Attaining a bachelors' degree in turn increases expected lifetime earnings by roughly 65 percent over attaining only a high school diploma.1 Who has access to these selective institutions therefore has an impact on economic and social mobility in America, an objective that justifies the large federal, state and local support of higher education…

This report analyzes access through the lens of enrollment for Black residents who are between the ages of 18-24. At The Education Trust, it is believed enrollment is just one component of higher education access, and that retention, completion, and student outcomes should be considered as well. While nearly 74% of the institutions in the sample…

Higher Education policy researchers have highlighted the link between merit and privileged social background with respect to who is most likely to win merit-based scholarships in Universities. Yet little is known about how students from various social backgrounds may inhabit such a scholarship. In this paper, we draw on theorisations of the…

The Humanities have an enduring role in improving society and people's well-being, yet there is a very limited discussion of how to foster talents in the Humanities. This case study scrutinized how an honors program in the Humanities can enhance the academic potential of gifted undergraduates at an elite university in China. The results indicate…

Social engagement of transfer students is of importance to their completion of university studies and thus to understanding whether community colleges could serve as an equalizer in higher education. One overlooked aspect is the social engagement of transfer students with native students, which is arguably contingent on a sense of legitimacy of…

This paper explores how fairness was conceptualised by those responsible for admission to highly selective undergraduate courses at 17 universities in England. Fairness was conceptualised principally with reference to the traditional "meritocratic equality of opportunity" paradigm, which holds that university places should go to the most…

Recent developments have seen a significant increase in the number of educational videos being made, mostly for use as a resource in a range of educational levels and different specializations. Indeed, currently, many universities either provide videos as supplementary resources or, indeed, offer entire courses as online learning materials. The…

Existing studies have found that the starting point for class divisions is the family: while schools play a interrupting role, it is passive compared to the roles of the family and children themselves. It is therefore taken for granted when rural students are screened out by school education or fail to test into good universities. If the…

Higher education in the United States has a unique opportunity to educate students to practice leadership to address complex problems. A limited number of universities bear the label "elite" as a result of highly selective admissions criteria, cost, age, and position in popular national rankings. Additional scrutiny of these institutions…

Increasing transfer success of community college students has the potential to improve preparedness of America's workforce. Yet little is known about the types of institutions to which students transfer from community colleges. This is the executive summary of the report, "Persistence: The Success of Students Who Transfer From Community…

The study of elites is enjoying a revival at a time of increasing economic inequality. Sociologists of education have been leaders in this area, researching how affluent families position their children to compete favorably in a highly stratified higher education system. However, scholars have done less research on how students do symbolic work of…

In the People's Republic of China (PRC), educational expansion together with the promotion of market competition is taken as a measure of addressing a structural rural--urban divide in educational inequality. In following the emotional journeys of pursuing a bachelor's degree for 32 rural students in four elite universities in Shanghai, this paper…

Nearly half of all postsecondary students today begin their college journey at a two-year institution (49.2 percent). Students enrolled at a community college are more likely to come from lower-income families than those at four-year institutions. Indeed, low-income students are three times as likely to start at a community college as high-income…

Student attrition in postsecondary education is a significant public policy problem. Nations invest substantial resources in college systems, and when students leave, this investment is lost. To understand the factors that influence student attrition in US and Russian public universities, we use the perspective of academic momentum, defined…

As the Chinese mainland has transitioned from elite to mass higher education, the race to attend university has escalated to become a race to attend selective universities. This study focuses on rural female university students and explores how they make sense of their higher education admission experiences. We rationalize that the inquiry into…