Expansion Of Higher Education Research Articles

Complex trajectories in higher education students: online and face-to-face universities

Expansion in higher education and changes in student profiles have led to an increase in non-linear trajectories that do not fit into a time frame considered standard. However, universities continue to establish success and failure parameters relating to performance indicators that do not consider the heterogeneity of trajectories. The theoretical perspective on which we base our work is the complexity approach, which resituates what we understand as a trajectory of success (and failure), incorporating a broader view to better understand how students navigate through higher education. Based on research on university dropout and changes of trajectory, we present the results of a study carried out using sequence analysis in face-to-face and online universities. The research question on which this study focuses is whether, given the context of greater heterogeneity and complexity, there could be a greater similarity between the students’ trajectories in face-to-face and online modalities in relation to complex trajectories. The results show that complex trajectories are very present in both modalities, and differences are observed according to students’ gender and age. A key conclusion is the discussion on how we consider success and failure student trajectories in the contemporary university taking into account the perspective of complexity.

Does extending school time reduce the juvenile pregnancy rate? A longitudinal analysis of Ceará State (Brazil)

PurposeAdolescent pregnancy stands as a societal challenge, compelling young individuals to prematurely discontinue their education. Conversely, an expansion of high school education can potentially diminish rates of adolescent pregnancy, given that educational attainment stands as the foremost risk factor influencing sexual initiation, the use of contraceptive methods during initial sexual encounters and fertility. The aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of the implementation of the public educational policy introducing full-time schools (FTS) for high schools in the state of Ceará, Brazil, on early pregnancy rates.Design/methodology/approachUsing the difference-in-differences method with multiple time periods, we measured the average effect of this staggered treatment on the treated municipalities.FindingsThe main result indicates a reduction of 0.849 percentage points in the teenage pregnancy rate. Concerning dynamic effects, the establishment of FTS in treated municipalities results in a 1.183–1.953 percentage point decrease in teenage pregnancy rates, depending on the timing of exposure. We explored heterogeneous effects within socioeconomically vulnerable municipalities, yet discerned no impact on this group. Rigorous tests confirm the robustness of the results.Originality/valueThis paper aims to contribute to: (1) the consolidation of research on the subject, given the absence of such research in Brazil to the best of our knowledge; (2) the advancement and analysis of evidence-based public policy and (3) the utilization of novel longitudinal data and methodology to evaluate adolescent pregnancy rates.

Heterogeneity, selection, and the policy effect of educational expansion on college graduate earnings in China, 1981–2015

This article examines the impact of social origin on the returns to college education in the context of China’s higher education expansion since 1999. Utilizing a double-treatment setting, a marginal treatment effect framework is adopted to estimate the causal effect of college education on earnings, while a difference-in-differences methodology identifies the policy effect of educational expansion on the college premium. Analysis of data from a series of nationally representative Chinese surveys reveals that the “true” college earnings premium is rather small for the post-expansion cohort, and that much of the observed earnings gap between college and high school graduates after the expansion is due to returns to unobserved abilities. Further analysis shows that the college earnings premium after the expansion declines more for rural-origin children with schooling probabilities in the top percentiles than for their urban counterparts.

Reading Progress in Attainment of Higher Education Goals in India: Features and Characteristics

This article is an attempt at evaluating the progress in higher education attainment in India, using an innovative approach of reading such progress in terms of varying attainments by age cohorts (older to younger). In addition, characteristic differentials are accounted for in the evaluation of such progress. It reveals that group disparities tend to be lower among the younger age cohorts, and the pattern of social and gender disparities appears to be different in the rural and urban sectors. Gender disparity disappears in the youngest age cohort for the urban sector, while it remains significant in the rural sector, with a reasonable rural–urban disparity in overall progress in higher education. The urban female is perhaps the largest beneficiary of expansion in higher education, while the rural female remains most deprived and has benefitted the least.

Higher Education Expansion and Earnings Premium: A Comparative Study of Two Systems in China

Higher Education Expansion and Earnings Premium: A Comparative Study of Two Systems in China

한국의 소비불평등 요인분해에 관한 연구

Purpose: This study examines the determinants of household consumption expenditure and quantifies their contribution to within group inequality by gender of household head in South Korea.
 Research design, data, and methodology: This study first decomposes total inequality into within and between inequality by gender of household head. It also examines the association between a vector of household demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and household consumption expenditure in an attempt to identify how much inequality can be attributed to each of explanatory factors. This study empirically draws upon the recent national representative dataset, Survey of Household Finance and Living Conditions (SFLC) 2 021 c ollected b y Korea Statistical Office.
 Results: According to the present study, inequality in 2021 in South Korea was found to be mainly dominated by inequality within population sub groups. Examining the determinants of household consumption inequality, it shows that factors and their conributions are different between male and female headed households. For instance, whilst the type of job occupation of a head appears to have a large impact on inequality within male headed households, it is found to have marginal contribution compared to within female headed households (25.2% vs. 7.4%). In case of household demography, it is observed as the second largest factor increasing within inequality among female headed households (31.2%) whereas its contribution to inequality within inequality among male group was relatively small (18.6%).
 Implications: Our study suggests that target specific investigation and deep structural understanding need to be made on the different characteristics of within inequality as reflected by the different role of factors and their contributions. Amongst, the different inequality impact of higher education might reflect that the expansion of higher education had a relatively lower impact on the living stand of female group than that of its counterpart, male group. Finally, the discriminatory barriers (e.g. job occupation) against female may reduce within inequality, it could widen total inequality, worsening distribution between male and female groups.

Striking gold: navigating the education massification maze for work readiness

PurposeThis study investigates the impact of large-scale teaching in higher education on students’ preparedness for the workforce within the context of evolving labour market demands, the expansion of higher education and the application of high-impact teaching strategies. It synthesizes perspectives on employer work readiness, the challenges and opportunities of large-scale teaching and strategies for fostering a dynamic academia-industry feedback loop. This multifaceted approach ensures the relevance of curricula and graduates’ preparedness while addressing the skills gap through practical recommendations for aligning teaching methodologies with employer expectations.Design/methodology/approachThe research methodically examines the multifaceted challenges and opportunities inherent in large-scale teaching. It focuses on sustaining student engagement, maintaining educational quality, personalizing learning experiences and cultivating essential soft skills in extensive student cohorts.FindingsThis study highlights the critical role of transversal skills in work readiness. It also uncovers that despite its challenges, large-scale teaching presents unique opportunities. The diversity of large student groups mirrors modern workplace complexities, and technological tools aid in personalizing learning experiences. Approaches like peer networking, innovative teaching methods, real-world simulations and collaborative resource utilization enrich education. The importance of experiential learning for augmenting large-scale teaching in honing soft skills is emphasized.Originality/valueThis manuscript contributes to the discourse on large-scale teaching, aligning it with employer expectations and the dynamic requirements of the job market. It offers a nuanced perspective on the challenges and opportunities this educational approach presents, providing insights for crafting engaging and effective learning experiences in large cohorts. The study uniquely integrates experiential learning, co-creation in education and industry-academia feedback loops, underscoring their importance in enhancing student work readiness in large-scale teaching.

Achieving Universal Higher Education in China: Characteristics, Challenges, and Future Directions

The universalization of higher education in China has undergone a remarkable transformation driven by government policies and rapid economic growth. This study explores the characteristics and future development of this educational evolution. China's journey towards universalization began with ambitious policy initiatives in 1998, aiming to expand access to higher education. Within a mere 17 years, the gross enrollment rate in higher education surged from 9.8% to an impressive 50%, surpassing the United States' 30-year path to universality. This rapid expansion, fueled by a burgeoning economy, has raised questions about educational quality and employability. New universities have played a crucial role, expanding access and optimizing the higher education structure. However, they face challenges due to their short history and limited resources. The study also emphasizes the need for a balanced regional framework and an education model aligning with sustainable development goals. China's experience in universalizing higher education provides valuable insights for global educational development. This transformation serves as a noteworthy case study, highlighting the importance of balancing quantity and quality in higher education expansion and providing lessons for educational development worldwide.

고등교육 대중화 시기, STEM 졸업자 비율이 대졸 실업률에 미치는 영향

With the expansion of higher education, it has been reported that the relative advantage of university graduates decreased. However, STEM graduates tended to be an exception, as the demand for STEM majors has gradually been increasing in the knowledge economy society where economic development is based on R&D innovation. Against this backdrop, this study aimed to explore how the proportion of STEM graduates might affect college graduate unemployment rates in major OECD countries where the enrollment rates of universities have been on the rise. Two models—a fixed-effects model and a fixed-effects two-stage model using an instrumental variable—were used to examine whether the ratio of STEM graduates affected the unemployment rates of college graduates between 2000 and 2019 for 19 OECD countries. Consequently, this research has reached the conclusion that the proportion of STEM major graduates in a country has a statistically significant adverse effect on the college graduate unemployment rate. The result based on this causal inference method can provide a policy basis for the government to support the cultivation of STEM talents considering that the supply of STEM majors has been insufficient in many countries.

Managerialism, accreditation and insecure academic employment across different higher education traditions

ABSTRACTThrough multilevel regression analysis, we examine the impact of managerialism, particularly accreditation practices, on the increasing job insecurity in universities. We find that universities that are accredited, private, secular or non-Catholic are more likely to offer insecure jobs, but that the relevance of these factors depends on each country’s academic tradition. Universities in the USA tend to offer more job security, whilst those in Chile are the only ones with a trend toward increasing the proportion of permanent positions. Accreditation is a good predictor of job insecurity in the USA, yet it is unrelated in Colombia and Germany, and it has an inverse effect in Chile. In the USA, we argue that accreditation serves as a conduit for managerial pressure, forcing universities to invest more in administrative bureaucracies to legitimise their academic quality, often at the expense of job stability. In Colombia and Germany, we argue that universities may hire administrators responsive to accrediting agencies that do not promote nor strengthen the academic profession. The concept of decoupling allows describing these countries' inverse relationship, or lack of direct relationship, between accreditation and job security. In contrast, Chilean universities show an integration between accreditation rituals and contracting practices aimed at job security. Our findings advance our knowledge of managerialism and higher education expansion by revealing its links to academic employment.

Educational expansion, fields of study, and the gender gap in analytic skill usage on the job

This study investigates how higher education expansion changes gender gaps in analytic skill usage on the job in the United States, and its variation across fields of study at the bachelor’s degree level. The present study proposes two patterns for graduates of a given field: One where educational expansion reinforces gender gaps, and another where it dissolves them. Using data from four different cohort studies, we find that educational expansion leads to less analytic skill usage at the bachelor’s degree level. However, this is not universally true, and educational expansion produces very different effects by gender and field of study. Thus, while multiple theories about educational expansion and majors explain these patterns, the specific applicability of them depends on the field of study itself.

The Impact of Higher Education on Health Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from China

The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated illness significantly damage people’s physical and mental health. Previous studies focus on the role of strong government public-health management to improve people’s health conditions. The objective of this study is to explore the specific impact of higher education on health behavior and pandemic policy, which remains relatively unexplored. Using data from the 2021 Chinese Social Survey, we employ an OLS regression to examine the effect of education on the change in health behaviors. Then, we use China’s higher education expansion as an instrumental variable to mitigate the potential endogeneity. The results reveal a positive relationship between higher education and health behaviors, both due to improved socioeconomic conditions and enhanced psychological wellbeing. Additionally, we find that the health return of higher education differs significantly between rural and urban areas, suggesting the presence of education inequality. These findings underscore the importance of higher education and individual health behavior in controlling the spread of major pandemics, emphasizing the need for public policy to consider the role of higher education in pandemic management.

Driving the career readiness agenda in Hong Kong higher education

The concept of “career readiness” can trace its origin to earlier studies about learning and employability in higher education as well as management of student life cycle. Since then, career readiness has evolved into a major concern for public funders and regulators of higher education. Policy researchers contend that following the expansion of higher education and subsequent institutional commitment to ensuring student success, the current stage is about emphasizing employability as the primary indicator of graduate outcomes. This policy shift projects the university-employer interface into the spotlight and creates a favorable condition for promoting work-based experiential learning in higher education. While all postsecondary education institutions in Hong Kong give due regard to graduate employment as a measure of successful “university to work transition,” most of them however do not offer structured courses to train their students in skills for lifetime employability. This leads to the question of whether the status quo is desirable and what would be an effective lever for effecting change. Should coaching students for career readiness remain the responsibility of career development office or can academic staff also have a role to play in supporting it? What are the different approaches for teaching about “work life” in the crowded undergraduate curriculum space? Answers to the above would depend on how much the higher education sector in Hong Kong is prepared to embark on a “whole-of-life” approach to develop “work conscious” and not just “work ready” graduates. The new direction will help to generate a positive effect on higher education institutions in Hong Kong for them to compete through curricular and pedagogical innovations in support of the career-readiness agenda.

Higher education expansion and women’s access to higher education and the labor market: quasi-experimental evidence from Turkey

Higher education expansion and women’s access to higher education and the labor market: quasi-experimental evidence from Turkey

Urbanization, education, and religion: Rationalization and erosion of political trust in Asia

AbstractSecularization, expansion of higher education, and urbanization have led to disenchantment with politics and the erosion of political trust in many societies. Religion may continue to be salient, however, how these forces interact with enduring religious influences to shape political trust is unclear. This paper examines the issue using Asian Barometer Survey (2001–2016) data with hierarchical age–period–cohort (HAPC) models. Our results show supportive evidence for the following findings: in East and Southeast Asia, urbanization is associated with less political trust for most religions except Islam; education is associated with less political trust; education's effect is the most salient for the atheists and Buddhists, but it disappears among the Muslims. The findings suggest the power of modernization and secularization significantly differs across cultures and religions. We should not simply perceive religion as a universally conservative force; instead, we need to understand religions through an integrated macro‐micro perspective by situating it in the social contexts.

Crossing the borders of social class: Social mobility as translational experience

ABSTRACT This article suggests that we might conceive of the experience of upward social mobility as a form of translational experience and view the socially mobile individual as both translatum and translator. Acknowledging that the experience of social mobility varies enormously in its specificity, the article’s temporal focus is on upward social mobility in Britain since the expansion of higher education in the early 1990s. It draws on the author’s own experience of social mobility and on the memoirs Hungry by Grace Dent (2021), Respectable by Lynsey Hanley (2017), and People Like Us (2020) by Hashi Mohamed, and relates the socially mobile self to the phenomenon of textual translation. It also theorises the ‘return’ – post-translation communication with the ‘source culture’ or social class of origin – and the process of back-and-forth translation in which socially mobile individuals are constantly engaged.

Analysing the New Educational Policy in the Context of Higher Education: Where is Gender?

This article offers a preliminary analysis of the New Education Policy document 2020 (NEP 2020) that was released by the government after considerable delay. Since 2016, the government has been trying to bring out a policy document on education, and NEP 2020 is at the end of several attempts that fell by the wayside. The context for the present discussion is that of the unprecedented expansion in higher education among students in recent decades. Within the emergence of a heterogeneous student body, the presence of women students—which has even reached parity in mainstream disciplines at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels—has somehow escaped public attention. The NEP document, especially the section concerning higher education, has to be read with care in order to go beyond its welcome aspects, such as those of multi-disciplinarity and holism. What is disturbing is evidence of a tiered differential structure that is likely to have negative effects on the kind of access that women have achieved. The hard question before us is whether the unprecedented entry of women across social groups that recent decades have witnessed, however poorly recognised or understood, will see a reversal in the wake of the lack of interest in questions of equity that the NEP vision document demonstrates. With the important exception of issues of sexual harassment on campuses, the overall neglect of the meanings and purpose of women’s increased claims on higher education bodes ill for the future.

Examining Regional Disparities in Higher Education Equity in Terms of Size, Faculty, and Funding

With the expansion of higher education in China and the relaxation of policies, the popularization and massization of higher education have led to the connotative development and steady improvement of higher education in China. However, due to the different environments of economy, policy and geography, there are some regional differences and equity problems in the process of rapid development of higher education in China. In this paper, the education data of 31 provinces, municipalities directly under the central government and autonomous regions in China will be used as the basis to study the three aspects of education scale, faculty and education expenses through the Gini coefficient analysis method. The research results show that with the efforts of some aspects such as national policies, the regional differences in higher education in China have become more and more relatively fair in recent years. In contrast, compared to the central and western regions, the eastern region is the region where the greatest disparity exists in higher education development.

Higher education expansion and robot imports: evidence from China

Higher education expansion and robot imports: evidence from China

Social origin and expectation of postgraduate enrolment among spanish university undergraduates mediation and moderation effect of fields of study and grades

The effect of social origin on educational expectations has mostly focused on adolescents. Yet, the expansion of higher education across the OECD area has made the transition from bachelor to master programs increasingly consequential for inequality of educational opportunities and social mobility. Applying multinomial logistic regression to data from a survey carried out in 2018 among university students in three Spanish regions, our research reveals the existence of a still meaningful effect of socioeconomic origin on expectations of postgraduate enrolment among university undergraduates, even after controlling for academic progression, performance and choice of field of study. In other words, the analysis provides evidence of a secondary effect of social origin on educational expectations at this late stage of the educational career. Multinomial logistic regression and the Karlson-Holm-Breen method applied to the same data also reveal the inexistence of a mediation effect of field of studies or academic performance. In this sense, our evidence points at a clearly higher weight of the secondary effect, rather than the primary effect of social origin, on the transmission of educational advantage to expectations of postgraduate enrolment among undergraduates. Yet, a moderating effect of both fields of studies and academic performance does exist. As regards field of studies, against our initial expectation, the effect of social origin turns out to be stronger in some fields of studies with better labour market access (strong fields). Regarding academic performance, the sensitiveness of postgraduate enrolment expectation to grades obtained so far decreases with social origin, thus revealing a lingering compensatory effect of social origin at the end of the educational trajectory.