We look at the expansion of a higher education system through the lens of concentration in the distribution of enrollments among institutions. Using data from the Brazilian Higher Education Censuses from 2002 to 2016, we found that the diversification of segments that compose the system was associated with an increase in concentration and market…

This historical exploration of the development of the academic workforce in the UK and France was triggered by the observation of significant similarities in contemporary debates on casualisation, and segmentation despite their distinctive HE systems. We develop a quantitative history of academic staff to understand why the differences in the two…

This paper examines how the process of making higher education choices in the United States--whether to enter higher education, attend a particular college, or follow a particular path through college--produces and legitimates social inequality. The paper's central thesis is that a societal regime of many choices--while serving individual freedom…

As the COVID-19 pandemic spread to Utah in March 2020, the state's public colleges and universities took steps to mitigate the risk of infection to students and faculty/staff. Utah's degree-granting institutions shifted in-person coursework online in March 2020 for the remainder of the spring 2020 term, with the goal to protect students' health…

Public higher education leaders enter the 2023 legislative sessions with cautious optimism stemming from sizable budget surpluses in many states, economic growth, and mostly familiar political environments. Many states have built up budget surpluses due to a strong economic recovery, an infusion of federal stimulus dollars, and careful budgeting…

This research brief summarizes student outcome findings from SRI International's evaluation of the California Linked Learning District Initiative, an effort to build robust district-level systems to sustain high school career pathways in nine school districts in the state. With funding from The James Irvine Foundation, SRI conducted a rigorous…

The debate over affirmative action policies in higher education is not so much about whether having racially and ethnically diverse college campuses is desirable, but rather about how best to achieve that worthy objective. Most universities prefer employing explicit racial preferences that allow them to recruit and admit the highest-scoring black…