The college-educated are more likely to vote than are those with less education. Prior research suggests that the effect of college attendance on voting operates directly, by increasing an individual's interest and engagement in politics through social networks or human capital accumulation. College may also increase voting indirectly by leading…

This study aimed to identify whether motivation to learn has a statistically significant effect on intergenerational educational mobility among Brazilian university students. Although qualitative studies have proposed the existence of this relationship, quantitative evidence still needs to be discovered. We sought to identify the characteristics…

While it has been shown that university attendance is strongly predicted by parental education, we know very little about why some potential first-generation students make it to university and others do not. This paper looks at the role of non-cognitive skills in the university participation of this disadvantaged group in England. We find that…

Purpose: Postsecondary institutions use metrics such as student retention and college completion rates to measure student success. Multiple factors affect the success of first time in college (FTIC) and transfer students. Transfer student success rates are significantly low, with most transfer students nationwide failing to complete their degrees…

U.S. studies have found that stratified graduate education accounts for most of the relatively strong intergenerational socioeconomic association among postgraduate degree holders. The same association has been observed, but not explained, in countries with higher education systems that differ from that of the United States. We explore the…

Scant sociological attention has been given to the role of luck within social mobility/reproduction. This paper helps address this conceptual gap, drawing on insights from over 200 longitudinal interviews conducted with 20 working-class young people and 22 of their parents over an 11-year period, from age 10-21. We explore the potential…

While the scholarly work on the second generation of immigrants has scrutinised both high educational achievers and marginalised groups, less attention has been paid to those in between and their aspirations. In this article, we draw on interviews with 35 adolescents pursuing vocational education in Norway. Our analysis takes as its point of…

This report presents a synthesis of literature--published since 2008--that demonstrates significant impact in each of the key student outcomes of access, retention, attainment, and progression. This builds on a number of key Higher Education Academy (HEA) publications or projects from the past five years that have addressed issues associated with…

Community colleges have made great strides in advancing student success and completion during the last decade. But not all students have benefited from these efforts equally. According to the Lumina Foundation, the postsecondary attainment rate for adults in the United States is around 40 percent. Yet, there are still large gaps in attainment…

This paper provides the first quantitative analysis on 'first in family' (FiF) university graduates in the UK. Using a nationally representative dataset that covers a recent cohort in England, we identify the proportion of FiF young people at age 25 as 18%, comprising nearly two-thirds of university graduates. Comparing groups with no parental…

We employ 2011 European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions survey data for Austria to perform uni- and multivariate econometric analyses to study the role of gender and migration background (MB) in intergenerational educational mobility. We find that there is more persistence in the educational attainment of girls relative to their…

Researchers and policymakers argue that expanding college access is one way to increase opportunities for students who would become the first in their families to enroll in a postsecondary institution. This article uses measures of educational attainment in the previous two generations to consider whether parents' own histories of educational…

The stratification of opportunities and disparate outcomes for Black and Latino boys and men has been well documented. However, there remains a lack of awareness about the extent to which these issues are relevant for the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. This brief focuses on key status and leading indicators for the mobility…

The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) has produced new reporting tools of graduate wage outcomes out to twenty years post completion. These reports are available at the statewide level by program discipline (two-digit level of the Classification of Instructional Programs). It was found that reported wages increase by level of…

We study the effects of the large expansion in British educational attainment that took place for cohorts born between 1970 and 1975. Using the Quarterly Labour Force Survey, we find that the expansion caused men to increase education by about a year on average and gain about 8% higher wages; women obtained a slightly greater increase in education…