Despite Supreme Court cases which have upheld the 1978 Bakke ruling, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is considering challenging colleges that consider race as a factor in admissions. As colleges and universities prepare to return to the fray in response to the most recent surfacing of this issue, One might ask if everything possible is being done…

The Good Friday Agreement (1997) brought political violence in Northern Ireland to an end and provided the basis for shared government. A consociational political structure was adopted which institutionalised community differences while encouraging coalition government. The goal was that a requirement for consensus decisions would encourage…

This paper retraces the evolution of the relationships between higher education institutions, the state and the academic profession in France since the French Revolution on the one hand and the parallel evolution of the societal expectations for their roles and missions, on the other. It in particular highlights the divide between the universities…

This brief is the fifth in Baltimore Education Research Consortium's (BERC's) "Launching into Adulthood" series, which examines the trajectories of Baltimore graduates over six years. BERC established a partnership with Baltimore's Promise and the Maryland Longitudinal Data System (MLDS), which has made it possible to examine both…

The evolution of teachers' identities in Australia highlights the struggles between state and civic over the control of schooling and also the contingent nature of the teacher identity itself. A genealogical analysis of this history makes visible these contingencies, but more importantly suggests that little reckoning has been afforded to…

In this article we discuss processes of internal differentiation that have characterised European higher education systems in the last 50 years. We argue that these processes have gone through two main stages and in two different directions, each of which is showing its limits in the long run. Therefore, we expect a third stage of differentiation,…

In policy circles, the first question of the year often relates to college enrollment. Most common is the question: "Are you up or down in enrollment?" More often than not, the enrollment question may be answered in terms of full-time equivalent (FTE) enrollment. While the answer does have programmatic implications, the initial interest…

This article uses philosophical analysis to clarify the arguments and claims about racial discrimination brought forward in the recent legal challenges to affirmative action in higher education admissions. Affirmative action opponents have argued that elite institutions of higher education are using negative action against Asian American…

Little is known about the school choice practices of Aboriginal families in settler-colonial societies, where they have been removed from their ancestral lands and/or have been subjected to discriminatory educational policies. Through the lens of settler-colonial theory, this study elucidates the "spatially positioned" school choice…

The Supreme Court has agreed to weigh in on the legality of racial preferences, in part thanks to a lawsuit against Harvard College alleging that the school discriminates against Asian-Americans. Proving discrimination at a specific school is an arduous task, requiring access to private, detailed admissions records--as the legal documents in that…

As scholars of higher education regularly point out, American universities face a fundamental tension between access and exclusion. On the one hand, as publicly supported institutions operating in a democracy, they are charged with promoting social mobility and sharing knowledge that can improve society. On the other, they are tasked with…

In 2014, Jonathan Zimmerman published an op-ed in the "Christian Science Monitor" in which he wrote, "The last time I checked, [men] held most of the important positions of power and influence in American society. And yet, college admissions offices lower the standard for young men--effectively raising it for women--simply to make…

Racially separate and unequal schooling is alive and thriving today. School districts are typically segregated by income, with non-White school districts getting 23 billion dollars less than White districts. Higher education is increasingly stratified by both race and class, and children of the wealthy are almost assured that they will attend…

This paper directs attention to important changes in the role and funding of elite private universities in the USA. At the center of these changes is the private endowment--an institution that has for much of its history been a pivotal element of innovation and autonomy, but which is recently tilting towards the production and reproduction of…

This paper simulates a system of socioeconomic status (SES)-based affirmative action in college admissions and examines the extent to which it can produce racial diversity in selective colleges. Using simulation models, we investigate the potential relative effects of race- and/or SES-based affirmative action policies, alongside targeted,…