Recently, policymakers have called for increased grade point average (GPA) requirements and many state education agencies are implementing "highly selective criteria" for teacher preparation program admission. These changes attempt to increase the quality of future teachers despite the inconclusive research base for such practices. Using…

In this paper, we provide a comprehensive picture of social selectivity in higher education in Italy by focusing on enrolment and two alternative indicators of success: retention and timely completion. The existing literature has shown that young individuals of disadvantaged backgrounds have lower enrolment probabilities and higher chances of…

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…

What is it that teacher-educators "do"? This paper draws on interview data with Deans/Heads of Schools of Education in the Australian context to explore this question by asking: How is the teacher-educator produced as a category of academic worker? Using critical approaches to discourse analysis, the paper presents two interlocked…

Public universities typically charge students less than the full cost of education, using funds from state and local government and other sources to cover the difference. This indirect subsidy is one of the largest forms of aid in America's higher education system but is less understood in the policy community than grants and loans, which are…

The SAT is used for two purposes at the University of California. First is "eligibility": Determining whether applicants meet the minimum requirements for admission to the UC system. Second is "admissions selection": At high-demand campuses such as Berkeley, with many more eligible applicants than places available, test scores…

While literature documents how the employability agenda has become the new neoliberal common sense in universities much less attention has been given to the mechanisms of adaptation by students. Utilizing a four-year longitudinal case study of scholarship students at an elite university, this paper focuses on the process through which this…

This study explores factors enhancing the likelihood that three demographically disadvantaged groups of selective science high school graduates would complete a university STEM degree 4-6 years later. The target groups are labeled as disadvantaged in terms of STEM pipeline persistence compared to school peers, and include: (1) women, (2) those…

It is well documented that the use of active learning strategies increases student learning (Freeman et al., 2014; Prince, 2004; Springer, Stanne, & Donovan, 1999). A key difficulty in innovating college mathematics is identifying and sustaining what works for both students and the faculty. This study discusses efforts to innovate and sustain…

During the last 10 years, a group of selective universities in Chile has started to implement admissions programs that consider the achievement of students in the context of the educational opportunities they have had, thus reducing reliance on the national college entrance exam. This study explores the program theories in a sample of these…

This paper explores one of the enduring small mysteries of student life -- why do women participate in study abroad programs more than men? To answer this question, original data collected from seniors and recent graduates of a sample of liberal arts colleges in the US were analyzed. Results show an intractable gender gap persisting, even after…

This paper joins a barely begun conversation about multi-sited and global ethnography in educational research; a conversation that is likely to intensify along with growing interest in the links between education, globalisation, internationalisation and transnationalism. Drawing on an ongoing multi-sited global ethnography of elite schools and…

This article documents minority youth sense-making around the concept of diversity and the founding of a youth activist group that seeks spaces for policy thinking and protesting against racial inequalities in selective enrollment schools. Utilizing the sociological theory of racial formation and the concept of racial projects (Omi and Winant in…

Attaining a professional engineering degree is a dream of many pre-engineering intermediate students in Pakistan. Several students face scarcity of resources to accomplish and enliven their dreams of getting admission into an engineering institute, which results in great hardships and turmoil for them. The literature reveals that quantitative work…

Identity formation is considered as a key factor in the conceptualization of life satisfaction (LS). Recent volatility in labor markets has negatively influenced college students' LS and attending to the relationship between their career identity (CI) and LS has become important for career researchers and counselors. The purpose of this study is…