The University of California has long been a major source of socioeconomic mobility in California. Data from the University of California’s Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES) indicates that more than half the undergraduate students in the UC system have at least one parent that is an immigrant. The ratio is even higher at UC Berkeley. What do such a high percentage of students with recent immigrant backgrounds tell us about the University of California and socioeconomic mobility?
A number of national studies point to a trend in which highly selective and elite private and public universities are becoming less accessible to lower-income students. At the same time there have been surprisingly few studies of the actual characteristics and academic experiences of low-income students or comparisons of their undergraduate experience with those of more wealthy students.
In forming a strategy to deal with the severe economic downturn, President-elect Obama and his evolving brain trust of economic advisers should recall the largely successful and innovative efforts by the federal and state governments to avoid a projected steep post–World War II recession – in particular, the key role of higher education. Demand for higher education generally goes up during economic downturns. Expanding higher education funding and enrollment capacity may be as important as any other policy lever to cope with an economic downturn, including funding for infrastructure.
Throughout the world, interest in gauging learning outcomes at all levels of education has grown considerably over the past decade. In higher education, measuring “learning outcomes” is viewed by many stakeholders as a relatively new method to judge the “value added” of colleges and universities. The potential to accurately measure learning gains is also viewed as a diagnostic tool for institutional self-improvement.
This essay compares and contrasts approaches to access and equity in these two nations, focusing largely on higher education (HE) in England and public HE in select states in the US. Three general themes are offered in the following narrative. The first is the transition of admission policy making from an internal academic decision to an increasingly external and politically driven process, and linked to the drive to develop mass systems of HE.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, only 20 percent of young people who begin their higher education at two-year institutions graduate within three years. There is a similar pattern in four-year institutions, where about 4 in 10 students receive a degree within six years. And these bleak statistics on national college completion rates are averages. In some institutions, the numbers are even gloomier.
This is clearly a personal disappointment for the students and their families, but increasingly, experts and leaders see it as a threat to U.S.
This report summarizes the most recent data available on key indicators of progress in U.S. higher education. The report examines trends in high school completion and college participation rates, educational attainment, college enrollment, and degrees conferred.
