ABSTRACT International students aiming to study abroad form a highly heterogeneous group. Differe... more ABSTRACT International students aiming to study abroad form a highly heterogeneous group. Differences in academic preparedness and financial resources translate into differences in what information students look for and where they look for it during their college search. Based on the survey response of nearly 1,600 prospective international students from 115 countries collected October 2011 through March 2012, we segment international students into four distinct groups: highfliers, strivers, explorers and strugglers. We find significant difference in their information needs and use of information channels. It suggests that higher education institutions need to gain a better understanding differences of international student profiles so as to prioritize their outreach strategies. In particular, debates about the use of agents and social media should be grounded in an understanding of which segments use those channels and whether the institution is interested in recruiting those segments. Comprehensive report available for download from WENR link.
ABSTRACT International students aiming to study abroad form a highly heterogeneous group. Differe... more ABSTRACT International students aiming to study abroad form a highly heterogeneous group. Differences in academic preparedness and financial resources translate into differences in what information students look for and where they look for it during their college search. Based on the survey response of nearly 1,600 prospective international students from 115 countries collected October 2011 through March 2012, we segment international students into four distinct groups: highfliers, strivers, explorers and strugglers. We find significant difference in their information needs and use of information channels. It suggests that higher education institutions need to gain a better understanding differences of international student profiles so as to prioritize their outreach strategies. In particular, debates about the use of agents and social media should be grounded in an understanding of which segments use those channels and whether the institution is interested in recruiting those segments. Comprehensive report available for download from WENR link.
European Higher Education Area: The Impact of Past and Future Policies, 2018
University autonomy is a concept that is difficult to pin down, as its meaning tends to vary acro... more University autonomy is a concept that is difficult to pin down, as its meaning tends to vary across national contexts and over time (Iwinska and Matei n.d.
Annual Review of Comparative and International Education 2016, 2016
In this chapter, we reflect on how we frame our research on international scholarship programs wi... more In this chapter, we reflect on how we frame our research on international scholarship programs within the field of comparative and international education and identify perspectives that influence our research. We also briefly describe the theories that shape our research: human capital theory and sociological perspectives that emphasize the centrality of context. We discuss emerging research on international scholarship programs and identify fruitful future directions for comparative and international research on higher education.
This study describes the political and economic context of California and provides an overview of... more This study describes the political and economic context of California and provides an overview of higher education performance during the last two decades. Our aim is to explore the policies in place within the state and the relationship between these policies and California’s declining higher education performance, and to call for a reexamination of these policies by stakeholders in order to help California meet its current and future economic needs.
Theory and Method in Higher Education Research, 2020
Higher education researchers are often challenged by the difficulty of empirically validating cau... more Higher education researchers are often challenged by the difficulty of empirically validating causal links posited by theories or inferred from correlational observations. The instrumental variable (IV) estimation strategy is one approach that researchers can use to estimate the causal impact of various higher education–related interventions. In this chapter, we discuss how the body of quantitative research specifically devoted to higher education has made use of the IV estimation strategy: we describe how this estimation strategy was used to address causality concerns and provide examples of the types of IVs that were used in various subfields of higher education research. Our discussion is based on a systematic review of a corpus of econometric studies on higher education–related issues that spans the last 30 years. The chapter concludes with a critical discussion of the use of IVs in quantitative higher education research and a discussion of good practices when using an IV estimation strategy.
cooperation Kata Orosz and Daniela Crăciun 08 February 2019 Transnational cooperation in teaching... more cooperation Kata Orosz and Daniela Crăciun 08 February 2019 Transnational cooperation in teaching and research has historically been at the core of internationalisation activities in higher education institutions. National governments in every geopolitical region of the world have embraced cooperation as a way to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of higher education systems. But what do we know about the actual costs and benefits of international cooperation? According to a systematic review of the last 25 years of research, not much. Assumed benefits and costs The assumed benefits of international cooperation in higher education spread far and wide:
Governments have been looking for ways to reduce the costs and maximise the benefits of higher ed... more Governments have been looking for ways to reduce the costs and maximise the benefits of higher education. Fostering cooperation between higher education institutions is one of the strategic options chosen by European countries in order to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of their higher education systems. This report draws on a systematic review of empirical evidence to summarise what is known and what is not known about the economic and non-economic benefits and costs associated with transnational cooperation in higher education. The analytical framework used to review empirical evidence on the benefits and costs of transnational collaborative partnerships reflects the understanding that: 1) benefits and costs occur at different levels: macro (regional/national), meso (institutional) and micro (individual); and 2) benefits and costs can be: economic or non-economic (academic, socio-cultural and political)
Insights from theory and prior research suggest that student background characteristics, student ... more Insights from theory and prior research suggest that student background characteristics, student financial resources, student college experiences, institutional characteristics and state characteristics are related to student loan use and amount borrowed. It is not clear to what extent student financial resources and college experiences may explain who borrows and how much, net of differences in student background characteristics and characteristics of the institutions and states where the students attended college. In this study I use data from the cross-sectional, nationally representative National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:12) to identify predictors of student loan use and amount borrowed among undergraduate students enrolled in bachelor’s degree programs at four-year public, private nonprofit and for-profit institutions in the U.S. I use descriptive statistics and zero-inflated negative binomial regression analyses to identify the proportion of students who borrowed; average amount of student loans borrowed; predictors of student loan use; predictors of how much is borrowed; and how predictors of student loan use and amount borrowed vary by institutional control. I find that student, institutional and state characteristics are significantly related to the odds of participation in borrowing. The role of student financial resources and college experiences is small and the role of institutional and state characteristics is modest at best in explaining how much participating students borrow. Findings from this study expand scholarly knowledge about patterns and predictors of borrowing among undergraduates at public, private nonprofit and for-profit four-year institutions, and suggest that federal, state, and institutional policies in the U.S. may be most effective in decreasing student loan debt if they are designed to decrease the odds that students will participate in borrowing
This study uses critical discourse analysis to explain how legislators determine the role and con... more This study uses critical discourse analysis to explain how legislators determine the role and contributions of academic researchers in Congressional legislative hearings. The discursive practices that legislators use serve to construct the social identity of academic witnesses, characterize witnesses’ qualifications, solicit information from witnesses, frame comments from witnesses, and amplify and mitigate witness testimony. The findings make visible the ways that legislators use the power of their positions to depict academic witnesses as both experts who offer independent knowledge and experts who validate or confirm a legislator’s preferences and priorities. The results have implications for academics who seek to improve connections between research and policy, and academics who seek to further advance the production of knowledge of federal policymaking processes.
In this study, I use data from the PIAAC 2012 survey and instrumental variable regression to iden... more In this study, I use data from the PIAAC 2012 survey and instrumental variable regression to identify predictors of adult skill proficiency in three Central European countries. I find that higher education attainment and work experience are both predictive of cognitive skill proficiency, and that even after accounting for differences in socioeconomic background, higher education credentials in Central Europe capture important information about adult skills.
International Journal of Educational Development, 2015
This study utilizes qualitative research methods to explore the human capital benefits of one gov... more This study utilizes qualitative research methods to explore the human capital benefits of one government-sponsored international scholarship program-Kazakhstan's Bolashak Scholars Program-and how program characteristics and other forces promote and limit these benefits. The findings raise a number of questions for policymakers, administrators, and researchers about how a government-sponsored international scholarship program should be structured so as to maximize human capital development for individuals and the sponsoring nation.
The idea that higher education institutions receiving public funds should be accountable for work... more The idea that higher education institutions receiving public funds should be accountable for working towards socially desirable goals became increasingly popular on both sides of the Atlantic since the early 1990s. Policies have been introduced to promote accountability in higher education, including various models of performance assessment and performance, or output-based, funding. This paper offers an overview of recent empirical research on performance funding policies in the US and Europe. It compares and contrasts findings from multi-state stakeholder analyses, along with a review of preliminary evidence on the impact of performance funding policies on institutional behaviour and institutional performance. The systematic review of research evidence reveals that higher education institutions with a joint teaching-research mission are more likely to oppose performance funding measures than other academic and non-academic stakeholders, and that academic stakeholders consider performance funds an additional revenue source. The impact of performance funding policies on institutional behaviour and performance is found to be modest at best across studies.
Although prior research establishes the forces that "push" and "pull" students to participate in ... more Although prior research establishes the forces that "push" and "pull" students to participate in foreign study, the transferability of findings from earlier studies is limited by the absence of theoretical grounding. In addition, relatively little is known about how a government-sponsored student mobility program promotes foreign study in a nation with a transitioning economy. Using case study methods, this study explores the characteristics of students who participate in such a program and identifies the programmatic characteristics and contextual forces that promote and limit participation. The findings shed light on the appropriate theoretical perspectives for understanding student participation in a government-sponsored mobility program and illustrate the need to consider how aspects of the national cultural, economic, and political context influence participation. The findings also raise several questions about how an international student mobility program should be structured to encourage participation and maximize benefits to individuals and society within a particular national context.
European Higher Education Area: Challenges for a New Decade, 2020
The chapter sets out to answer a question that has long been on the mind of policy-makers, univer... more The chapter sets out to answer a question that has long been on the mind of policy-makers, university leaders, scholars and students: does international student credit mobility have a positive impact on graduate employability? Traditionally, this question has been answered using survey data where internationally mobile students self-report their employment situation at a certain point after graduation. According to these studies, international student mobility positively affects the labour market outcomes of students. For instance, the European Commission reports that: (1) students who completed an Erasmus mobility program are half as likely to face long-term unemployment; (2) the unemployment rate of Erasmus students is 23% lower five years after graduation (European Commission 2014). While these studies provide important insights about the benefits associated with the cross-border credit mobility of students, the results can be plagued by self-selection bias in reporting post-mobi...
ABSTRACT International students aiming to study abroad form a highly heterogeneous group. Differe... more ABSTRACT International students aiming to study abroad form a highly heterogeneous group. Differences in academic preparedness and financial resources translate into differences in what information students look for and where they look for it during their college search. Based on the survey response of nearly 1,600 prospective international students from 115 countries collected October 2011 through March 2012, we segment international students into four distinct groups: highfliers, strivers, explorers and strugglers. We find significant difference in their information needs and use of information channels. It suggests that higher education institutions need to gain a better understanding differences of international student profiles so as to prioritize their outreach strategies. In particular, debates about the use of agents and social media should be grounded in an understanding of which segments use those channels and whether the institution is interested in recruiting those segments. Comprehensive report available for download from WENR link.
ABSTRACT International students aiming to study abroad form a highly heterogeneous group. Differe... more ABSTRACT International students aiming to study abroad form a highly heterogeneous group. Differences in academic preparedness and financial resources translate into differences in what information students look for and where they look for it during their college search. Based on the survey response of nearly 1,600 prospective international students from 115 countries collected October 2011 through March 2012, we segment international students into four distinct groups: highfliers, strivers, explorers and strugglers. We find significant difference in their information needs and use of information channels. It suggests that higher education institutions need to gain a better understanding differences of international student profiles so as to prioritize their outreach strategies. In particular, debates about the use of agents and social media should be grounded in an understanding of which segments use those channels and whether the institution is interested in recruiting those segments. Comprehensive report available for download from WENR link.
European Higher Education Area: The Impact of Past and Future Policies, 2018
University autonomy is a concept that is difficult to pin down, as its meaning tends to vary acro... more University autonomy is a concept that is difficult to pin down, as its meaning tends to vary across national contexts and over time (Iwinska and Matei n.d.
Annual Review of Comparative and International Education 2016, 2016
In this chapter, we reflect on how we frame our research on international scholarship programs wi... more In this chapter, we reflect on how we frame our research on international scholarship programs within the field of comparative and international education and identify perspectives that influence our research. We also briefly describe the theories that shape our research: human capital theory and sociological perspectives that emphasize the centrality of context. We discuss emerging research on international scholarship programs and identify fruitful future directions for comparative and international research on higher education.
This study describes the political and economic context of California and provides an overview of... more This study describes the political and economic context of California and provides an overview of higher education performance during the last two decades. Our aim is to explore the policies in place within the state and the relationship between these policies and California’s declining higher education performance, and to call for a reexamination of these policies by stakeholders in order to help California meet its current and future economic needs.
Theory and Method in Higher Education Research, 2020
Higher education researchers are often challenged by the difficulty of empirically validating cau... more Higher education researchers are often challenged by the difficulty of empirically validating causal links posited by theories or inferred from correlational observations. The instrumental variable (IV) estimation strategy is one approach that researchers can use to estimate the causal impact of various higher education–related interventions. In this chapter, we discuss how the body of quantitative research specifically devoted to higher education has made use of the IV estimation strategy: we describe how this estimation strategy was used to address causality concerns and provide examples of the types of IVs that were used in various subfields of higher education research. Our discussion is based on a systematic review of a corpus of econometric studies on higher education–related issues that spans the last 30 years. The chapter concludes with a critical discussion of the use of IVs in quantitative higher education research and a discussion of good practices when using an IV estimation strategy.
cooperation Kata Orosz and Daniela Crăciun 08 February 2019 Transnational cooperation in teaching... more cooperation Kata Orosz and Daniela Crăciun 08 February 2019 Transnational cooperation in teaching and research has historically been at the core of internationalisation activities in higher education institutions. National governments in every geopolitical region of the world have embraced cooperation as a way to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of higher education systems. But what do we know about the actual costs and benefits of international cooperation? According to a systematic review of the last 25 years of research, not much. Assumed benefits and costs The assumed benefits of international cooperation in higher education spread far and wide:
Governments have been looking for ways to reduce the costs and maximise the benefits of higher ed... more Governments have been looking for ways to reduce the costs and maximise the benefits of higher education. Fostering cooperation between higher education institutions is one of the strategic options chosen by European countries in order to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of their higher education systems. This report draws on a systematic review of empirical evidence to summarise what is known and what is not known about the economic and non-economic benefits and costs associated with transnational cooperation in higher education. The analytical framework used to review empirical evidence on the benefits and costs of transnational collaborative partnerships reflects the understanding that: 1) benefits and costs occur at different levels: macro (regional/national), meso (institutional) and micro (individual); and 2) benefits and costs can be: economic or non-economic (academic, socio-cultural and political)
Insights from theory and prior research suggest that student background characteristics, student ... more Insights from theory and prior research suggest that student background characteristics, student financial resources, student college experiences, institutional characteristics and state characteristics are related to student loan use and amount borrowed. It is not clear to what extent student financial resources and college experiences may explain who borrows and how much, net of differences in student background characteristics and characteristics of the institutions and states where the students attended college. In this study I use data from the cross-sectional, nationally representative National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:12) to identify predictors of student loan use and amount borrowed among undergraduate students enrolled in bachelor’s degree programs at four-year public, private nonprofit and for-profit institutions in the U.S. I use descriptive statistics and zero-inflated negative binomial regression analyses to identify the proportion of students who borrowed; average amount of student loans borrowed; predictors of student loan use; predictors of how much is borrowed; and how predictors of student loan use and amount borrowed vary by institutional control. I find that student, institutional and state characteristics are significantly related to the odds of participation in borrowing. The role of student financial resources and college experiences is small and the role of institutional and state characteristics is modest at best in explaining how much participating students borrow. Findings from this study expand scholarly knowledge about patterns and predictors of borrowing among undergraduates at public, private nonprofit and for-profit four-year institutions, and suggest that federal, state, and institutional policies in the U.S. may be most effective in decreasing student loan debt if they are designed to decrease the odds that students will participate in borrowing
This study uses critical discourse analysis to explain how legislators determine the role and con... more This study uses critical discourse analysis to explain how legislators determine the role and contributions of academic researchers in Congressional legislative hearings. The discursive practices that legislators use serve to construct the social identity of academic witnesses, characterize witnesses’ qualifications, solicit information from witnesses, frame comments from witnesses, and amplify and mitigate witness testimony. The findings make visible the ways that legislators use the power of their positions to depict academic witnesses as both experts who offer independent knowledge and experts who validate or confirm a legislator’s preferences and priorities. The results have implications for academics who seek to improve connections between research and policy, and academics who seek to further advance the production of knowledge of federal policymaking processes.
In this study, I use data from the PIAAC 2012 survey and instrumental variable regression to iden... more In this study, I use data from the PIAAC 2012 survey and instrumental variable regression to identify predictors of adult skill proficiency in three Central European countries. I find that higher education attainment and work experience are both predictive of cognitive skill proficiency, and that even after accounting for differences in socioeconomic background, higher education credentials in Central Europe capture important information about adult skills.
International Journal of Educational Development, 2015
This study utilizes qualitative research methods to explore the human capital benefits of one gov... more This study utilizes qualitative research methods to explore the human capital benefits of one government-sponsored international scholarship program-Kazakhstan's Bolashak Scholars Program-and how program characteristics and other forces promote and limit these benefits. The findings raise a number of questions for policymakers, administrators, and researchers about how a government-sponsored international scholarship program should be structured so as to maximize human capital development for individuals and the sponsoring nation.
The idea that higher education institutions receiving public funds should be accountable for work... more The idea that higher education institutions receiving public funds should be accountable for working towards socially desirable goals became increasingly popular on both sides of the Atlantic since the early 1990s. Policies have been introduced to promote accountability in higher education, including various models of performance assessment and performance, or output-based, funding. This paper offers an overview of recent empirical research on performance funding policies in the US and Europe. It compares and contrasts findings from multi-state stakeholder analyses, along with a review of preliminary evidence on the impact of performance funding policies on institutional behaviour and institutional performance. The systematic review of research evidence reveals that higher education institutions with a joint teaching-research mission are more likely to oppose performance funding measures than other academic and non-academic stakeholders, and that academic stakeholders consider performance funds an additional revenue source. The impact of performance funding policies on institutional behaviour and performance is found to be modest at best across studies.
Although prior research establishes the forces that "push" and "pull" students to participate in ... more Although prior research establishes the forces that "push" and "pull" students to participate in foreign study, the transferability of findings from earlier studies is limited by the absence of theoretical grounding. In addition, relatively little is known about how a government-sponsored student mobility program promotes foreign study in a nation with a transitioning economy. Using case study methods, this study explores the characteristics of students who participate in such a program and identifies the programmatic characteristics and contextual forces that promote and limit participation. The findings shed light on the appropriate theoretical perspectives for understanding student participation in a government-sponsored mobility program and illustrate the need to consider how aspects of the national cultural, economic, and political context influence participation. The findings also raise several questions about how an international student mobility program should be structured to encourage participation and maximize benefits to individuals and society within a particular national context.
European Higher Education Area: Challenges for a New Decade, 2020
The chapter sets out to answer a question that has long been on the mind of policy-makers, univer... more The chapter sets out to answer a question that has long been on the mind of policy-makers, university leaders, scholars and students: does international student credit mobility have a positive impact on graduate employability? Traditionally, this question has been answered using survey data where internationally mobile students self-report their employment situation at a certain point after graduation. According to these studies, international student mobility positively affects the labour market outcomes of students. For instance, the European Commission reports that: (1) students who completed an Erasmus mobility program are half as likely to face long-term unemployment; (2) the unemployment rate of Erasmus students is 23% lower five years after graduation (European Commission 2014). While these studies provide important insights about the benefits associated with the cross-border credit mobility of students, the results can be plagued by self-selection bias in reporting post-mobi...
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