Federal policies,state responses,and community college outcomes: Testing an augmented Bennett hypothesis

We estimate the impact of increases in Federal student aid and higher education funding, such as the recently proposed American Graduation Initiative (AGI), on the outcomes of community colleges, including enrollments, list and average tuitions, and educational quality. We develop a reduced form model of state-level education policy in which state policy makers, who have objectives that differ from those of Federal policy makers, respond to changes in Federal policies. Our empirical specification treats state and institutional variables as endogenous; we interpret the coefficients as measuring the responses of state and institution officials to changes in Federal policies. We simulate the effects of AGI and find little evidence that states recapture Federal education resources. AGI would have a significant effect on educational quality but a limited effect on enrollments. An equivalent increase in Federal student aid would have greater impact on access and enrollments, but decrease educational quality.     

Family background, school enrollments and wastage: evidence from Arab countries

Applying single and recursive bivariate probit models that utilize micro data sets of five countries, this paper examines the concatenation between school enrollments and family background. The empirical analysis captures considerable variations in the pattern of school enrollments and school wastage according to rural–urban locations and family background variables. Income gaps are powerful and interact with gender gap to produce differential school enrollment and wastage patterns. Access to credit partially redresses the adverse effects on school enrollments of negative household economic shocks. The findings call for more concerted government efforts to increase school enrollments and retention and to improve rural education particularly for females and the underprivileged.     

Educational choice and achievement: The case of secondary schools in the Arab Republic of Egypt

Before 1952 university education in Egypt was generally for the wealthier classes because the universities charged fees and only the richer families could pay those fees. For less wealthy families payment was more difficult, not only because of the direct cost of higher education, but also because of the high opportunity cost of sending children to study. After the 1952 revolution the Egyptian government introduced free education at all levels and encouraged those who wanted to further their education to enter universities. Thus elitism was eradicated from Egyptian higher education. This paper uses data from a sample of Egyptian university students and analyses the determinants of secondary school choice and the factors likely to affect secondary school certificate marks. In particular we are interested in the effect of family background, represented here by father's occupation.The results suggest that individuals with fathers in higher occupational categories tend to go to private schools rather than public schools. They also tend to choose general schools rather than technical or Koranic schools. In turn, high social background as well as attendance at a private school, have a positive and significant effect on examination marks. These findings are alarming because Egypt has a rate of increase in population of over 2% and the supply of university places will therefore have to be rationed. The most likely screening factor would be examination results and as a consequence Egyptian universities may in the future become elitist once more.     

The reform of higher education in Egypt

The historical background of higher education in Egypt, the present organizational structure, as well as current challenges and constraints are described to anchor an assessment of the strategies for educational reform which are presently underway. Higher education in Egypt witnessed uncontrolled growth throughout the decade of the 1970s until 1983 when several reforms were initiated. Three broad goals have been targeted: containing enrollments through new admissions policies and testing practices; improving program quality by updating curriculum and focusing on important learning outcomes; and promoting responsible fiscal management by developing management information systems, training administrators in their use, and exploring cost recovery from various sources. This article addresses the progress of these reforms to date, makes recommendations for their fuller development and implementation, and offers comments on their significance to other developing nations.     

High school computer science education paves the way for higher education: the Israeli case

The gap between enrollments in higher education computing programs and the high-tech industry’s demands is widely reported, and is especially prominent for women. Increasing the availability of computer science education in high school is one of the strategies suggested in order to address this gap. We look at the connection between exposure to computer science in high school and pursuing computing in higher education. We also examine the gender gap, in the context of high school computer science education. We show that in Israel, students who took the high-level computer science matriculation exam were more likely to pursue computing in higher education. Regarding the issue of gender, we will show that, in general, in Israel the difference between males and females who take computer science in high school is relatively small, and a larger, though still not very large difference exists only for the highest exam level. In addition, exposing females to high-level computer science in high school has more relative impact on pursuing higher education in computing.     

Subsidization of higher education versus expansion of primary enrollments: What can a shift of resources achieve in Sub-Saharan Africa?

In many LDCs today, the distribution of public resources for education tends to be inefficient and inequitable in that subsidization often increases rather than decreases with the level of education. To improve efficiency and equity, a shift of resources from higher to primary education should therefore be considered. Such a shift would obviously imply an increase in the private cost of higher education, but its effect could be mitigated through a loan scheme. In this paper, our main purpose is to show what a cut in subsidies to higher education can achieve in terms of expanding primary enrollments. The results show that although the outcome differs from country to country, such a cut would permit a sizable increase in primary enrollments in Sub-Saharan Africa, and especially in Francophone countries. Despite its effectiveness, however, reduction in higher education subsidies alone is unlikely to overcome all the obstacles faced by the poorest countries to attaining universal primary education. Our results only argue that it should be considered as part of the policy package directed towards this goal.     

Path analysis and residual plotting as methods of environmental scanning in higher education: An illustration with applications and enrollments

In this study we propose using path analysis and residual plotting as methods supporting environmental scanning in strategic planning for higher education institutions. As an illustration, path models of three levels of independent variables, that is, socioeconomic background, current economic variables, and educational variables, are developed. The dependent variables measuring applications and enrollments at a research university, Virginia Tech, and enrollments at four-year institutions in Virginia are regressed on the independent variables. The residuals from the multiple regression models are plotted on the county maps of Virginia to identify the geographic regions in which the applications and enrollments at Virginia Tech and the enrollments in colleges and universities of Virginia are higher or lower than expected according to the models. The implications of the variables in the models and the geographic distributions of residuals for strategic planning decisions are discussed.     

The increasing impact of economic conditions upon higher education enrollments

The effects of economic conditions upon higher education enrollments are specified nationally, regionally, and for an individual institution. It appears clear that since the early 1970s, about the time when studies began to report on the declining value of a college education, and when nontraditional students became a more significant factor in overall enrollments, potential students became much more sensitive to the opportunity costs of college attendance. As job opportunities increased, foregone earnings grew correspondingly, and enrollments turned down. Economic reversals were accompanied by enrollment upturns. Implications of this study for enrollment projections and planning are clear.     

Who Benefits from the Massification of Higher Education in Taiwan?

The objectives of expanding higher education are to foster advanced personnel and realize the concept of achieving equal access to education. The problems created by the expansion of higher education in many countries, including Taiwan, in fact indicate a divergence from originally anticipated objectives. Such problems include the uneven allocation of resources, tuition differences between public and private schools, and vicious competition in the face of declining student enrollments, all of which contribute to concerns about educational quality issues. Of additional interest is whether Taiwan's focus on university enrollments of disadvantaged ethnic groups has created a trend toward greater educational opportunities for its aboriginal people. Nevertheless, the distribution of resources is increasingly concentrated on elites from high socioeconomic backgrounds and in a few public universities. All of these factors have facilitated an increasing class reproduction in higher education. The original elites continue to enjoy a wealth of resources. Yet while more and more students gain access to higher education, their institutional teaching quality and learning environment still fall behind that of the elites.     

Is there a quantity–quality trade-off as pupil–teacher ratios increase? Evidence from Tamil Nadu,India

Developing countries have been quite successful at expanding enrollments in education, especially at the lower levels. But for any given level of efficiency, increased enrollments require increased resources, in order to maintain quality. If these resources are not forthcoming, the increase in educational quantity may come at the expense of quality. Is there a quantity–quality trade-off and what public policies can diminish it, in the face of strong constraints on public budgets? This paper explores the negative impact of such an enrollment expansion—unaccompanied by increased numbers of teachers—on school conditions and learning, using a cross-district time series analysis of Tamil Nadu, India as a case in point. It examines alternative policies which can be used to avoid such negative effects—by more efficient use of existing public resources and by expansion of over-all educational resources through greater reliance on private management and finance.     

Gender Microaggressions and Learning Environments: The Role of Physical Space in Teaching Pedagogy and Communication

Career and technical education (CTE) programs account for a large proportion of student enrollments in community colleges each year. While women tend to dominate CTE enrollments overall, they remain concentrated in historically feminized fields contrary to nontraditional occupations in which less than 25% of workers are females. Drawing on the emerging research on microaggressions and classroom learning environments, this classroom observation research project of more than 80 hours of observations with supplemental student interviews sought to further an understanding of why women are underrepresented in specific CTE fields. The findings of this study indicated two distinct aspects of the classroom environment that helped stew a culture of gender microaggressions: the instructor pedagogy and communication style, and the impact of physical space. Physical structure, instructor pedagogy, and communication create an environment that often emphasizes and perpetuates social norms connecting men and masculinity to CTE and science, technology, engineering, and math education (STEM), which historically have been male-dominated environments. Results from this study extend the research on microaggressions and learning environments and fill a significant gap on gender and CTE.     

Does the private sector expand access to higher education? A cross-national analysis, 1999-2017

This article examines the relationship between the private share of tertiary enrollments and overall access, measured by the gross tertiary enrollment rate, using a cross-national dataset from 122 countries spanning 1999−2017. In contrast to the dominant assumption in international development that expanding the private sector will necessarily increase access, we find a weak association between the private share of tertiary enrollments and gross tertiary enrollment ratio globally. That said, this association is stronger when there is high demand for higher education, as proxied by secondary gross enrollment ratio and urbanization. We also find regional variation, with private higher education positively associated with access in Central and Eastern Europe and core English-speaking countries and negatively associated with access in sub-Saharan Africa, after accounting for demand factors. We argue that private higher education is only an effective policy solution for expanding access when there is high unmet demand for higher education and a conducive policy context.     

The Trend Towards Materials in Science and Technology Education

The teaching of science and technology in the final year of high school is examined in a new curriculum developed for the education system in Victoria, Australia. The traditional areas of Physics and Chemistry together with a technology related subject, Materials and Technology, are investigated The major curriculum link amongst these studies was the area of materials. In Chemistry this involved the nature of materials, the chemical basis for the production of metals and polymers, and the social consequences of waste disposal. Within Physics, the major involvement was the investigation of the structure and physical properties of materials through theory and practical investigation. The selection of materials, production of components and their testing were the major area involved with Materials and Technology. Although the area of materials related all three subjects enrollments were comparatively high for Physics and Chemistry but Materials and Technology had less than one tenth as much enrollment. Similarly, school providers were significantly lower for materials and technology. Materials and Technology is still considered a vocational subject compared with the science oriented subjects. When gender enrollments were considered, Chemistry had a similar number of females and males, Physics had twice as many males as females, and Materials and Technology had twice as many males as females. This appears to be a consequence of typical gender roles.     

Expanding education through user charges: What can be achieved in Malawi and other LDCs?

Two features mark the education sector in many LDCs today: first, education is publicly provided; and second, governments are faced with severe financial constraints. As a result, enrollments are confined to low levels, and there is excess demand. To mitigate these adverse outcomes, we consider user charges as a means to mobilize additional resources for education. Under the circumstances that characterize mosts LDCs, we show that (i) families are willing to pay for education: (ii) the resources collected through user charges could finance a sizable expansion of education: and (iii) scholarships can offset the equity effects of user charges.     

从大众化进程中审视成人高等教育招生考试改革

成人高等教育是实现我国高等教育大众化的重要途径。当今成人高等教育招生考试制度的突出矛盾,是教育行政部门的统一控制与成人高校要求扩大招生自主权之间的矛盾,主要存在着考试目标偏差、成教特色模糊、地区差异性不突出、考试形式单一等诸多问题。要解决上述矛盾和问题,就必须理念回归,体制创新,管理科学,形式多样。     

高校扩招对教学质量的影响及控制策略

高校扩招引发社会各界对高等教育的目标、办学条件、教育制度、教学过程产生质疑。分析影响因素，探讨高校在继续扩招环境下，保障高等教育教学质量的控制策略。     

关于我国高等教育大众化的原则思考

高等教育大众化是教育国际化、人才需求多元化和经济发展智能化的必然选择。本以河北大学近两年来二级学院招生情况为实例，具体分析了我国在推进高等教育大众化进程中的现状及其存在问题，同时有针对性地提出自己关于推进我国高等教育大众化进程的思路与创造性设计。     

民办学前教育规模占比的省际差异、政府财政投入与管制

本文使用2001-2008年全国31个省市自治区学前教育事业发展时间序列数据和2008年截面数据刻画我国民办学前教育发展的省际差异,并通过多元回归方法分析民办学前教育规模占比与地方政府财政投入、管制措施之间的关系。在控制经济和其他社会发展因素的情况下,研究发现:(1)地方政府对学前教育的重视程度(以财政性学前教育经费占财政性教育经费的比例来测量)以及对学前教育的财政投入努力程度(以幼儿园生均预算内经费支出在人均财政支出的占比来测量)均与民办学前教育发展规模占比存在显著负相关关系;(2)对民办幼儿园的管制措施(注册登记、收费管理及综合整治"黑园"等)显著影响民办幼儿园的规模占比。这些发现证实我国民办学前教育的省际差异与地方政府对学前教育财政投入努力程度有关,也与地方政府对民办幼儿园的管制措施有关。如何通过财政投入和管制扶持措施调整民办与公办学前教育机构协同提供数量足够且有质量的学前教育服务是我国各级政府面临的严峻挑战。     

Higher-Education Planning 1990 — Problem or Opportunity?

Are the decreasing student enrollments after 1990 a problem or an opportunity for planning in higher education? At present we have the highest admission figures our university system has ever seen, and the number of students is expected to increase even more. Therefore, no one today can really imagine what will happen when the figures for first enrollments fall to below 50 percent of the current figure.     

新加坡终身学习发展历程及动向分析

半个世纪以来,新加坡政府一直重视终身学习,其终身学习政策从关注职业教育发展到全民学习型社会。近五年来,新加坡在终身学习方面推行技能创前程计划。该计划通过强调个人终身学习的选择、开发全面高质量的终身学习体系、制定技能创前程技能框架及营造终身学习文化氛围等方面促进新加坡终身学习进入一个包容性、系统性及连贯性的新阶段。