The heterogeneity of new entrants and the selectivity of higher education institutions: Some results using data from the CHEERS project

Abstract

This paper attempts to test whether there stillexist differences in selectivity between highereducation institutions. Data from the CHEERS(Careers after Higher Education: a EuropeanResearch Survey) project enables us to describethe differences in institutional selectivity ineach country across different fields. We askthe question: how selective are institutionstoday, particularly in the case of Europe andJapan?. In order to describe the selectivity ofhigher education institutions for each field ineach country, we use the entry grade given byeach graduate in the CHEERS data. Despite thedifferences in the grading references in thedifferent countries, these data can be used toassess the heterogeneity of the selectivity ofeach institution within the fields in eachcountry. To do so, we computed a mean for eachinstitution/department (using all graduatesfrom each institution in the sample). We thencomputed a mean for all the institutions/departmentsand the dispersion coefficient(which was multiplied by a hundred). Countrieswith a low dispersion coefficient appear to behomogeneous in terms of selection across thedifferent institutions, whereas those with ahigh one have institutions clearly moreselective than others. Using the example ofBusiness studies, it can be shown that theselection process of higher educationinstitutions is more or less heterogeneousaccording to countries. Differences betweentypes of institution also explain thedifferences in selectivity between institutionsin some countries but not in others.