Access to education

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Born abroad and educated here: examining the impacts of education and skill mismatch among immigrant graduates in Europe│McGuiness, Seamus and Byrne, Delma (2015)│IZA Journal of Migration, 4 (17)│pp. 1-30. ISSN 2193-9039

This paper examines the wage and job satisfaction effects of over-education and overskilling among migrants graduating from EU-15 based universities in 2005. Female migrants with shorter durations of domicile were found to have a higher likelihood of overskilling. Newly arrived migrants incurred wage penalties which were exacerbated by additional penalties resulting from overskilling in the male labour market and overeducation in the female labour market. Established migrants were found to enjoy wage premia, with no evidence of disproportionate wage impacts arising as a consequence of mismatch. Female migrants were found to have a lower probability of being job satisfied.

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Removing Barriers to Higher Education for Undocumented Students│Report released by the Policy Advocate for Generation Progress at the Center for American Progress.

Caught in unfair circumstances, undocumented students—most of them coming of age in the United States—face uncertain futures, their dreams and potential thwarted by roadblocks to higher education. Undocumented students have to navigate a complex web of federal, state, and postsecondary institution policies in order to achieve a postsecondary education. The fact that they are too often locked out of colleges, universities, and other institutions of higher education is a loss not only for them but for the country as well. This lack of access to higher education means that potential entrepreneurs, highly skilled workers, and middle-class consumers and taxpayers will not be there to grow our economy. It is up to policymakers to unblock the path to a brighter future for thousands of young, eager students and for the country as a whole

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Access to Education in Europe: A Framework and Agenda for System Change│Book authored by Downes, Paul

This book identifies key elements of an international framework to develop systems-level change to promote access to education, including higher education, for socio-economically marginalized groups. It is based on interviews with senior government officials and senior management in universities, non formal education and prisons across 12 countries in Europe. The book identifies systemic obstacles to and opportunities for promotion of access to education for socio-economically excluded groups that are issues transferable to other countries’ contexts. It adopts a systemic focus on access across a range of domains of education, both formal higher education and non-formal education, as well as prison education. Through a focus on a more dynamic structuralist systems framework it develops an innovative post-Bronfenbrennerian view of system levels in lifespan developmental and educational psychology. It also develops an international agenda for reform in relation to these various system levels for access to education for socio-economically marginalized groups, through extraction of key structural indicators to evaluate reform progress in a transparent, culturally sensitive manner. The book identifies current gaps and strengths in policy, practice and structures that impact upon access to education, including higher education, across a range of countries. These gaps and strengths are illustrative and are to inform a strategic approach to system level change and development for the promotion of access to education for socio-economically marginalized groups in Europe and beyond.

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Creating Pathways to College for Migrant Students: Assessing a Migrant Outreach Program│ Nuñez, A.-M. (2009)│Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk (JESPAR), 14:3, 226-237.

This paper includes a longitudinal study on university-going behaviours of migrant students who participated in the Migrant Student Leadership Institute (MSLI) program. This program aimed to increase migrant students’ 4-year university access by emphasizing the development of students’ capacity for critical thinking about sociopolitical conditions, academic preparation and knowledge about the university application process. Results from analyses using an equivalente comparision group suggest that the program positively affected participants’ application rates to, and enrollment rates in, more selective California public higher education institutions, including campuses of the University of California (UC) system. Discussion adresses potential contributing factors for these outcomes.

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Trends in Global Higher Education: Tracking an Academic Revolution│Altbach, P., Reisberg, L. & Rumbley, L. (2009)│A Report Prepared for the UNESCO 2009 World Conference on Higher Education.

This report summarizes the main directions in higher education worldwide in the past decade-since the 1998 UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education. Among different themes, quality, access and internalization are discussed. Authors argue that this discussion has moved beyond awareness in the higher education community to a deeper level of concern with the complexities and implications of these issues: «making higher education more inclusive requires not only moving historically underrepresented groups into higher education but also meeting their unique needs» (pp.xvii). The report contains a chapter on access and equity, providing an important discussion on this matter.

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Exploring Access and Equity in Higher Education: Policy and Performance in a Comparative Perspective│Clancy, P. & Goastellec, G. (2007)│Higher Education Quarterly, 61 (2), 136–154.

This paper seeks to set a research agenda for comparative research on access and equity, including some reflections on the difficulties involved in measuring access and equity from a comparative perspective. Authors propose the use of a Higher Education Participation Index to facilitate cross-country comparision. The potential of such a comparative analysis is illustrated by their analysis of data from the EUROSTUDENT project. Results reveal that very large inequalities persist in all countries (including Portugal), and even in Scandinavian countries, which have perhaps made most progress. The overall trend is the application of some modes of affirmative action for selected underrepresented groups. Nevertheless, there´s a growing appreciation of the complexity of social identities, complemented by significant national specificity in respect to the social categories which are used to define social diversity. Authors think this should be taken into account when developing a programme of comparative research.

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Widening Participation in Higher Education Casting the Net Wide?│Book edited by Hinton-Smith, T.

This collection offers an authoritative, up-to-date commentary on the challenges facing higher education today across both the UK and internationally. The book charts the impact of global economic trends and recent policy developments for students, academics, providers and changing course provision.

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MINORITIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION│2011 SUPPLEMENT│Report released by the Center for Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Equity, American Council on Education

This update aims to help campus leaders, policy makers, and the general public by providing reliable and timely information that can build support for improvements in higher education. Especially at a time when demand for a college-educated workforce is increasing, the tracking of educational progress among races/ethnicities and by gender is important because substantial gaps persist among these groups. In addition, the fastgrowing racial/ethnic groups are the ones that historically have attained lower levels of education. Closing these gaps in educational attainment is essential for raising the education level of the overall U.S. population