Widening access and student non‐completion: an inevitable link? Evaluating the effects of the Top‐Up Programme on student completion

Introduction This article seeks to present and illuminate empirically a model of policymaking in an area of emerging, if little appreciated, importance, namely, state policies affecting private (nonprofit) higher education. Further, it shows the interesting implications of this model and the associated empirical results for policy in this area now as many states enter an era of sharply increased demand for higher education but limited resources to pay for new capacity [65, 67]. The basic idea is that state policy postures toward private higher education can tend toward one of three nodes: * laissez-faire, in which state policies largely ignore the private sector; * central planning, in which state policies involve the private sector substantially, use private institutions to play carefully planned and enforced roles in the state system and pay for this involvement financially via such means as direct subventions to private institutions and aid to their students; * market-competitive, in which state policies also seek to take account of and utilize the private collegiate sector, but in which the state plays much less of a planning, allocative, and regulatory role than under central planning and instead employs market forces and signals (e.g., portable student aid grants, lower subsidies built into public institution tuitions, information policies) to guide allocation of programs, students, and resources. The analysis matches individual states' policies empirically to these constructs (or in some cases to hybrids of them) and then considers how well each policy set fits the circumstances of the states that employ it. The key broad conclusion of the empirical analysis is that the market-competitive constellation of policies is associated with the most attractive combination of policy outcomes: high participation rates in higher education, reasonable quality in public higher education, and a healthy private sector providing choice to students, all at only average levels of taxpayer spending (per capita) on higher education and well below-average levels of taxation overall. Assuming these associations are some guide to the future, then the market-competitive states seem to be well positioned to face the emerging era of rapid growth in demand for higher education that many states will encounter without depending solely on costly expansion of public colleges and universities. This conclusion squares with the common-sense idea that it should be cheaper to meet some part of large new enrollment capacity requirements by directing some students toward private higher education (even at some financial cost to the state) than to meet all the demand by expanding space in the public sector. The laissez-faire states, in contrast, though they also include a number of states that face rapid growth in demand for higher education, appear to be poorly positioned by virtue of their policy histories and current policies to cope with such a period of growth cost-effectively. These states have generally experienced rapid population growth in recent years but only slow growth in their private higher education enrollments (which tend to be relatively small, though in most cases not insignificant). Their spending on public higher education per student (a crude indicator of quality) and their overall participation rates in higher education tend to be near the national average, but it seems unlikely that these performances can be sustained in the face of strong demand growth, for this is both the poorest group of states and the one already making on average the highest overall effort. Yet these states also spend well above average per capita on higher education. Thus, the analysis suggests that these states need to rethink their higher education policies, particularly those affecting the private sector, if they are to cope effectively in the new era of increased demands and tightly constrained state tax revenues. …

The increasing participation rate in higher education has raised its own issues, such as how to fund the growth while retaining the quality of education. In Finland, it has been argued that the tuition-free higher education policy increases equality. On the other hand, in the United Kingdom, establishing a system of tuition fees supported by an income-contingent loan system for students has also been argued to increase equality. In Australia, students also face high tuition fees for higher education, as well as a support system focused on domestic students. In addition to tuition fees, entrance examinations also play a crucial part in higher education systems. In order to examine inequalities in higher education from the students’ point of view, tuition fees are scrutinised in connection with equality, and entrance examinations in relation to cultural reproduction. Comparing examples of higher music education institutions in Finland, the United Kingdom, and Australia shows that there are large differences between the tuition fees charged for domestic and international students, as well as between countries. Entrance examinations in higher music education are similar in these countries, but may include inequalities based on long traditions in the field of music, especially in classical music. By revealing misconceptions about equity in higher education, it is possible to have a critical debate about the role of tuition fee systems as they are connected with the economics of higher education, and about entrance examinations as reproducing social class inequalities. This discussion may contribute to the redefinition and reformation of more equitable and just education systems, and promote equality in general in society.

SummaryThe paper makes use of newly linked administrative education data from England to understand better the determinants of participation in higher education (HE) among individuals from low socio-economic backgrounds. The data are unique in being able to follow the population of two cohorts of pupils in England—those who might have entered HE between 2004–2005 and 2006–2007—from age 11 to age 20 years. The findings suggest that, although large differences in HE participation rates and participation rates at high status universities by socio-economic background remain, these differences are substantially reduced once prior achievement is included. Moreover, these findings hold for both state and private school pupils. This result suggests that poor achievement in secondary schools is more important in explaining lower HE participation rates among pupils from low socio-economic backgrounds than barriers arising at the point of entry to HE. These findings are consistent with the need for earlier policy intervention to raise HE participation rates among pupils from low socio-economic backgrounds.

In this article, detailed data are presented to indicate the growing participation rates in higher education in seven countries – France, Germany, Japan, The Netherlands, Sweden, the UK and the USA. The author argues that participation rates in higher education will continue to increase and that, while such growth will not be unconstrained and indefinite, it will continue for the forseeable future and therefore must be reckoned with in the development of higher education policies. The notion that higher education can increasingly be funded from private sources is challenged on the basis that private funding is very largely geared to research and service activities, which generate the funds, rather than to teaching. The trend curves that are presented here, showing increasing participation and an increase in private funding, are therefore ‘dangerous’, in that the ‘education’ component of higher education is threatened with erosion.

This rapid evidence review examines women's participation rates in Higher Education (HE) and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) across the Middle East North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia regions, alongside socio-economic development indicators. It highlights link between gender equality and sustainable development, stressing the need for equal access to education, economic resources, and political participation for women. Drawing on UNESCO and UNDP data, the review outlines global commitments and provides country-level data, categorised by income groups.

Will foreseeable demographic change lead to savings in the educational sector? This question is investigated in a retrospective perspective on the basis of data from Saxony-Anhalt, the German state with the largest population decline since reunification. The results show that we can observe economisation strategies in the face of lower cohort sizes in most subsectors of the education system. These strategies are, however, not always (directly) attributable to demographic decline. Moreover, there is considerable variation in the demographic responsiveness of education demand and supply. While infrastructures can be said to have been adapted to declining demand in early childhood education, schools, and vocational education, demand for higher education has been rising almost continuously over the last 25 years. This rise points not only to a growing demand for higher education after the end of the GDR, which had rationed higher education, it also points to recent political policies to raise the traditionally low participation rates in higher education in Germany. The partially observable economisation strategies in higher education are attributable to more general strategies of rationalising public administration in the (post)transformation process and to demographic decline affecting state revenues via a decreasing tax base and intergovernmental transfers.

Research of The Combination of Production and Education In Higher Vocational Education In The Period of Economic Transition

Countries around the world have witnessed educational expansion at all levels. UK participation rates in Higher Education in the UK continue to increase with The Higher Education Initial Participation Rate (HEIPR) an estimate of the likelihood of a young person participating in Higher Education by the age of 30 reaching 49.8 % in 2016/17. Despite almost half of young people in the UK today expected to access Higher Education barriers identified 70 years ago including gender, financial resource, limited curriculum, race and ethnic background still present a significant challenge. This paper focuses on socio-economic factors, their negative impact on university entry, and presents initial findings from an initiative aimed at overcoming these issues. Scottish Government policy states that by 2030, twenty percent of students entering university should come from Scotland’s 20 percent most deprived areas. Engineering education faces a significant challenge in meeting these targets with entry typically requiring top grades in mathematics and physics. Attainment and the number of pupils studying subjects is well below average in low progression schools (schools with below a given percentage of pupils progressing to further and higher education). As a result those in the most deprived 20% of Scotland areas Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD 20) are currently under-represented in Engineering Higher Education. A number of existing approaches to addressing the problem have been implemented with some success. These include outreach projects with low progression schools to build relationships through workshops and mentoring, encouraging awareness, confidence and personal development. Other solutions include programmes that offer direct entry through formal partnerships with further education colleges. Additionally, many Universities make ‘contextual offers’ dependant on applicant postcode lower entry requirements for those living in the most deprived areas. Whilst these approaches are useful in raising applications and university entry from SIMD 20 areas there are some challenges. Certain students who enter university through these programmes can struggle with self confidence in comparison to high UCAS point scoring class mates entering university by ‘traditional’ pathways. Others can find it difficult to cope with classes involving mathematics, physics and their application such as mechanics, thermodynamics and electrical concepts etc. This paper will describe a pilot initiative in which engineering students from diverse disciplines are supporting pupils in low progression schools to raise their attainment before entering university. This pilot initiative partners four low progression schools located in inner city Glasgow with the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Strathclyde. Second to fifth year engineering students have been ‘paired’ with school pupils sitting SQA examinations in late Spring 2019. They meet once a week during school term time to provide mentoring and one-to-one tuition in maths and physics. Raising attainment to enable university entry and providing a firm foundation for university engineering study. Early findings from the pilot will be reported including lessons learnt which will be useful for other Higher Education establishments wishing to implement similar schemes.

Indigenous Australians are underrepresented and considerably disadvantaged within the Australian system of higher education. The various measures taken by Australian universities over the past decades have produced varying levels of success in increasing Indigenous participation and completion rates. In order to continue improving Indigenous Australian participation in higher education, it is important to understand the current patterns of participation and factors within universities that are associated with participation and success. In this article we analyse higher education student and staff statistics available from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) and information sourced from the web sites of 40 Australian universities to examine correlations between various Indigenous student support mechanisms and Indigenous students' higher education participation rates. Our results indicate that there is a dual system of Indigenous higher education, with one group of universities excelling at attracting Indigenous students, and a different group of universities demonstrating high Indigenous student completion rates. We argue that challenges remain in determining how to increase commencements at universities with high Indigenous completion rates without compromising entrance requirements or further diluting the level of student support, and how to increase completion rates at universities with higher numbers of Indigenous students.

Purpose Global issues related to Inclusive Education in higher education cover various aspects, including accessibility, financial support and policy gaps. Data from UNESCO shows that about 15% of the world’s population has a disability, but in many countries, their participation rate in higher education is still very low. The urgent need to establish a genuinely accessible and inclusive higher education environment for all high education, including those with impairments. This study aims to identify building inclusive education in higher education: a systematic literature review of strategic approaches, technology, management and learning outcomes. Design/methodology/approach This study followed PRISMA guidelines for systematic literature reviews. The strings are based on the paper title’s keywords, emphasizing instructor performance and competency. Higher education requires strategic methods, technology integration, effective management and better learning results. Findings This study concludes that 1) ensure that every student has non-discriminatory, equal access to resources and learning opportunities. 2) implementation policies to support accessibility support for students with disabilities, 3) a framework for designing learning tasks and activities, 4) an integrated approach to interdisciplinarity in education for sustainable development, 5) emerging trends in research on inclusive virtual education, 6) provide insights and strategies to foster diversity and inclusion in higher education and 7) the role of virtual assistive technology in inclusive higher education. Originality/value This study concluded that inclusive policies, technology and management practices can improve education for all students, including impairments, assistive technology helps learning-disabled pupils compete.

The article analyses an innovative scheme for the re-organization of school governance that sought to enhance the voice of community members and contribute towards the improvement of educational achievement. The scheme was located in the north of England, a region characterized by high levels of social disadvantage and low participation rates in higher education. The research adopted a case study methodology informed by observation, minutes of governors’ meetings, training workshops, conferences, face-to-face interviews, online surveys and local authority (LA) documentation. The fieldwork was conducted in 2007—2008. The findings suggest that although aspects of community engagement are present they are inhibited by a number of factors operating at the strategic level in LA policy. This results in an aspirational model of school governance that reflects traditional practices in which the LA intercedes as the indispensable broker and external agent for innovation and change. In order to move away from the restrictions of this approach the LA needs to expand its strategies to involve members of the community in governance and develop mechanisms to devolve greater decision-making power to the community.

The low participation rate in higher education in Indonesia remains a major challenge, particularly among students from underprivileged socioeconomic backgrounds. Programs such as KIP-Kuliah are part of the government's efforts to expand educational access, although various implementation challenges persist. At Universitas Pembangunan Nasional “Veteran” Jawa Timur, the number of KIP-Kuliah applicants consistently exceeds the available quota each year, necessitating a selection system that supports fair and accurate decision-making. This study aims to develop a web-based decision support system to assist in the selection process of KIP-Kuliah recipients more systematically. The method combines Rank Order Centroid (ROC) to assign weights to each criterion based on priority ranking and Multi-Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT) to calculate the final score for each alternative. The ranking results are then adjusted according to the recipient quota set for each study program accreditation. Evaluation results show that the system achieved a 96.67% accuracy rate compared to the institution’s manual selection results, indicating its effectiveness in supporting decision-making that is objective, efficient, and transparent.

This study aims to promote the development of vocational education in our country energetically. The analysis is followed by introducing the course of development on vocational and technical education in Britain and summarizing the successful experience of vocation in our country with strengthening the funding and legislation for the state of vocational education as well as putting forward suggestions for reform and innovation of education to improve the system of certificates.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate effects of the market mechanism on the structural changes in the British higher education system, focusing on the differentiation of positions and functions between Pre-1992Universities and Former Polytechnic Universities.From the late 1980s there was a rapid expansion of higher education in Britain.Age participation rates in higher education approximately doubled during a period of less than ten years.This expansion meant a structural change from an elite into a mass system.In this “massification” process, the British government transformed its higher education system into a unitary system from a binary one under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992. In this Act, many of the public sector higher education institutions (mainly Polytechnics) were given university status. As a result of these reforms, about half of the universities we see today were upgraded from Polytechnics after 1992. Today, the unified university sector is comprised of institutions that originally had different histories and missions.

The global expansion of participation rates in higher education continue more or less unabated. However, while the concept of lifelong learning has figured prominently in national and international educational policy discourse for more than three decades, its implications for the field of higher education has remained relatively underdeveloped. This book focuses on a particular dimension of the lifelong learning: higher education for those who have not progressed directly from school to higher education. Some will embark on undergraduate programmes as mature students, part-time and/or distance students; others wish to return to higher education after having completed (or not completed) a previous academic programme, while increasing numbers participate in postgraduate and continuing studies for a complex mix of professional and personal reasons. Adopting a comparative and international longitudinal perspective which goes beyond a snapshot view by building on the cases of a core group of ten OECD countries, this timely book investigates the ways in which important new developments impacting on higher education crystallise around the lifelong learning agenda: • new technology and open source resources; • the changing role of the state and market in higher education; • the blurring of public and private boundaries; • issues of equity and access in a time of global economic turmoil; • the increased emphasis on research and international league tables; • the changing nature of the education; and, • the complex interaction of international, national and regional expectations which governments and other stakeholders have of universities and other public and private institutions of higher education. While focusing on the situation in Canada, USA, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and a wide variety of European countries, the book also assesses the issues from the perspective of developing countries. Launched by the Irish Minister of Education, this timely book is a must read. Find out more here: http://www4.dcu.ie/ovpli/herc/book_launch. © 2012 selection and editorial material, M. Slowey and H. Schuetze.