students' educational performance is the role of the senior school curriculum, which is stratified, socially selective, and has an important bearing on educational outcomes. In addition, the stratified curriculum may also contribute to socioeconomic inequalities in education by directing students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds to the most beneficial aspects of the curriculum. This paper finds that course taken has strong effects on university entrance performance and participation, but its effects are largely independent of school sector and socioeconomic background. Only about 10% of the effect of attending an independent school on tertiary entrance performance can be attributed to course type (net of other factors) and about 14% of the effect of socioeconomic background. This suggests that curriculum stratification plays only a minor role in mediating the influences of school sector and socioeconomic background on educational outcomes.     

我国高等学校收费问题的成因与对策探讨

目前我国高等教育领域收费方面出现的问题有两方面原因。一方面,在高等教育跨越式发展的同时各方面的投入没有同步地予以保证,收费作为成本低廉的费用补偿方式对高校具有吸引力。另一方面,在高校内部就收费的决策过程中,存在着公益人和经济人的力量均衡,也存在着责任部门与非责任部门的力量均衡,力量均衡的结果可能使一些高校出现不规范的收费行为。从近期看,应该加强收费政策的合理性基础,严格管制收费行为做好学生经济资助;从长远看,还要保证政府投入,培育高校工作者的公益和非营利意识,使高校实现良性可持续发展。     

Do educational pathways contribute to equity in tertiary education in Australia?

A key assumption of equity policies in Australia, as in many countries, is that pathways from lower-status, vocationally oriented ‘second’ tiers of tertiary education to ‘first’ tier higher education are able to act as an equity mechanism. This is because students from low socio-economic backgrounds are over-represented in former and underrepresented in the latter. The assumption that pathways support equity is tested in this paper through an analysis of the socio-economic profile and institutional destination of student transfers from vocational education and training to higher education in Australia. It finds that educational pathways deepen participation in education by existing social groups but do not effectively widen participation for groups that do not have equitable access. This is as a consequence of the hierarchical structuring of qualifications within VET as well as in higher education.     

Bicultural education policy in New Zealand

Abstract

Bicultural educational policy is part of a much broader ensemble of bicultural policies that were first developed by the Fourth Labour Government elected in 1984. These policies were an acknowledgement of, and response to, the historical injustices suffered by Māori people as a consequence of colonisation. Bicultural education policy is thought to be a means of addressing the ongoing challenge of educational underachievement of Māori students in the compulsory schooling sector. At present, the dominant discourse in New Zealand education frames the educational underachievement of Māori as a problem associated with cultural differences; however, this tends to obscure explanations that focus on socio-economic disparities. This paper shows how the dominant discourse relating to the underachievement of Māori students is established in policy and maintained through various auditing systems, and how this leaves little space for other explanations or solutions. The paper advocates a move away from an either/or approach to the problem of the educational underachievement of Māori and argues for greater critical engagement with bicultural education policy in order to open up space for conversations that address both the cultural and the socio-economic factors which may affect achievement.     

Transitions to post-secondary and tertiary education in the Netherlands: a trend analysis of unconditional and conditional socio-economic background effects

In the tracked educational system of the Netherlands, students at the end of secondary education have to decide whether they want to enter subsequent post-secondary or tertiary education. Depending on the previous qualification, they have the choice between up to four different options, including not entering further education. We propose, in line with prevalent theoretical approaches, that children from lower socio-economic backgrounds tend to make decisions that do not fully capitalize on their previously obtained qualifications. By means of multinomial logistic regression models we tested the unconditional and conditional effects of family background for entering the different tracks of post-secondary education. In the unconditional analyses we found effects for parental education on making a transition to all types of post-secondary and tertiary education, but the occupational status of the father seems to be only relevant for the transition to lower tier tertiary education. The conditional effects of parental education for making the transition to senior vocational education and university are strong, while the transition to lower tertiary education is not influenced by parental background characteristics. This shows that even with eligibility for the most prestigious tracks, children from lower socio-economic backgrounds tend to make less ambitious educational decisions. We also examined to what extent this inequality changed across time for the cohorts that terminated secondary education between 1932 and 1995. Decreasing effects of parental education indicate that the expansion of secondary education had the positive effect of leading more children from lower social backgrounds into favourable secondary education tracks, especially the intermediate general track. This equalization is carried forward through the entire sequence of educational transitions. The students from advantaged backgrounds nevertheless still profit from the parental resources in access to the most prestigious tertiary education institutions given secondary qualifications. Their head start into the academic track has not been reduced across cohorts.     

教育服务:现代教育交流中的一种异化

教育是一种交流活动,教育交流是一种文化现象,大学是实现教育交流最有效的机构之一。教育服务作为现代教育交流的一种概念和形式,正在赋予原初意义上的教育交流新的内涵,而高等教育层面上的教育交流,正在催生着教育属性的变化,或者说是教育交流在本质上的一种异化。历史上,高等教育国际交流的影响因素和根本动力, 经历了由文化力量为主到政治力量为主,再到经济力量为主的转变,而每次转变都有其独特的时代背景和社会条件。中国近代教育史上的教会大学,集中体现了中国高等教育近代化的过程中中外教育交流背后的利益冲突与政治反抗;当代高等教育的国际交流舞台上,经济因素日益成为重要方面,其中,教育服务是一种具体的表现方式,但却是一种教育异化的形式。     

Cognitive Style and Socialisation: An exploration of learned sources of style in Finland,Poland and the UK

Many educators are faced with the problem of how to handle the different ways in which students from different cultures approach learning content and processes. In management education, study has mostly considered the socio-economic, structural and organisational aspects of national differences and the external, explicit aspects of cultural differences such as managerial attitudes and values. There has, however, been less study of the differences between national groups in managerial cognition - the way managers think. If managers from one cultural group perceive, process, interpret and structure information differently from those from another, assumptions about the design and content of educational interventions based in one culture could be challenged in another. This paper reports on an exploratory study of 200 managers in Finland, Poland and the UK to investigate, firstly, whether there are national-cultural differences in cognitive style and, secondly, whether these differences are related to individual, occupational and cultural aspects of socialisation. In the latter case, the relationship between early schooling and the way people think is explored. Respondents' cognitive styles as measured by the Allinson and Hayes (1996) Cognitive Style Index (CSI) were compared with responses to two qualitative instruments assessing attitudes to early schooling and personal confidence and against predictions about national cultural differences derived from Hofstede (1984). The results, to be followed up by more extensive study, show significant differences between national groups in cognitive approaches and some aspects of socialisation. They also suggest that the constructs being measured by the CSI reveal individual characteristics that are not fixed and innate, but instead learned through processes of personal and cultural socialisation.     

Distance Education: Promise,performance and potential

Distance education has created enormous opportunities for the expansion of educational opportunities, especially at the higher education levels. This should be of great benefit to developed and in particular developing countries. However, in spite of the successes, there have been some conspicuous disappointments, including poor quality (often stemming from the lack of investment in institutions), and the failure to reach large parts of those communities that have traditionally been marginalised by the higher education sector. The article summarises some of the causes for the failures, and warns that the increasing commercialisation and technologisation of distance education risks the loss of 'our sense of equity and equality of opportunities'. For distance education to play a key part in the provision of educational opportunities, there must be a cultural change within the providing institutions in favour of appropriate technology and good practice. The article ends by highlighting 10 key issues that need to be addressed.     

Education and corruption

This paper will draw on standard international definitions of ‘corruption’ and apply them to the education sector. It will define corruption in education, explain why it is important, and describe various types of corruption and their causes. Emphasis will be placed on the role of higher education institutions in educational corruption, but the paper will not limit itself to higher education. In the end the paper will suggest four categories of reforms designed to minimize the risk of educational corruption. These include reforms to: (i) educational structures, (ii) the processes of management and adjudication, (iii) the mechanisms of prevention and when wrongdoing occurs, (iv) the system of sanctions.     

The Sociology of Education in Australia in the 1970s

This paper sets the development of the Sociology of Education in the changing Australian social structure, emphasising particularly economic prosperity, the influence of the rapid growth in the 1970s of the tertiary sector, the continuation of a relatively high level of migration, the egalitarian political ideology and the nature of educational administration. During this period many social pressures worked to support the political arithmetic tradition, though less so as the decade progressed. The sub‐discipline does seem by some measures to have become more mature by 1980, but at the very moment when economic stringency has been applied to the education sector.     

地方院校对高职通识教育本质与实现途径研究的表达

高职通识教育研究是高职教育人对高职教育本质认识的一种深化和凝练,是对高职人才成长规律的透视。高职教育与传统高等教育的差异自然造成高职通识教育不同于已有的通识教育。本文所指高职通识教育的本质是高等教育文化价值在高等职业教育领域的具体化,它是基于专业又高于专业的、引领高职生以高等文化方式学习工作生活的教育,从地方高职院校的角度,提出目前高职通识教育的实现途径也要区别于普通本科的通识教育。     

Education of Teachers for Polish Schools at the Beginning of the Twenty-first Century

Education and teacher education in Poland has undergone dramatic changes in the last 15 years. From the former communist (educational) regime, a more open educational system is being built. The earlier situation can be characterised by a strong social coherent approach, based on idealistic (communist) values. Within the new open system a national core curriculum has been developed, focusing on Christian and humanitarian values such as responsibility, respect for the cultural heritage, etc. In that respect the developments still fit in the social coherent-idealistic scenario, taking into account that the idealistic values have themselves changed dramatically. Recent changes, however, also put emphasis on the need for economic development, focusing on participation in the European market economy. This leads to a more pragmatic approach.     

Education,horizontal inequalities and ethnic relations in Nigeria

The article focuses on the role of higher education in generating or mitigating inequality among ethno-regional groups and its impact on ethnic relations with evidence from Nigeria. It shows that access to education in Nigeria has been politicised. This is because of the perceived role of education in engendering political and socio-economic inequalities. It assesses the intervention mechanisms of successive Nigerian governments at federal and state levels to expand access to and enhance equity in educational opportunities as well as the responses of the different publics to such programmes. The article shows that although educational inequalities persist, state policies have enhanced the ability of the different ethno-regional groups to produce qualified personnel to occupy critical public service positions. Thus, conflicts that were historically traced to the domination of the public sector of some regions by personnel from other regions have been averted. The Nigerian case study therefore suggests that while policies aimed at equalising access to education may create incentives for ethno-regional mobilisations, they are nevertheless necessary to prevent violent conflicts that arise from perceived ethno-regional domination of the public sector.