This article reports on a study that examined the readiness levels of students in the South African context. Particularly, the study explored the differences between various students' academic proficiency, support mechanisms, motivational levels and overall integration with the university. A quantitative approach was used and 117 full-time…

Australian higher education is currently entering a new phase of growth. Within the remit of this expansion is an express commitment to widen participation in higher education among under-represented groups--in particular those from low socioeconomic backgrounds. This paper argues that one key mechanism for achieving this goal should be the…

There is disagreement in the literature regarding the influence of social and cultural factors on the propensity for young people to undertake higher education. This study draws upon a national data set of over 45,000 young people to assesses their propensity to progress to bachelor level study, while controlling for their ethnic backgrounds,…

Among scholars of social stratification, the most important question about expanding postsecondary education is whether it reduces inequality by creating opportunities for disadvantaged students or whether it increases inequality by concentrating opportunities among those already privileged (Shavit, 2007). This discussion is important because of…

This study develops a comprehensive theoretical framework regarding the evolution of the class divide in postsecondary education. I conceptualize three prototypes of class inequality--effectively maintained, declining, and expanding--and associate their emergence with the level of competition in college admissions. I also unearth the twin…

This study examined participation in year 12 and higher education in Australia. It updates a previous report by including findings from the 1995 cohort of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Youth for 1998 and 1999. Combining these data with those from four previous cohorts shows changes in the patterns of and influences on participation over the…

A comprehensive description--at the national level--of those who applied for admission to the 1976-77 freshmen class of U.S. medical schools is given in this report. In order to relate this 1976-77 applicant cohort (and those accepted from it) to certain social trends in medical education and to continue monitoring changes in the size of applicant…

The effects of the financial aid reform introduced in Sweden in the mid-1960s were assessed, with emphasis placed on possible effects on young people from lower socioeconomic strata. The study group is a nationally representative sample of persons born in 1948, who were also studied in 1961 in relation to background, interests, aptitudes, and…

Russian society has become more stabilized since the tempestuous 1990s. The social and economic space has been entered by a generation that is counting on a successful career. How justified are these expectations? What can it realistically hope for? What are the rules that it will have to play by to build a career? To what extent do these rules…