Access To Higher Education Research Articles

The Impact of Financial Aid Programmes on Access to Higher Education in Ugandan Universities

In Uganda, limited financial resources often obstruct higher education opportunities, particularly for those with modest incomes. Various financial aid initiatives have been introduced in an attempt to rectify this issue for equitable access. This study aimed to investigate the impact of financial aid initiatives on higher education accessibility, guided by two main research questions: (1) To what extent do financial aid programmes bolster access to higher education? (2) What challenges do students face in accessing financial aid for higher education? Employing a mixed-methods approach, data on enrollment into higher education institutions in Uganda were extracted from a National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) 2020 report for an overview into impacts of financial aid on access to higher education. For contextual and in-depth insight into the impacts of financial aid programmes on access to higher education, secondary data on loan schemes in two public universities and the Kabaka Education Fund in a private university were obtained and analysed using descriptive statistics. To understand the experiences and perspectives of financial aid programme recipients, qualitative interviews were conducted with a sample of 138 beneficiaries, including 12 individual recipients and 13 focus group discussions (FGDs) that involved 126 progressing recipients with about 9–10 persons per group from the three selected universities, whose responses were analysed using thematic content analysis. The results revealed that much as financial aid programmes have improved access to higher education in Ugandan universities, most financial services remain accessible primarily to wealthier individuals owing to barriers including application procedures, expenditure, discriminatory practices, limited information, a negative attitude towards aid and demotivation. The study recommends prioritising strategies that address the needs of a diverse student population to ensure equitable access to higher education, thereby promoting human progress, economic development, and the achievement of sustainable development goals.

The Impact of Financial Aid Programmes on Access to Higher Education in Ugandan Universities

In Uganda, limited financial resources often obstruct higher education opportunities, particularly for those with modest incomes. Various financial aid initiatives have been introduced in an attempt to rectify this issue for equitable access. This study aimed to investigate the impact of financial aid initiatives on higher education accessibility, guided by two main research questions: (1) To what extent do financial aid programmes bolster access to higher education? (2) What challenges do students face in accessing financial aid for higher education? Employing a mixed-methods approach, data on enrolment into higher education institutions in Uganda were extracted from a National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) 2020 report for an overview into impacts of financial aid on access to higher education. For contextual and in-depth insight into the impacts of financial aid programmes on access to higher education, secondary data on loan schemes in two public universities and the Kabaka Education Fund in a private university were obtained and analysed using descriptive statistics. To understand the experiences and perspectives of financial aid programme recipients, qualitative interviews were conducted with a sample of 138 beneficiaries, including 12 individual recipients and 13 focus group discussions (FGDs) that involved 126 progressing recipients with about 9–10 persons per group from the three selected universities, whose responses were analysed using thematic content analysis. The results revealed that much as financial aid programmes have improved access to higher education in Ugandan universities, most financial services remain accessible primarily to wealthier individuals owing to barriers including application procedures, expenditure, discriminatory practices, limited information, a negative attitude towards aid and demotivation. The study recommends prioritising strategies that address the needs of a diverse student population to ensure equitable access to higher education, thereby promoting human progress, economic development, and the achievement of sustainable development goals.

A scoping review of supports on college and university campuses for autistic post-secondary students

Given the demand to better address the principles of equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility in higher education, research into both barriers and promising practices to support autistic students on post-secondary campuses has advanced significantly in the last decade. The objective of this scoping review is to identify, map, and characterize literature that enumerates and describes supports for autistic post-secondary students. This scoping review was limited to peer-reviewed research published between January 2012 and May 2022, in these databases: Web of Science, PsycINFO, Medline, EMBASE, ERIC, Social Work Abstracts, Social Services Abstracts, and EMCARE. The review aligns to Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews and includes consultation with an expert panel made up of the Autistic Community Partners–four autistic individuals with postsecondary experience who acted as co-researchers. Literature on creating accessible campuses were mapped in three ways: (1) through the four domains of the PASS Taxonomy; (2) ten support categories characterizing types of supports, and (3) nine emergent themes, based on autistic experiences on support and campus navigation, were inductively and iteratively coded throughout process. This review summarizes both areas that have been researched and under-studied areas in the literature that act as contributors or challenges for autistic students on postsecondary campuses. It was also the first scoping review, to our knowledge, to integrate lived experience within the methods and results analysis to describe the current state of the evidence on post-secondary campuses. Mapping the literature in known and emerging categories indicated that broad categories of support are experienced variably by autistic students. Findings provide multiple avenues for future research.

Взаимосвязь образования и финансового поведения

The article considers the issue of the relationship between higher education and financial behavior of citizens of the Russian Federation. The points of view formed in the scientific literature on the factors determining the rationality of financial behavior. In addition, the role of education and training as a tool for the formation of responsible financial behavior of the population are presented. The observed manifestation of financial behavior was the demand for financial services provided by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, as well as data on the availability of higher education, which were reflected in the All-Russian Population Census of 2020. As a result of the study, five groups of indicators were formed: accounts of individuals; placement of funds by individuals; loans /loans of individuals; payment services; insurance. The calculations were carried out in the context of the Federal Districts of the Russian Federation and allowed us to identify the following connections: strong direct (fixed for all groups of indicators), average direct (all except insurance), feedback (placement of funds by individuals; loans/loans of individuals) and weak communication (accounts of individuals; placement of funds by individuals; loans/loans of individuals). The presence of higher education shows a noticeable connection with the consumption by households and individuals of such services as: remote service and non-cash payments, exchange investments, deposits in banks, insurance protection. The level of involvement in interaction with the banking system, loans and overdue debts in non-bank financial organizations are at a comparable level in all federal districts. The higher the level of education, the lower the interest in such services as: placement of funds in micro-credit organizations and credit consumer cooperatives, loans that are small in volume and time taken in credit consumer cooperatives without the use of remote technologies. The assumption that higher education helps residents of Russia to make long-term decisions, avoid mistakes and follow models of responsible financial behavior has been empirically confirmed.

‘It’s a lot of shame’: understanding the impact of gender-based violence on higher education access and participation

ABSTRACT This paper draws on new empirical research examining the impact of gender-based violence (GBV) on students' experiences of higher education. While GBV across the life-course is an extremely prevalent and pressing social problem, it has been invisible within higher education. Indeed, experiences of GBV, which may profoundly shape access to and participation in higher education, are largely perceived as irrelevant to student equity, unless experienced on campus. Institutional silence around the impact of GBV on student equity is related to the gender injustice of misrecognition, whereby the social problem of GBV is located at the personal level. This manifests in the social emotion of shame, experienced at the personal level as disconnection, isolation and not belonging. This paper draws from our analysis of 47 in-depth interviews with student victim/survivors exploring their experiences of higher education to illuminate how deficit discourses and stigmatisation intersect to reproduce gender injustice in higher education.

The Study of Higher Education in the Regions of Kazakhstan: Analysis of Tools and Indicators

This study aimed to analyse the state of higher education in the regions of Kazakhstan based on an integrated approach according to use of statistical methods and aggregation of empirical data. In this study, the focus is on assessing the level of development of higher education institutions in Kazakhstan based on the selected three groups of variables: enrollment in higher education institutions; subjects and objects of higher professional education (number of teaching staff, number of students, number of universities); provision of services (budget, population, enterprises). The research design was divided into three stages: data collection, analysis and recommendations. The data sample from 2010 to 2021 was taken from the annual statistical yearbooks of the Republic of Kazakhstan. In this study based on a comprehensive review of the above variables, it is proposed to conduct an analysis at the following three stages: data collection, definitions of the initial data and evaluation of the time period; sampling of initial data, analysis of collected data and interpretation; description of the results obtained; conclusions and recommendations. The practical results of the study and conclusions can be used by government agencies in the analysis and forecasting of the development of the education system in the region. The data obtained showed that there are differences in the availability of higher education in different regions of Kazakhstan. High rates in the cities of Astana and Almaty may be associated with their status as the capital and the largest city, respectively.

The impact of country of schooling and gender on secondary school students’ conceptions of and interest in becoming an engineer in Ireland, Kenya and Sweden

BackgroundGiven the disparities in gender representation, efforts are needed to make engineering education more inclusive and attractive to young people. It is important that those entering engineering education are making this decision with sufficient understanding of what it means to be an engineer. This study explored how lower secondary education students from Ireland (n = 435), Kenya (n = 436), and Sweden (n = 361) stereotyped engineers, and their interest in becoming an engineer was examined. The Draw an Engineer Test was used to achieve this, and ordinal and logistic regression analyses were conducted to compare the effects of students’ genders and country of schooling on the genders and concepts of their drawn engineers, and on their interest in becoming an engineer in the future.ResultsA Sankey diagram illustrated significant complexity in the interaction between conceptions of engineering work and fields of engineering. Chi-square tests of association were used to examine the association between students depicting an engineer as either the same or a different gender to themselves and their interest in becoming an engineer. The results of these and the regression analyses indicate that young people’s gender explains more variance in the gender of drawn engineers and the country they are studying in explains more variance in their conception of engineers. However, most variance was explained when both students’ gender and country of study were considered together. Further, particularly for young females, drawing a female engineer as opposed to a male engineer was positively associated with increased interest in becoming an engineer.ConclusionsThere is a need to develop a greater understanding of engineering in young people to ensure they have sufficient information to make decisions regarding related educational pursuits. National-level attempts are needed to present accurate depictions of engineering, and effort needs to be invested in ensuring that young females can identify as engineers. Higher educational access needs to be considered in future work examining future career interests.

ОРГАНІЗАЦІЯ ДИСТАНЦІЙНОГО ТА ЗМІШАНОГО НАВЧАННЯ В ЗАКЛАДАХ ВИЩОЇ ОСВІТИ ЗАСОБАМИ ХМАРНИХ СЕРВІСІВ

The article examines the theoretical and practical aspects of the application of cloud services in the process of IT training of students of higher education institutions during distance and mixed learning. In recent years, the national education system has faced a number of problems related to the organization of the educational process in the conditions of quarantine restrictions, military operations and the need to ensure the quality and availability of higher education. In particular, among the main activities of the teaching staff is the search for and effective use of modern technologies, methods and means of organizing distance and mixed forms of education. In today's realities, the distance and, later, the mixed form of education have become an integral part of the organization of the educational process of higher education institutions in Ukraine. Regardless of the specifics of the training of higher education applicants, training is, to varying degrees, based on the use of remote technologies and cloud services. There is a sufficient number of educational materials management systems (LCMS Moodle, ATutor, NEO LMS, etc.) and cloud services (Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, etc.) to support and organize the educational process. Among a large number of various systems and services, it is advisable to pay attention to the Microsoft Teams cloud service, as it is integrated with other Microsoft tools. An analysis of the functionality of the Microsoft Teams cloud service, which is the "core" of the virtual learning environment, was carried out. The advantages of its use are highlighted and the expediency of introducing cloud services into the educational process is substantiated. General approaches to the use of the Microsoft Teams cloud service are proposed, in particular, the organization and division of academic groups, methods of communication between participants in the educational process, methods of presenting methodical and educational materials, methods of evaluating the results of educational activities. According to the results of the research, it can be stated that the use of cloud services during distance and mixed learning can fully ensure the assimilation of the theoretical and practical aspects of computer science disciplines, regardless of certain problems in the self-organization of students. In our opinion, it is caused by the lack of direct student-teacher communication, which is obvious in the case of distance education.

STEM salaries in Russia: the importance of human capital and institutional factors

In the age of digital transformation, there is an increasing discussion about human resource shortages. In particular, IT professionals, and specialists in science and technology (STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) in general. One of the decisive factors in attracting and retaining a highly skilled workforce is the level of compensation, so it is important to understand what determinants affect its level in Russia, which is the focus of this study. The influence of human capital (special experience and availability of higher education) and institutional factors (organization size, economic sector, organization profile) were considered. The data of the National Research University Higher School of Economics Russian Monitoring of Economic Situation and Health for 2010–2020 were used for the analysis. The paper presents a detailed description of the final sample (N = 4 674). The J. Mintzer wage equation is used as the main econometric model. The results show that the level of financial compensation increases when a STEM specialist has higher education, works in a large and commercial organization. Work experience has no effect on compensation. The profile of the organization (technical or not) also did not show an unambiguous result in this study.

Coming Over and An Ethics of Accessibility

This review grapples with the ongoing mental health crisis in higher education to contextualize Allison Hitt’s Rhetorics of Overcoming: Narratives of Disability and Accessibility in Writing Studies. In her text, Hitt acknowledges institutional barriers to access and accommodations while arguing that to meet the crisis, instructors must employ an ethics of accessibility that enables multiple points of engagement with class content. According to Hitt, to create institution-al change, instructors must work with students in a process of coming over. Hitt’s process of coming over actively engages the participation of disabled students in facilitating their learning. This review engages with Hitt’s text alongside a consideration of a discussion around mental illness and accessibility in higher education.

Доступность высшего образования как принцип государственной образовательной политики: перспективы институционализации

Доступность высшего образования как принцип государственной образовательной политики: перспективы институционализации

Digital transformation strategy for developing higher education in conflict-affected societies

Armed conflict is an evolution in reverse that significantly damages infrastructure, displaces students and faculty, and limits access to resources, necessitating innovative solutions. This research uses Syria as a case study to investigate the potential of a digital transformation strategy to revitalize the higher education system in war-ravaged regions. It proposes a digital transformation framework utilizing a mixed-method approach, including literature reviews, expert interviews, and case analysis, to identify critical challenges faced by Syrian higher education institutions. The framework focuses on developing digital infrastructure, capacity building for educators, e-learning platforms, digital content, and public-private partnerships that increase education access, foster collaboration, enable remote learning and enhance global competitiveness in war-torn areas. The e-learning platforms component explores the potential of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), Learning Management Systems (LMS), and blended learning approaches to enhance the quality and accessibility of higher education. The digital content component highlights the importance of open educational resources, digital libraries, and virtual labs to support learning. Finally, the capacity building component addresses the need for training and upskilling educators and administrators to implement digital solutions effectively. The proposed framework is a roadmap for policymakers, educators, and international organizations to develop and implement digital solutions supporting long-term recovery and growth in conflict-affected areas.

THE IMPACT OF SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS AND SCHOOL TYPE ON ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION

THE IMPACT OF SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS AND SCHOOL TYPE ON ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION

Features of demand for educational services of higher education and assessment of its availability

One of the characteristics of the quality of life is the degree to which the population meets social needs, including educational needs. The policy of access to education is part of the social policy of the state, it affects the process of human capital formation. The availability of higher education (the availability of state-funded places and the availability of paid educational services) tends to decrease. A decrease in the number of universities helps to improve the quality of admission while reducing the quality of the educational services themselves of higher education. As a result, there is a tendency to shrink the educational space of Russia following the compression of the economic space in the country’s large cities. This may contribute to increasing regional educational, technological and socio-economic inequality in the regions of the Russian Federation.

Evidence-Based Pathways for Leveling Digital Access in Higher Education During and Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic

Evidence-Based Pathways for Leveling Digital Access in Higher Education During and Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic

Exploring the spatial dimensions of college retention within the context of inequality

Exploring the spatial dimensions of college student retention is critical in order to fully understand the motivation of students dropping out; yet, the literature lacks a comprehensive spatial analysis. This study aims to assess the impact of a combination of spatial and institutional predictors on college student retention. A key finding of this research is that the geo-spatial location of a public four-year university in the US is an important determinant of student persistence. Distance to the closest metropolitan area, number of universities within close proximity and local unemployment rate where an institution is located not only impact freshman retention but also reveal important implications for barriers to equal access in higher education. We suggest that administrators and policy makers consider the spatial factors while determining the best management practices and policy tools to address problems pertaining not only to retention but also the accessibility issues in higher education. student retention, spatial, inequality, affordability, selectivity

Increasing Accessibility to Academic Library Services with Alt Text, Color Contrast, Captioning, and Transcripts in YouTube Tutorials

Accessibility of library resources and services in academic libraries is fundamental to serving the discovery and scholarship needs of students and faculty, regardless of disability status. Equitable access in higher education affects student grades and retention, and within the library, involves making library buildings, video tutorials, library instruction, the website, Libguides, and resources accessible to students. Accessibility is vital for disabled students to obtain a college degree. It complies with federal law while improving access to education for all students, such as English as a second language students, undiagnosed disabled students, and students with different learning styles. This article focuses on how using alt text, color contrast analysis, closed captioning, and transcripts can improve the accessibility of library video tutorials, assisting the disabled and non-disabled students alike in their discovery and scholarship.

Can earmarked admission places help address the perceived rural disadvantage in higher education access? Evidence from Romania

ABSTRACT The perceived disadvantage faced by high school students from rural areas in pursuing higher education is often associated with the fact that these areas are by default affected by socio-economic disadvantages. The analysis of the results from the high school baccalaureate examination for Romania, which is mandatory for admission to higher education, and which plays a major role in ranking the applicants, shows the potential outcomes of the university admission policy targeting high school baccalaureate holders from rural areas. Under different scenarios, this can lead to either targeted admission places being allocated to students that would have been otherwise successfully admitted by competing on general admission places or could have helped students from other disadvantaged backgrounds. These results may help as a basis for guiding policy designs that can better target admission places for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Dependency of Local People on Forest Products: A Case Study in Balipara Reserve Forest, North-Eastern India

The dependency of local people on forest products is recognised as an essential driver of sustainable forest conservation and restoration, but empirical studies evaluating it are scant. This study aimed to examine selected household attributes as determinants of people's dependency on forest products in selected villages in Balipara Reserve Forest, Assam, India. A total of 109 households were interviewed through a questionnaire survey in Dharikati and Sopaloga village, along with key informed interviews and focus group discussions with the villagers and government staff. A village-level logit model was used to analyse the pattern and degree of reliance on forest products in the two villages differing in socio-economic profiles. Results suggest that education level, livestock size, and distance to the forest as the key factors that are negatively and significantly associated with forest dependency in Dharikati; whereas, only landholding size was negatively and significantly associated with forest dependency in Sopaloga. On the other hand, the other two variables, family size and age, were insignificant. The income derived from forest has been accounted second-largest share after agricultural income to the total annual household income. Fuelwood was the major forest product and was largely extracted by the local communities. Thus, the results endorse policymakers and the forest department to take initiatives towards higher education accessibility, provision of alternative livelihood portfolios, availability of efficient sources of energy, introduction of advanced agricultural tools and encouraging the active participation of locals in biodiversity conservation and forest management.

Creation of a Novel Biomedical Engineering Research Course for Incarcerated Students

Options for incarcerated individuals to participate in higher education in prison programs (HEPPs) have expanded in recent years to include courses in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, however these students remain an underserved population in the United States. Thus, there are opportunities to expand the available offerings, increase the diversity of coursework available by introducing subjects such as biomedical engineering (BME), and include cocurricular and extracurricular activities widely considered critical components of undergraduate training including research experiences. As such, a year-long program was developed to introduce students pursuing a bachelor’s degree in an HEPP through an R1 institution to research principles in BME. This course introduced students to disciplines within BME, offered opportunities to gain research experience as knowledge-creators, and supported engagement with a scientific learning community. Using a student-centered approach, the course was designed to incorporate activities for reflection, goal setting, and dialogue among participants and sought to leverage students’ funds of knowledge and areas of personal scientific interest. This course represents a transferable model for offering BME courses and research-centered opportunities to students enrolled in other HEPPs and an opportunity to promote equity and access in higher education.