access to higher education

the booths explaining to visitors how the higher education system is organized and especially how the new APB application system works. This was also apparent in visitors’ questions during lectures. Not only do many hosts feel that this kind of advice goes well beyond their interests and expertise, but they also think it dispels the ‘magic’ dimension of the one-on-one encounters between individual projects or desires and packaged institutional products and services, and is at odds with their focus on factors that facilitate rather than constrain access to higher education. Although fair organisers and staff members in particular feel that their role is more than giving specific advice in response to individual questions, they also want to mark the difference between their analyses and goals and those of secondary school teachers and counsellors. While the latter are thought to limit students’ choices through their focus on using past paths and grades to determine students’ chances of future success and their use of outdated information on HEIs and the job market, fair organisers and staff see their own role as future-oriented, encouraging and informed.

The purpose of this specification is to ensure consistency and transparency in the academic demand and standards of the Access to HE Diploma and equity for students in the ways it can be achieved. It is one of a set of documents that collectively make up the QAA Recognition Scheme for Access to Higher Education (the Recognition Scheme). The other documents are: The Access to HE Grading Scheme 1 and the AVA licensing criteria. 2 Together they specify the key regulatory and quality assurance mechanisms through which standards are established and maintained in the Access to HE Diploma.

CONCLUSION At first glance the evidence from this study aligns with the wider, largely international literature on mentoring. While operating in a different cultural context to much of the US based research, the study also points towards the value of mentoring as an intervention for higher attaining young people experiencing socio-economic disadvantage. Building on the evidence of much of the UK literature, this is a model of mentoring which presents an affordable opportunity for intervening to support widening access to higher education. The data collected as part of the research dimension further suggests that mentoring of the kind described has the potential to foster the social capital identified by Archer et al as being crucial to ‘levelling the playing field’ for pupils experiencing socio-economic disadvantage. Indeed, engaging with mentoring as an intervention from a research and development perspective is crucial. A research informed examination of the mentoring process doesn’t just help provide a model for effective mentoring. It also provides identification and understanding of the processes by which young people experiencing socio-economic disadvantage are placed at a disadvantage as they seek progression into higher education. It illuminates more precisely the reality of inequality, the ways in which these young people may struggle to engage with institutions and those institutional processes with which their more socio-economically advantaged (and thus culturally literate) peers are more familiar and less intimidated by.

VIII. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ACTION The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has had remarkable success in catalyzing the expansion of ALN programs since it started its “Learning Outside the Classroom” initiative in 1992. It has achieved this success through two parallel efforts—direct grants to institutions, which have enabled them to increase the scale and breadth of their online programs, and creation of the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C), which serves to disseminate knowledge about ALN through publications, workshops, conferences, and its website. Taken as a whole, these activities have addressed each of the five pillars, with the clear goal of increasing access to higher education. There is still much to be gained by continuing these activities, and the authors would like to make the following specific recommendations to the higher education community, including academic leaders, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and other foundations, and to Sloan-C members in light of the analysis presented in this paper.

Benefits of higher education Access to higher education brings with it many benefits to the individuals who avail of it and to the wider society. For example, graduates are less likely to experience unemployment – even during the economic crisis from which we are just now emerging, the chances of a graduate becoming unemployed were half that of a non-graduate. And now in 2015, as employment levels are rising, graduates are being employed at a faster rate than non-graduates. Graduates also enjoy an earnings premium – men who are graduates earn on average 69% more than men without a higher education, while for women the equivalent figure is 90%. 11 There are also many non-financial benefits to having a higher education – as graduates tend to enjoy greater job satisfaction, participate to a greater extent in society, and have better health; and they are also likely to pass down an appreciation for education and its benefits to the next generation and to their local communities.

The end of the Mao era saw the influence of political considerations on access to higher education sharply diminish, and college admission criteria reverted to historical practice which placed a very heavy weight on merit as determined by critical tests in senior high schools. More recently, however, a growing proportion of college students have had to fund their own educational expenses (Hannum and Wang, 2006; Heckman, 2004), forcing them to forego college due to financial constraints. 3 By 1997, tuition became mandatory in all colleges in China, and the average tuition reached about 31% of per capita GDP. This ratio rose to 46% in 2002, roughly the same level as for private colleges and universities in the US (Li 2009). Between 1992 and 2003, the government share in total education expenditures in China decreased from 84% to 62%, and the share of tuition and fees increased from about 5% to approximately 18% (China Statistical

The challenge of ensuring equity of access to higher education is one that affects high, middle and low income countries alike. Press attention, public debate and protest can be seen across the world, from student boycotts over fees in Lagos, to street demonstrations in Santiago, and continuing controversies over elitism in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. While the nature of the problem differs somewhat across contexts, all higher education sectors are struggling to find a formula that will allow for a sustainably funded system of high quality providing opportunity for all (Brennan, King & Lebeau 2004; Knight 2009; Meyer et al. 2013a; Singh 2011; Unterhalter & Carpentier 2012). At the heart of the problem is the fact that expansion of the system does not necessarily translate into increased opportunity for disadvantaged populations. To a significant extent, the phenomenal growth of higher education globally since the Second World War has been an expansion for the middle class. In the UK, for example, where there has been a range of ‘widening participation’ policies, while the percentage of students on free school meals (a proxy for low socio-economic level) going on to university has risen from 13% to 18% since 2005, the rate for other students has risen from 33% to 38%, thus maintaining a more or less constant gap (BIS 2013a).

adil@uwalumni.com, adilahza@yahoo.com a. A brief profile of the higher education system in your country: main policy, higher education providers, access to higher education etc. The main policy of Higher education system in Indonesia is regulated in the Act no 20, 2003 on the National Education of Indonesia. The Act no 20, 2003 is derived further into the Government Regulation no 19, 2005 on the National Standard of Education and, the Minister of Education decree no 28, 2005 on the National Accreditation Agency for Higher Education. The educator is regulated under the Act no. 14, 2005 on Teacher and Faculty Member. While the higher education institutions (HEIs) are regulated under the Act no 9, 2009 on Legal Entity. The latest were heavily focused on the institutional and financial affairs which prescribed any HEIs to change their status into a legal entity, with complete autonomous status of management by the end of the year 2012 for the existing public universities and by the end of the year 2014 for the rest.

Conclusion For inclusive growth and social mobility the access to higher education by the underprivileged is very crucial. For knowledge creation and its dissemination the role of higher education is paramount. But, with the rapid privatization basically in T/P courses access is likely to be seriously compromised. The choice of institute is quite important in higher education as it determines the life path, employability as well as earning of an individual. The girls in comparison to boys are more decisive while choosing the institute of their choice. The reputation or ranking of the institutes are given greater value by the boys while choosing the T/P institutes for higher studies as it decides its placements. Further, the interests of parents and other family members are valued by the girl students than the boys. The well informed boys are found to be quite independent in their career decisions. The increase in the number of dependants in the family (particularly low income family) forces the students in T/P education to choose the low cost T/P institute despite the educational loan facilities available for their studies. The risk factor always obstructs the students from low income families with large number of dependants to opt for high cost T/P institutes. It signifies the task before the policy makers to tackle the issues of access to quality higher education that can improve the employability of the student from low income families.

Nigeria has a comparable DE system to many other African nations but they all share similar challenges. According to COL (2005), Kenya’s challenges include funding, inclusivity, internationalizing DE, access as well as ICT provision, along with quality assurance, among others. Botswana talks of policy and access and even suggests that DE be more of a central component rather than marginal. In Lesotho, they talk of government support and the need to recruit qualified and competent distance education practitioners. Namibia sees DE as a means of achieving her vision 2030 for social and economic development agenda and talks of advocacy to sensitize management about the needs of DE provision. Tanzania’s Open University equally has challenges in its conduct (Nekongo-Nielsen et al, 2011). Above all, they all talk of ICT and the quality of delivery of DE. They collectively struggle with the lack of government-driven legitimization of DE, which leads to the lack of understanding of what DE is, and what it entails as a method of accessing further education opportunities, along with a nationally pervasive resistant and/or negative attitude and mindset towards DE. Nigeria faces all of these challenges also, but rather more peculiar, is the level of influx of a younger generation into alternative education to fill a gap. Even so, the potential of DE to improve access to higher education is yet to be fully explored and exploited by the requisite audience as a panacea for boosting human and national development. DE becomes even more germane to developmental aspirations in view of the fact that majority of Nigerians still live in the rural areas, and often below the poverty level, and therefore have limited access to the higher education they deserve. Many have also had to begin work earlier in their lives in order to meet social and family obligations; there is again the gender issue whereby women are more affected in this deprivation. Adding to the problem is the issue of proximity to the location of the higher institutions as well as other challenges like physical disability, and quite often, financial setbacks. All these, while stamping the clientele as adults on one hand, also on the other hand contribute to their inability to fully participate in national development efforts because of their inability to achieve their full educational potential. Many are also obviously unaware of the option of alternative means of higher education that will not involve their presence.

Conference Theme This conference is a follow-up to the research project “Transition to higher education in France: the role of networks, institutions and markets” funded by LIEPP (Laboratory for the Interdisciplinary Evaluation of Public Policies) in 2013-2015. It intends to create a new dialogue between social science researchers working on inequalities of access to higher education and to foster the development of a comparative perspective on the issue, particularly across European countries.

The NAO report Widening participation in higher education discussed differences in widening participation rates at different types of HEI: Performance indicators show that there is variation across higher education institutions in recruiting students from under-represented groups. For example in 2006-07, around one fifth of institutions performed significantly better than expected in recruiting young people from areas with low participation, whilst a similar proportion performed significantly worse than expected. The Higher Education Statistics Agency publishes performance indicators annually on the composition of students in individual institutions for three under-represented groups: individuals from state schools, from lower socio- economic backgrounds and from areas with low participation in higher education. Each institution has individual benchmarks representing the expected participation for each group, given particular characteristics (such as subject of study, age and entry qualifications) of the students it recruits. Post-1992 institutions generally perform at or significantly above their benchmarks while the English Russell Group institutions (16 of the most research intensive institutions) generally perform at or significantly below their benchmarks. However, the majority of institutions recognise widening participation objectives in their high-level strategies. We found strong senior management support for widening participation, with responsibility usually vested in a pro-Vice Chancellor supported by specialist staff. 15

Previous studies using OLS evidence indicate attending a voucher school in primary education does increase educational achievement, but that the impact is relatively small. This type of evidence has been used to argue that parental schooling and attendance in a private school are the most important factors in accessing better education. Others have used this evidence against the voucher system arguing no impact of private provider on school performance. This argument is questionable for at least two reasons. First, the actual evidence is not robust in the sense that only OLS estimates have been provided, which are biased due to endogeneity of school choice. Second, even though the outcomes associated with private and public school providers were similar, they could be explained by the competitive pressure of the private schools forcing the public schools to be equally efficient.

This paper began by examining access inequality to higher education in India in terms of estimating the likelihood that persons, aged 18-22 years, would be currently attending higher education (in HEA) courses, conditional on their social group, gender, poverty status, location, and marital status while allowing for interaction between these elements. Using the method of inequality decomposition the paper then computed the proportionate contribution of these factors to inter- personal inequality in the probabilities of 18-22 year olds in India being in HEA with the largest contributors being social group and poverty, followed by location, with a very small contribution by gender. The computation of access inequality – that is, aggregating group proportions in HEA and in the 18-22 year old population to arrive at a scalar measure of inequality – revealed a dramatic fall in access inequality between the 64 th and the 71 st NSS rounds. This fact, combined with a sharp rise in the Gross Tertiary Enrolment Rate between the two rounds, would suggest that in the past seven years there has been considerable achievement in higher education in India.

Furthermore, they ought to provide federal funds for massive investment in research and development to increase the knowledge base, which would in turn allow for a better understanding of the problem. Finally, a third recommendation is needed with regard to student retention. In order to promote retention, inducements need to be targeted to the social disparities that permeate Brazilian society, given that school abandonment is mostly due to the fact that students are not able to balance their financial responsibilities with college costs. Nevertheless, if policies regarding investments in primary and secondary schools, coupled with programs to expand capacities of public universities are implemented, the problem of student retention will tend to be ameliorated. After all, stimulating and inspiring quality education and well-equipped school and campuses are both necessary conditions to foster retention.

This qualitative, phenomenological study was conducted to explore the lived experiences of 12 Afghan women enrolled in higher education institutions in Afghanistan. The objective was to develop an understanding of the participants’ perceptions of the factors that led to their enrollment in higher education and the factors that inhibit Afghan women from participating in higher education. Data were collected through a demographic questionnaire; one-on-one, face-to- face interviews; and an open-ended questionnaire. The interview and questionnaire data were analyzed using Moustakas’s modified van Kaam method. The following themes were identified through the data analysis: (1) Barriers inhibit Afghan women from obtaining higher education, (2) Afghan women perceive benefits of obtaining higher education, (3) Afghan women who enter higher education institutions have similar characteristics, and (4) educated Afghan women have opportunities to improve Afghanistan. These themes indicate that Afghan women may face many barriers to obtaining higher education; however, the barriers can be penetrated when Afghan women have financial stability and middle-class status, a responsible and supportive family, self-motivation, support of religious leaders, support of higher education leaders, and belief in the value of higher education. When Afghan women overcome the barriers and obtain higher education, they are more likely to feel capable of improving their lives and the lives of family members. Through obtaining higher education, Afghan women may also feel empowered to assist in Afghanistan’s reconstruction process.

Female-headed households, large households, and households in urban areas are all more likely to be poor. The urbanization of poverty is striking and has been accentuated by migration from rural areas and attributed to urban poverty. Poverty has a direct impact on education attainment of children. Although there are no tuition fees for secondary education, poor households, already short of cash, must bear the burden of other expenditures that come with sending their children to school. Poor families often find it difficult to meet standards for dress, hygiene and supplies for school. For example, children may be excused from wearing the deel, Mongolian traditional clothing and boots used in the herder camps, but other types of clothes and shoes must be purchased with cash, which is always deficit for herders. Many rural children travel long distances to school on horseback and thus are vulnerable to harsh weather conditions. Parents in more remote districts enroll their children in schools at the soum center and therefore must find accommodation for them, either with relatives or in dormitories. Boarding costs used to be paid in approximately 40 kilograms of meat per year, with a discount for siblings as an incentive for herders to send their children to school.

Future Directions Clearly, there have been for years and continue to be systematic efforts at raising the level of preparation and readiness of all students for post- secondary education. The basic prob- lem is that none of these programs are broad enough to provide services to all disadvantaged students. Some researchers have labeled these pro- grams as “wheel of fortune” opportu- nities for children; unless students are lucky enough to be in a specific school—or sometimes a specific class—they miss out on these support services (Gladieux and Swail, 1998). The hope is that the investment in strategic school reform, teaching and learning standards, and other drivers of educational progress will help alleviate many of the inequities in the school system. In the interim, to serve the most disadvantaged students, we suggest that educators and policymakers focus on the following four areas:

6.1.7.2 Delays in procurement processes Decisions by the leadership of the Faculty of Education created challenges in 2014/2015 academic year that restricted access to education for blind students enrolled at the university. Evident in the documents found and analysed is the experience of Thomas whose learning was compromised for a period of about six months by events described below. Thomas was affected by resignation of the university’s first SENA who left with his personal computer that installed valuable software for running the SENU’s Embosser machine. Though a request had been made to the university bursary to buy SENA a new laptop and retrieve his personal laptop with the software, the procurement process was delayed. It was stated that the delay could have caused the student emotional problems. During the period he did not receive notes and other study material in braille and also failed to write tests. He wrote to the Dean-FED making her aware that he would miss four of the first semester examinations and requested that his problem be addressed. Writing rescheduled examinations for Thomas was a huge inconvenience as he had to miss classes, write a test on the same day as the one scheduled for the examination, thus, limiting time for preparing to study for examinations, tests and attending normal classes.

accepting an adult life as mindless, dependent, sub-consciously depressed beings by the kind of gender specified roles they are fitted into Odora, (1993) Risman, (2004) also in her publication titled Gender and Society indicated the same sentiments about how the attitudes of society influence the education of women. She revealed in her study that whatever position a women is placed in, she is expected to play her role as a good mother as demanded by society. Such attitudes of the society normally impede access of women higher education thereby widening the gap between males and females in education. She further pointed out that no matter one’s education, occupation or status women are seen as inferior, while men are seen as superior. This has made it difficult for higher education disparities between men and women to be resolved. It is exceedingly clear that, the ideas portrayed, the way socio-cultural attitudes and traditions often determine the status of girls and women in society. It shows that, culturally, the place of women is in the home. The expectation that girls will eventually marry and become housewives means that what they learn at home is considered to more important than what they learn at school. Hence, the norm would be for girls to stay close to their mothers as they grow up and learn household skills and behaviors that prepare them to see their formal roles as wives and future mothers. These socio-cultural beliefs cause parents to see the formal and of course higher education of females as a deviation from accepted societal norms and practice. Higher education is, therefore, sometimes not perceived as appropriate for girls and is consequently not valued; these immensely contribute to females being excluded from the labor markets due to a gender gap in higher education.