Affirmative action in higher education can lead to mismatch, where students admitted through preferential treatment struggle academically due to inadequate preparation before college. Although some students may face initial challenges, by providing access to quality education for talented individuals who might have otherwise been overlooked due to…

Following the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 decision in "SFFA v. Harvard" to upend nearly fifty years of legal precedent for race-conscious admissions, this article summarizes arguments grounded in decades of social science research that sought to dispel the erroneous claims put forth by the plaintiffs. In critiquing the inaccuracies and…

This article examines how Affirmative Action was used to govern access to higher education for the disadvantaged. In 1991, a gender-based Affirmative Action policy was incorporated into college admission in Uganda. Using existing empirical data at district and college levels, the article accounts for the categories of women for whom the Uganda's…

When students are admitted through admissions preferences--especially when the preferences are large and the students pursue demanding fields of study--do they benefit from going to a more selective school? Or, instead, do they suffer from being "mismatched" with their peers--falling behind, becoming frustrated, receiving low grades, and…

Research has shown that access to technology industry pathways and support for recruitment, retention, and advancement through technology careers remain inequitable for Black talent due to various systemic barriers. To help address this issue, Digital Promise conducted research that centers the voices and lived experiences of Black workers and…

In this article, we examine and explore how the recent US Supreme Court case on affirmative action within higher education will shape and contextualize disproportionate minority representation and its monitoring within a K-12 public school context for students with disabilities. That is, as the litigation and ultimate judicial decision shape how…

In response to disparities in postsecondary access, governments have enacted policies to facilitate the admission of traditionally underrepresented students. Known as affirmative action in the United States, the legal justification of this approach has varied. This article describes the legal and political history of affirmative action, the social…

Social inclusion policy in higher education--also referenced as affirmative action, reservations, schedules, or antidiscrimination--has been used widely to promote equity and access for minority and historically discriminated subgroups who wish to participate in tertiary education. Inclusion is often protected de jure through a country's…

When President Biden nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson for the U.S. Supreme Court, it seemed like a major civil rights victory. But that victory could feel like a bitter irony this fall, when the high court hears two cases that will likely obliterate affirmative action. If Jackson gets approved by the Senate, she will probably be making two…

Affirmative Action is a contested concept in the United States (U.S.). "Fisher v. the University of Texas" (UT) is a key recent case focused on Fisher, a White woman, an alleged victim of discrimination. Fisher spurred online discussion about race as a factor in university admissions. The authors analyzed 13,158 tweets using #StayMadAbby…

This study investigates the associations between statewide affirmative action bans and the racial composition of undergraduate students at public 4-year colleges and universities in five states, that is, Arizona, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma. I use the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System data from 1999 to 2017, and…

This paper estimates the long-run impacts of banning affirmative action on men and women from under-represented minority (URM) racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Using data from the US Census and American Community Survey, we use a difference-in-differences framework to compare the college degree completion, graduate degree completion,…

The debate over race-conscious admissions has gained prominence, notably in cases such as Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. In debates on race-conscious admissions, the question is often not whether a student will go to college, but which college the student will attend. Using data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009, we…

Several misconceptions shape the discourse on affirmative action and Asian Americans, and institutions of higher education should do more to challenge these myths and educate the public about the realities of this debate.

The current study focuses on the role of peacebuilding in the higher education sector of Pakistan's conflict-affected region of Balochistan. The research is an extended case study of the University of Balochistan. It addresses how the institution's peacebuilding agency has evolved in the face of ethnic conflict and the neoliberal reforms pursued…