Colleges' early decision (ED) admission policies require accepted students to commit to attend the school without comparing outside options. With data from two liberal arts schools we find evidence that students with higher willingness and ability to pay and lower measured ability levels are more likely to apply ED. Applying ED raises the…

This paper is based on a series of previous research studies looking at the impact and development of teachers in the UK and internationally. It suggests that there is no convincing evidence, in terms of test outcomes, that some teachers are more or less effective with equivalent pupils. This is not necessarily because teachers are not…

This paper explores the factors of freshman year college retention by using a unique data set tracking the participation of a cohort of 1,800 students in a public state college system through 2011 from their freshman enrollment at a community college in 2006. The focus is on prevalent factors in the college retention literature, including…

Mount St. Mary's College has offered a nontraditional Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) Program since 1992. The program has an afternoon and evening/weekend format. There has been one previous research study published in 2005 that described the student population that Mount St. Mary's College serves. This present study will examine the…

This special issue introduces a set of article addressing the question of what "fairness" means with respect to the distribution of access to higher education. Articles herein address the criteria that "should" be used to allocate funding, offers of admission at selective institutions, and conceiving and assessing …

Access to universities across the United Kingdom remains a challenge despite improvements in recent years. Those challenges are still more marked in Scotland than in the other nations, as this report shows. This report lays bare the extent of the challenge. Scotland has a different approach to higher education. It no longer charges tuition fees,…

This article discusses admissions policies to higher education during the Communist regime in Bulgaria (1946-89). It argues that under the conditions of the Bulgarian Communist regime, admissions policies were not only a component of the higher education system--viewed as an institution--but part and parcel of the process through which power was…

The objective of this study is to evaluate the experience of the Open Arab University/Jordan branch, in terms of accepted students as well as the graduates from 2002 to 2005, and to conclude on one hand the relation between the students' genders, the majors and the scientific programs, and to study the differences between the number of graduates…

A range of imperatives underpin university selection practices. These include demonstrating merit based on prior academic achievement and supporting successful graduate outcomes in the professions and in broader fields of endeavour. They also include improving diversity of participation and equality of educational opportunity. Selection for…

The purpose of this retrospective study was to examine the outcome performance of second degree students in an Accelerated BSN (ABSN) and an Entry Level MSN (ELMSN) program. In addition to student demographics (ethnicity/race, age, and gender), study variables included admission and end-of-program indicators. Admission criteria included the…

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) serves a large majority of socioeconomically disadvantaged students who are struggling academically and are underprepared for high school graduation and college. This article describes the partnership between LAUSD and the Los Angeles Education Research Institute, and how this collaboration endeavors…

Students enter nursing degree programs through a variety of pathways. This article reports on a study that investigated the success and experience of these students. The aim was to determine any linkages between the pathway of entry in a preregistration nursing course and the academic achievements of these students. To achieve this aim, a…

The study investigates the chances of gaining admission to Georgian higher education in relation to residential origin. The analysis of broad trends is combined with details from an in-depth individual-level inquiry. Qualitative data on the entire population of 150,000 applicants over the period 2005-9, together with interview data from a…

Proposition 209 banned the use of racial preferences in admissions at public colleges in California. We analyze unique data for all applicants and enrollees within the University of California (UC) system before and after Prop 209. After Prop 209, graduation rates increased by 4.4%. We present evidence that certain institutions are better at…

Over the past year, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have received a great deal of attention from the academic community and the media. The EUA Secretariat has followed the development of the MOOCs since the beginning of 2012, surveying discussion forums and publications, but also assessing the websites of MOOC providers and participating in…