This article examines the strategies of a 'new rich' class in China to transmit advantages to their children through admission into highly ranked overseas universities. In-depth interviews were conducted with parents (n = 16) and students (n = 60) at international high schools that cater to the local population in Shenzhen. The findings…

This research was an investigation of the application of genre instruction to the unique purpose teaching Thai secondary students to write personal statements for undergraduate university admission. The goals of this small-scale case study were to 1) investigate the effects of genre-based instruction on students' writing abilities and 2) examine…

Every year a considerable number of high school graduates in Russia choose to pursue a career in medicine and apply to medical universities. However, the level of preliminary training of applicants is often insufficient to enrol in the preferred study programme. Private tutoring is often considered as a means to close the gap between the generally…

This study compared the profile of those who, after initial failure to be selected, choose to reapply to study medicine with those who did not reapply. It also evaluates the chance of a successful outcome for re-applicants. In 2013, 4007 applicants to undergraduate medical schools in the largest state in Australia were unsuccessful. Those who…

The recognition of the DP (diploma programme) for university admission is crucial for the development of International Baccalaureate (IB) schools and the expansion of the IB network worldwide. In an era of higher education (HE) massification, accompanied by high failure and dropout rates, intense debates on access to HE are taking place in many…

Author Alexis Brooke Redding is an advanced doctoral student and instructor in education at Harvard University. In the spring of 2015 she spent six weeks interviewing administrators and students about the myriad pathways that bring students to Hampshire College. More than simply understanding the nature of this singular campus, her study focused…

This article explores how schools with below average attainment can support high-attaining learners in their decision-making about university. We report on a project involving longitudinal case studies of 43 high-achieving learners from a range of backgrounds across five institutions, during their sixth form career in 2013/14 and 2014/15, focusing…

The COVID Social Mobility & Opportunities (COSMO) study is a new national cohort study generating high-quality evidence about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected socio-economic inequalities in life chances, both in terms of short- and long-term effects on education, wellbeing, and career outcomes. A representative sample of young people in…

In this study we analyse the relationship between Mexican students' enrolment in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP) and their college preparedness using a case-study methodology. We found that from the Mexican schools that offer the IB DP, most IB students are fairly successful in their college applications, such that the…

The extent to which increasing students' ability to choose between schools can impact their educational outcomes continues to generate significant research interest. I take advantage of the unique context in the province of Ontario, where two publicly funded school systems operate in parallel. I find a small positive impact of school choice on…

This paper analyses admission decisions when students from different high school tracks apply for admission to university programmes. I derive a criterion that is optimal in the sense that it maximizes the graduation rates of the university programmes. The paper contains an empirical analysis that documents the relevance of theory and illustrates…

Using the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE), this study examines how different combinations of aspirations, expectations and school achievement can influence students' future educational behaviour (applying to university at the age of 17-18). The study shows that students with either high aspirations or high expectations have…

Previous research has found that the images of universities formed by prospective students greatly influence their choices. With the advent of international branch campuses in several higher education hubs worldwide, many international students now attempt to construct images of these institutions when deciding where to study. The aim of this…

The COVID-19 pandemic poses significant challenges for higher education across the UK. This year's cohort of university applicants now face months of uncertainty, as they try to make decisions on their future amid exam cancellations and a new system to determine grades, all without face-to-face support from their school. For students currently…

The paper proposes a model of educational strategies for college entrants that makes it possible to assess the investment efficiency in additional preparation as evidenced by the Unified State Exam [USE] scores. It was found that college entrants still use traditional forms of preparation despite the new institutional admission conditions at…