Framework and operationalisation challenges for quantitative comparative research in higher education

Abstract

AbstractThe increasing availability of data on higher education systems, institutions and their members creates new opportunities for comparative research adopting a quantitative approach. The value of future studies crucially depends on the capability to recognise and address some major methodological challenges existing in quantitative comparative research in higher education. The higher education context presents in fact specific features that can hinder comparisons, and political and social processes occurred in recent decades further enhanced complexity. This article aims to discuss key challenges that are currently met in quantitative comparative research in higher education while developing the conceptual framework and in research operationalisation, to discuss possible solutions and the value of configurational and multilevel analytical approaches in identifying meaningful objects of comparisons, to take into account the complexity of the higher education context and in identifying causal relationships.