The politics of mass higher education – what role have political parties played in the expansion of higher education enrolment?

BackgroundHealth in childhood and adolescence is a matter of contention. This article examines how infant and adolescent health act together with parental SES, health-related behaviour and academic factors to generate differences in the early life course with regard to later enrolment in higher education.MethodsWe used a questionnaire on health, The Oslo Health Study, which was linked to register data that provided detailed information on educational outcomes over time; and the Medical Birth Registry of Norway, which provided information on health at birth.ResultsIt was found in the unadjusted results that infant health measures had a positive association with enrolment in higher education. After adjustment for adolescent health, there was still evidence that infant health are associated with enrolment in higher education. However, this association disappeared when parental socio-economic status (SES) was included in the model. Health in adolescents remains a significant and strong predictor of enrolment in higher education after adjusting for parental SES. However, the relationship between adolescent health and enrolment in higher education was reduced and became nonsignificant when adjustments were made to the health behaviour of the adolescents and their relationship with their families. Future educational expectations and good grades in grade 10 are strong predictors of enrolment in higher education.ConclusionsThere are lower odds of enrolment in higher education for infants of low birthweight. However, this result seems to reflect the fact that parental SES correlate with both infant health and enrolment in higher education. Adolescent health are associated with enrolment in higher education, even after adjusting for parental SES. However, a considerable proportion of this association seems to be attributable to health-related behaviour and the relationship of the adolescent with his or her family.

Higher education is considered as the engine of the economic development of a country due to its role in cultivating human capital. The provision of higher education is regarded as a productive investment in human capital for improving nation’s productive capacity. However, there is a large gap in enrollment between students of different socioeconomic statuses. The ever-widening socio-economic inequalities between individuals from disadvantaged and advantaged backgrounds make the government’s efforts to enroll a higher number of students to pursue higher education challenging in developing countries, as the students’ socioeconomic status plays a decisive role in their priority to attain higher education. This study anticipated quantifying the impact of socio-economic indicators and underlying situations on students’ enrollment in higher education in Pakistan. A descriptive study, involving correlation, principal component analysis (PCA), clustering, and stepwise regression using 15-years data of enrollment and socio-economic indicators was conducted. The correlation between different socio-economic indicators and students’ enrollment was positive and highly significant (0.73 to 0.99), except for the unemployment rate (- 0.39 to -0.57). PCA showed that the first two components were the most influential with 93.85% of the total variation. Enrollment (total and male) showed significant relationships with general government expenditure and unemployment rate, while female enrollment showed a significant relationship with general government expenditure. Findings revealed that socio-economic factors can serve as a significant predictor of students’ enrollment in higher education. The minimum values of correlation coefficient (R) and adjusted R2 for enrollment were ranged from 0.875 to 0.748 (female enrollment), while maximum values (0.987 to 0.993 and 0.973 to 0.983), respectively were observed for total enrollment. The findings will assist educationists, social scientists, and policymakers to better understand the association between socio-economic indicators and student enrollment in higher education for formulating future education policies for enhancing enrollment in higher education.

Socio-Economic Status and Enrollment in Higher Education: Do Costs Matter?

The study uses generalised least squares (GLS), descriptive, phenomenological and mixed methods to examine the effects of higher education (HE) loans on tertiary education enrolment in India, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The data sets employed in the empirical analyses were obtained from the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), India Educational Statistics, the Ghana Ministry of Education, the Kenya Higher Education Loan Board, the Student Loan Financing Board of Tanzania and the Uganda Ministry of Education and Sports. The paper examines the HE student loan schemes introduced and implemented in Ghana, India, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda through commercial banks, public banks or governments along with their respective effects on higher education enrolment. Empirical results show that boosting higher education is a student loan phenomenon. Meanwhile, in the last two decades, student loan schemes performed better in India, Ghana, Kenya, and Tanzania than in Uganda. To become as successful as India in implementing the HE student loan scheme and improve HE enrolment, the paper suggests that the Government of Uganda must formulate a more comprehensive education loan scheme in consultation with the Bank of Uganda and other banks in Uganda.

Introduction Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) were established during the segregation period of U.S. history in response to the demand for education by Blacks who did not have access to White educational institutions. As a group, Blacks share a common historical experience of segregation that was characterized by relatively limited educational resources to meet the demand of the black population for higher education. Currently there are 103 HBCUs (53 private and 50 public institutions), representing approximately 3% of the total U.S. institutions of higher education and about 2% of the total U.S. college enrollment (National Center for Education Statistics, 1996). Collectively, these institutions have also been undergoing, over the past three decades, a declining share of black high graduates' enrollment in higher educational institutions. Despite federal desegregation policies, such a relative decline has not been compensated by a corresponding increase in HBCUs' relative share of the total population of non-Black high school graduates' enrollment in higher education. Although most HBCUs experienced enrollment growth during the periods of educational expansion in the U.S., overall their share of national enrollment has declined because of two factors: the increase in community colleges and the Adams court decisions desegregating higher education in the south (Hauptman & Smith, 1994). Table 1 shows that the total enrollment in HBCUs expanded by about 18.69% from 222,613 students in 1976 to 273,472 in 1998. Despite the modest increase in the number of non-Black students attending HBCUs, the level of diversity in terms of race and ethnicity has remained almost unchanged. Hence, Black students have consistently represented about 81% of the total annual enrollment at HBCUs during that period. Table 2 indicates that the total U.S. enrollment of Blacks 14 to 34 years of age in postsecondary educational institutional institutions increased significantly by 66% from 996,000 in 1980 to 1,640,000 in 1998. Consequently, the total Black enrollment in all colleges and universities rose from 9.78% in 1980 to 12.75% in 1998. However, as a group, HBCUs' relative share of the total Black enrollment in higher educational institutions declined from 18.18% in 1980 to 13.70% in 1998. In contrast, Black students' enrollment in other institutions of higher education, as a percentage of the total Black enrollment in the U.S., rose from 80.82% in 1980 to 86.3% in 1998. While Black students' enrollment in other colleges and universities rose by 76% from 805,011 in 1980 to 1,415,255 students in 1998, the enrollment of non-Black students in HBCUs rose only by 16.82% (from 42,568 to 49,727) during the same period. Several factors may have contributed to the decline of HBCUs' relative share of total Black student enrollment in postsecondary educational institutions, and there is no empirical evidence about their effects in the literature. The survival and growth of many HBCUs depend on their ability to maintain or improve their relative share of Black students, who traditionally represented their major source of enrollment. The purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical analysis of the determinants of Black student enrollment in HBCUs. Such information may be useful for policy decisions. An overview of the factors influencing Black enrollment in higher education and a description of the methodological framework as well as the data used in this study are provided in the next section. Methodology and Data Collection The Determinants of Enrollment Demand The literature provides a large body of information on the various factors that have been influencing the demand for higher education by Black high school graduates in the U. S. Demographic trends affect the demand for higher education as well as the supply of high school graduates who attend the various postsecondary institutions. …

Our rapidly changing society needs highly-qualified STEM professionals (experts in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) to develop solutions to the problems it is facing. Many of the students who graduate from a STEM programme in secondary education, however, opt out of STEM when enrolling in higher education, often due to a loss of interest. To ensure sufficiently high and qualified enrolment in higher STEM education, we need to bridge this gap between secondary and higher STEM education by showing our youngsters the relevance of science and technology to their personal life and environment. To this end, the project STEM@school promoted and studied the idea of integrated STEM in secondary education in Flanders, Belgium. In integrated STEM education, learning contents from the separate STEM courses are linked in an authentic way, as they often are in our environmental challenges. This approach encourages students as well as their teachers to acquire a robust understanding of STEM concepts, and a creative, inquisitive, and collaborative mindset. For the design of integrated STEM curricula, STEM@school united secondary-school STEM teachers and university researchers. This article elaborates on the principles, opportunities and challenges of the design and implementation of these curricula and discusses their promising effects on students’ conceptual understanding and attitudes towards STEM subjects. The article concludes with tips and tricks to get started with integrated STEM education in secondary schools.

The Middle East is a geopolitically diverse region that includes large economies, such as Saudi Arabia and Türkiye; densely populated countries, such as Iran and Egypt; and smaller nations with a high gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, such as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Despite the differences in sociocultural, economic, and environmental contexts between these countries, individuals across the region must participate in the labor force and contribute to production to benefit from national wealth. Specialized technical skills offer a significant advantage in securing employment, and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in higher education has become a viable pathway for various technical roles. On this point, through its varying national (e.g., population, GDP, GDP per capita, human development level, TVET starting age, TVET enrollment in higher education, gross enrollment in higher education) and TVET-related factors (quality of TVET, labor participation by TVET graduates, salary for TVET graduates, unemployment rate for TVET graduates), the Middle East presents an interesting case for examining the value of TVET in higher education to the labor market. Accordingly, this study aimed to compare the advantages (or disadvantages) of TVET graduation for people to access the labor market in Middle Eastern countries. The research was designed as a comparative quantitative study, following a descriptive survey model. The comparative analysis included data from Egypt, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and the United Arab Emirates to compare TVET in higher education and employment relations. National data for the selected countries were collected from various sources. The focus was on statistical comparisons using cross-tables and classification and regression tree analysis. The analysis showed that TVET is a good way to secure work in the case countries (with relatively lower unemployment for TVET graduates). Nonetheless, according to a comparison of national data, GDP emerged as the most significant factor, highlighting the demand for more professionals in larger-scale production within the related countries. The results also reveal that the TVET starting age and gross enrollment in higher education are among the influential factors for students choosing TVET programs in higher education (ISCED level 5), while TVET-related factors do not generate a distinction in terms of the number of students who prefer TVET programs at the higher education level. Potential policy developments and practices are also discussed concerning educational priorities in Middle Eastern countries to increase the attractiveness of the TVET system as well as its value to the labor market.

Ethiopian government has paid great attention to higher education expansion and hence, it has been a national policy issue of the country. The study investigated the dynamic relationship between higher education and economic growth in Ethiopia using annual data collected from 1981-2014. Autoregressive Distributive Lag framework was used along with Error Correction Term so as to investigate long run relationship between real GDP, enrollment in higher education, gross capital formation and labor. The result from bounds test confirmed the existence of strong long run relationship between variables. Enrollment in higher education and gross capital formation has a positive long-run effect on real GDP. But, only enrollment in higher education has a negative effect in the short run. The study utilized granger causality test in order to examine causal relationship between higher education and economic growth. According to the test result, a unidirectional causality running from higher education to economic growth was observed. The necessary diagnostic tests were applied in order to check reliability and acceptability of model outputs and they were found satisfactory. Drawing on the finding it is recommended that government should continue expanding the provision of higher education and in the meantime, endeavor to improve the quality of the provision.

This study examined the associations between childcare attendance among 550 children from 24 to 36 months of age and their enrollment in higher education in young adulthood. We conducted a propensity score matching analysis to control the selection bias for childcare attendance and estimated the average treatment effect for the treated on the odds of enrollment in higher education. Children who attended informal childcare (i.e., with a relative or nanny) were more likely to pursue higher education in young adulthood relative to children in formal childcare (i.e., center-based or licensed home-based childcare). However, heterogeneity in our sample revealed that attending formal childcare increased the probability of enrollment in higher education for children from low-income and non-employed families. This study suggests that attending informal childcare in Canada in 1994–1995 benefited all children over 20 years later, whereas attending formal childcare appears to be protective for children from more disadvantaged families.

Education-centered human capital theory acknowledges the role of education in the economic development of nations. With the emergence of endogenous growth theories in the 1980s one of the variables very extensively included in cross?country and country-specific empirical growth studies is education measured by enrollment in primary, secondary and higher level of education, average years of schooling and literacy rate. The aim of this paper is to investigate empirically the linkage between higher education and real gross domestic product of Nepal. This paper employs time series data on enrollment in higher education and teachers working in the lower secondary and secondary schools and gross domestic product of Nepal spanning the period 1975-2009 and investigates the causality in Granger’s sense employing unit root and cointegration test tools. Evidence is in favour of causality running from real gross domestic product to enrollment in higher education but the causality relation between real gross domestic product and school teachers seems neutral.Key words: Enrollment in higher education; Teachers in lower secondary and secondary schools; Real GDP; Unit root; Cointegration; Granger causality; NepalEconomic Journal of Development IssuesVol. 11 & 12 No. 1-2 (2010) Combined IssuePage: 69-91Uploaded date: 10 April, 2012

The effect of the affirmative action policy on higher educational enrolment in India is addressed here. This article tries to identify the factors that play important roles in enhancing the enrolment of young people from ethnically disadvantaged groups, specifically Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) in higher education. Using the probit regression technique, it finds that females from ST communities have a lower chance of enrolling in higher education. Conversely, the probability of young females participating in higher education is higher in the OBC community. At the household level, household income, smaller family size and household location increase the probability of enrolment in higher education among young individuals from the three castes considered. Furthermore, a larger number of higher educational institutions and increased government spending on higher education also contribute to higher enrolment rates for young individuals from these socioeconomically disadvantaged households.

We study the impact of socio-economic status on enrollment and study decisions in higher education. We use a discrete choice approach to distinguish between three channels. First, students from disadvantaged backgrounds may be more sensitive to the costs of education. Second, they may have lower preferences for education. Third, they may have developed less academic ability during previous schooling and are therefore less likely to participate. We apply our analysis to Flanders, where tuition fees are low and all high school graduates have access to higher education. We control for unobserved heterogeneity and find that preferences and (acquired) ability are more important than cost sensitivity in explaining the lower enrollment of disadvantaged students. Finally, we use the cost sensitivity channel to simulate the impact of tuition fee increases. We find that a uniform tuition fee increase has a fairly small impact on total enrollment, but it especially reduces enrollment of socially disadvantaged students. An alternative discriminatory policy, which combines a higher tuition fee increase for advantaged students with a lower tuition fee increase for disadvantaged students, can be superior: it generates the same budgetary savings, has a lower impact on total enrollment and reduces the participation gap of disadvantaged students.

ABSTRACT: India's higher education landscape has witnessed rapid expansion and diversification, reflecting its aspirations for socioeconomic progress and individual empowerment. However, understanding the key factors influencing enrolment, particularly for young girls, remains complex. This study investigates the household-specific and state-specific factors that affect young students' enrolment, with a focus on female participation in higher education. Using Probit Regression analysis, the study leverages data from various sources, such as the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), National Family Health Survey (NFHS4), the Ministry of Education's budget reports (2016-2019), the All India Survey on Higher Education (2017-18), and the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS 2017-18). Household factors, including ethnicity, household size, household income level, household location, distance from higher education institutions, and technology access (e.g., computer ownership), are examined alongside state-level variables such as public expenditure on education and women's empowerment initiatives. By focusing on both household and state-level variables, the study captures a comprehensive picture of the factors influencing higher education enrolment among young females in India. The analysis reveals that young females in India are more likely to enroll in higher education than their male counterparts. Household income and computer ownership are significant positive predictors, particularly for female students. Additionally, factors such as the state's expenditure on higher education and women's empowerment policies boost female enrolment, especially in urban areas. Interestingly, longer distances from educational institutions do not deter enrolment among urban females. Conversely, high workforce participation rates and educational loans have a negative effect on enrolment, regardless of gender. In terms of affirmative action, it is observed that reservations for different types of backward classes in India, such as Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes, during the time of enrolment in higher education, create discouraging effects among female students. To promote higher female enrolment, policy interventions should focus on improving public expenditure on education and promoting the empowerment of mothers through education. Additionally, reforming affirmative action policies may be necessary to mitigate their unintended adverse effects on female students. Lastly, efforts to enhance women's empowerment and safety in urban spaces could further strengthen enrolment rates among young women.

This article examines the extent to which science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subject choice in upper secondary education explains gender differences in STEM enrollment in higher education. We adopt a cross-country approach using Germany, Ireland, and Scotland as three case studies. These countries differ in terms of both the degree of subject choice offered in upper secondary education and the relevance for higher education admission of having studied specific school subjects. Using datasets of young people from all three countries, our results indicate a stronger mediation of school subjects for Scotland than in Germany and Ireland and a remarkable gender gap in STEM enrollment in all three countries. We conclude that females studying science subjects within upper secondary education appears to be a necessary but not a sufficient condition to ensure gender equality in progression to STEM fields.

Higher education, elite institutions and inequality