Governing universal higher education through markets: a poststructural perspective on massification

In this paper, the relationship between relative and absolute participation in undergraduate higher education in Slovenia is investigated. That relationship results from the interrelationship between factors contributing to relative participation in higher education and the size of youth populations. The development patterns of the relative and absolute participation in undergraduate higher education in Slovenia are presented. In order to empirically test the authors' hypotheses, two separate multiple regression analyses were conducted. The first analyzes factors of the demographic base, and the second analyzes factors of the relative participation in undergraduate higher education. The results reveal the factors contributing to both the demographic base and relative participation in undergraduate higher education and identifies the significant factor linking them to each other. This factor works in one direction in the case of the demographic base and in the opposite direction in the case of the relative participation in undergraduate higher education, causing the relationship between changes in relative and absolute participation in higher education. At the end of the paper, findings confirming the hypotheses are presented with an explanation of the background of the empirical findings.

This paper investigates the determinants of the relative participation in undergraduate higher education in Slovenia. The determinants of participation in higher education can be investigated at the micro or macro level. Using regression analysis we focus on the macro-level determinants of the increasing relative rate at which the relevant population of youth participates in undergraduate higher education in Slovenia from 1980-81 to 2006-7. Since 1980 the relative participation in higher education has increased more than twice the initial level. We investigate possible reasons for that dramatic increase in association with the overall economic conditions, the financial conditions of individuals, the expected benefits from undergraduate higher education, the proportion of the relevant population who fulfilled the enrollment requirements, the changing personal and social values related to higher education, and the supply side variables of higher education. In a regression analysis we include trend and autoregression effects. Finally, we make a simple simulation estimate of the expected development of the relative participation in undergraduate higher education in Slovenia in the near future.

Purpose: the aim of this paper is to identify the problems of low effectiveness of public participation in higher education on the basis of the analysis of theoretical-methodological and empirical literature. Methods: this study is based on the institutional paradigm, through the application of the tools of which the main actors with the potential for participation in higher education, roles, opportunities for influence and interests of participants in relation to the system of higher education are identified. The problems of efficiency of interaction between universities and society were identified and characterized in terms of institutional economics. Results: the directions of organization of social involvement in higher education were defined, the taxonomy of directions of interaction between university and society on the example of Ural State University of Economics was given. Based on the correlation of interests and opportunities for influence, their projection on the potential of interaction between the main stakeholder groups of the higher education system was carried out. The problems of low efficiency of interaction between society and higher education were revealed. The most important problems include the lack of a system of informal institutions that mediate the participation practices of the population, employers, and civil society institutions in the implementation of higher education programs. There is no consistent formalization of the processes of interaction between society and higher education through state regulation of this sphere. The most widespread problem is the lack of an established mechanism (model) of public involvement in the educational process that has the necessary methodological and instrumental support in the state policy in the sphere of education. The right of the public to participate in education management is not obvious and understandable for individuals. Сonclusions and Relevance: the potential of studying the sphere of public participation in higher education requires the creation of an independent research program in order to develop areas for improvement and development of institutions mediating the interaction between universities and society.

In 1988 the release of the Higher Education: A Policy Statement White Paper focused Australia’s national higher education equity policy on “changing the balance of the student population to reflect more closely the composition of society as a whole” (Dawkins 1990, 2-3). While improvement in access and participation has been noted for women, people from non-English speaking backgrounds, and people with disabilities, the interventions has remained less effective for people from Lower Socio-Economic Status (LSES backgrounds), Indigenous peoples; rural, regional and remote residents; (Gale & Tranter, 2011; Koshy & Seymour 2014). In 2009, in response to the Bradley Review (2008), the Australian government set a new agenda again focused on equitable participation in higher education, along with associated equity targets (which have since been abandoned), and funding to enable this reform as well as increased participation. Funding was delivered through the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program (HEPPP), renamed the Higher Education Participation Program (HEPP) in 2015 (Australian Government Department of Education and Training, 2015). A range of national partnerships, policy initiatives and programs has been used to facilitate improved achievement in schools as well as enable access, participation and achievement in higher education. These actions have included targeted programs through the use of intervention strategies aimed at widening participation in, and improving access to higher education.

Family characteristics in terms of parental education and income are an important influence on individual’s participation in higher education. In India it could be found that categorically those who are out of the higher education system belong to marginalized groups due to their economic class, caste, gender, religion etc. despite massive expansion of higher education. With this background, this article seeks to examine the effect of family income and parental education on an individual’s probability of attaining higher education in India. Besides these two variables, an individual’s likelihood of participation in higher education is influenced by social, religious and demographic characteristics for both rural and urban youth in India. Using multivariate logistic regression to analyze data from National Sample Survey (NSS) 68th Round (unit level records), the article examines how an individual’s participation in higher education is governed by his/her economic and social background and also by gender-related aspects. The results reveal that parental education and family income exert a direct effect on an individual’s propensity to participate in higher education. In terms of social and religious group, this youth belonging to Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste have significantly lower odds of going to higher education compared to general category for the whole of India. Females are less likely to participate in higher education in rural area, while Hindu females in rural area are less probable to participate in higher education. Hence, this article seeks to contribute, from an economic perspective, to the growing number of empirical studies that have investigated the background factors that influence higher education participation.

Participation in higher education is a significant indicator of development of a society. It is continuously reported that the level of participation of the Muslim community in higher education, especially among male students, is lower than that in other communities in Sri Lanka. A comparison of the involvement of the Muslim community in Sri Lankan university education based on gender shows that male students’ university entrance rate is lower than that of female students. The main purpose of this study was to explore the level of Muslim male students’ participation in higher education. To achieve this purpose, the following objectives were formulated: to identify the status of Muslim male students’ participation in higher education, to examine the perception of Muslim male students on pursuing higher education and to find out the reasons for their low level of participation. The study was conducted as a survey and data were analyzed quantitatively. The sample for the study was selected from the Advanced Level classes of four schools in Matale Education Zone. A total of 56 out 552 students, 28 out of 49 teachers and 29 parents from these four schools were selected as the sample. It was found that willingness to participate in higher education among male students was at a minimal level. About 63% of male students in Advance Level classes wanted to complete their studies and seek job opportunities after their Advanced Level Examination instead of engaging in tertiary education. It was also found that there was a lack of awareness about the opportunities for tertiary education among these students. Therefore, it is suggested that conducting awareness programs on the importance of and avenues available to participate in tertiary education to the students would help to increase Muslim male student participation in higher education.

Purpose This chapter critically analyses the current participation of Indigenous Australian students in higher education and identifies new directions for seeding success and enabling Indigenous students to flourish in higher education contexts. Methodology Statistical reports, government reports and the scholarly literature were analysed to elucidate the nature of participation of Indigenous students in higher education, identify strategies that are succeeding, identify issues that need addressing and explicate potentially potent ways forward. Findings The findings have important implications for theory, research and practice. The results of this study demonstrate, that while increasing numbers of Indigenous Australian students are accessing higher education, they still are not participating at a rate commensurate with their representation in the Australian population. The findings also suggest new ways to enable Indigenous Australians to not only succeed in higher education, but flourish. Research implications The findings imply that more needs to be done to seed success in increasing the numbers of Indigenous Australian students in higher education to be representative of the population and ensuring participation in higher education enables Indigenous students to succeed and flourish. The findings also imply that there is a dire need for further research to identify key drivers of success. Implications The study supports the need for increasing the number of Indigenous Australians participating in higher education and enhancing higher education strategies to enable Indigenous students to succeed and flourish. Social implications Enhancing the participation of Indigenous students in higher education internationally can help to contribute to the well-being of individuals, Indigenous communities and nations. Originality/value This chapter provides an up to date analysis of the nature of Indigenous Australian participation in higher education and identifies potentially potent new ways forward to seed success that have international implications.

This study investigates the determinants of adult learners’ participation in higher education in a lifelong learning environment. The author argues that the determinants of adult learners’ participation in higher education include individual demands, state and institutional policy objectives and industry-driven demands rather than demographic factors in the Ghanaian context. Framed along an interpretive paradigm, the study sought to examine the underlying principle for adult learners’ participation in higher education in Ghana and juxtaposing their views with those of policy-makers and managers of higher education institutions. Using an explanatory research design and a mixed method of gathering and analysing data from respondents in two structurally diverse universities, the study concludes that industry-driven factors play important role in the decisions of adult learners to enrol in Higher Education Institutions.

This article provides an overview of global higher education focusing particularly on issues of diversity and gender. The main evidence is drawn from seven unique projects on Widening Participation in Higher Education funded by the British Government’s Higher Education Funding Council for England and administered through the Economic and Social Research Council’s Teaching and Learning Research Programme. The issues are contextualised from a feminist perspective, current global and national policy debates about extending fair access to, and participation within, higher education and the contestation about these debates on global higher education in the twenty‐first century. Whilst there is clear evidence that participation in higher education has increased, especially for women, by contrast with traditional students defined as young, white, male and middle‐class, this participation is neither equal nor fairly distributed. There are systemic and systematic inequalities but, nevertheless, opportunities for critical and feminist pedagogies within the global academy have increased and offer the potential for the future of the twenty‐first‐century global academy.

The aim of this article is to suggest a better—theoretically and empirically grounded—understanding of the complex character of social justice in higher education. Theoretically, this article conceptualises social justice in higher education as mediating participation in, completion of and outcomes from higher education. It introduces the concept of composite capability for achieving higher education that captures capabilities to participate in, complete and gain outcomes from higher education. This study also develops a methodology for building an empirically based classification of countries regarding social justice in participation in higher education, taking into account the assessed inequality in students’ pathways to higher education as well as inequality in their social conditions, associated with students’ social origin. In so doing, it develops three indices: the index of inequalities in students’ pathways, the index of inequalities in students’ social conditions and the index of participation in higher education. Using microdata from the EUROSTUDENT VII survey (2019–2021) for 12 European countries, it applies the developed methodology to classify countries, for which data are available, by the degree of fairness in participation in higher education. This study’s results demonstrate the social embeddedness of social justice in higher education in different economic and political contexts.

The uniquely Japanese institution of the tanki daigaku (two‐year university) known as ‘junior college’ in English was seen as Japan's answer to increasing participation in higher education. Initially established on a provisional basis in 1950, becoming permanent in 1965, they were the higher education institution (HEI) of choice of almost 500,000 students a year at their peak in 1995. Demographic changes after 1992 brought about a buyers' market for higher education with institutions in aggressive competition for students, a battle in which the tanki daigaku seems destined to be defeated. This paper examines the options available to junior colleges in crisis and in so doing identifies a number of features of a virtually universal system of higher education which raise issues for other advanced societies grappling with massification and commodification in their own higher education systems. The paper reviews the literature in this area, as well as drawing on a year of participant observation as an associate professor from 2000–2001.

Održivi marketing definiran primjenom uravnoteženog pristupa koji uključuje i integrira ekonomske, ekološke i društvene ciljeve istovremeno zadovoljavajući potrebe svih dionika, uvažavajući pri tom potrebe budućih naraštaja, predstavlja fokus istraživanja ovoga doktorskog rada. Kako je utvrđen nedostatak istraživanja koja ispituju održivi marketing u kontekstu visokog obrazovanja, definirani temeljni ciljevi ovoga rada su: istražiti i oblikovati sustavan i sveobuhvatan kritički prikaz postojećih teorijskih spoznaja iz područja održivog marketinga, razviti i testirati konceptualni model za mjerenje povezanosti konstrukta održivi marketing visokog učilišta određen trima dimenzijama: promicanjem i obrazovanjem za održivi razvoj, aktivnostima održivog marketinga te doprinosima implementacije, s uspješnošću poslovanja visokog učilišta sagledanu kroz: kvalitetu usluge i uspješnost postizanja višestrukih ciljeva te testirati postavljene hipoteze rada. Provedeno je primarno kvantitativno empirijsko istraživanje metodom ispitivanja pomoću online upitnika na uzorku od 1.663 studenata te 380 ostalih dionika visokog obrazovanja. Utvrđene su statistički značajne razlike u prosječnim ocjenama čestica mjernog konstrukta održivi marketing između studenata i ostalih dionika visokog obrazovanja. Za promatrane uzorke kreirana su dva strukturna modela, potvrđena je njihova pouzdanost i valjanost te je potvrđena multidimenzionalna struktura konstrukta održivi marketing. Primjenom metode parcijalnih najmanjih kvadrata modeliranja strukturnim jednadžbama (PLS-SEM) evaluirana su oba strukturna modela i testirani su pretpostavljeni odnosi među konstruktima. Rezultati istraživanja potvrđuju pozitivan utjecaj održivog marketinga na uspješnost poslovanja visokog učilišta, sagledanu kroz kvalitetu usluge i uspješnost postizanja višestrukih postavljenih ciljeva. Znanstveni doprinos rada proizlazi iz proširenja znanstvenih spoznaja o primjeni koncepta održivog marketinga i njegove povezanosti s uspješnošću poslovanja u kontekstu visokog obrazovanja te kreiranja novog mjernog instrumenta za procjenu razine implementacije održivog marketinga visokog učilišta.

PurposeGlobal participation in higher education has expanded greatly since the late twentieth century. The implications for the cultural, social, and economic fabric of societies have been substantial. To explain transitions from elite to mass higher education systems, theoretical insights from Technical-functionalism, Neo-institutionalism, World Academic System, and Credentialism perspectives have been put forward. It is the contention of this paper that there are emerging and complementary factors driving steadily growing participation in “high-income” universal higher education systems. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approachWith reference to Ulrich Beck’s concept of the “risk society”, it is discussed how higher education participation is increasingly a response by young people (and their families) seeking to mitigate heightened instability in work and employment under a “risk regime”. Publicly available data from national and supra-national organisations are used to evidence trends and support the arguments put forward by this paper.FindingsParticipation is perceived as quasi-compulsory to “survive” amid concern that those without higher education attainment are being “left behind” in modern labour markets. This environment has contributed to more students from more diverse backgrounds viewing higher education as the only viable option to secure a livelihood regardless of rising private costs of participation and rising uncertainty over graduate employment outcomes. The expansion of higher education has therefore potentially developed a self-perpetuating dynamic as the perceived cost of non-participation escalates.Originality/valueIt is shown that to better understand higher education participation in “high-income” countries with universal higher education systems, one needs to consider the conceptual idea of “survivalism”, that underlines risk and the vulnerabilities of modern societies.

Private participation in higher education in India, though inherited from its colonial past, has continued to exist, albeit with a metamorphosis. The phenomenon has undergone tremendous changes in forms, structure, extent and impact on access, equity, and quality in higher education. Limitations and drawbacks of the private sector in higher education notwithstanding, the sector has continued to grow in size and significance. The rise in the private participation in higher education has also been concurrent with the plunge in the relative significance, quality, and impact of the public system due to plummeting public investment. This chapter seeks to present an account of India's experience with the private higher education since Independence but particularly focuses on the new generation private participation that has gained ground since the eighties. Private participation in higher education has become so integral to the higher education landscape that it is most likely to remain the mainstay in the future. Given the failure of the regulatory mechanism to prevent malpractices, ensure quality, and promote excellence, the chapter is a search for workable policy imperatives.

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