This dissertation presents a collection of three essays on the economics of higher education. Although these essays were conceived as independent research projects, they all concern higher education in Chile. For that reason, I begin in chapter 1 with a general overview of Chile's higher education system. I briefly describe the institutional…

The continued underserving of Maori and Pasifika communities by New Zealand universities has resulted in the need to hold universities and the wider tertiary education system to account through widespread data analysis. This paper analyses Maori and Pasifika enrolment in the Society and Culture and Natural and Physical Sciences fields of Aotearoa…

Talented students from underserved backgrounds face many barriers to attaining higher education. Two of the most significant impediments are the low quality of primary and secondary schools they attend and the lack of access to top-tier universities providing sufficient financial aid and targeted support. Lower levels of educational attainment are…

Young men are significantly less likely to enter higher education than young women, and they are also more likely to drop out and less likely to achieve a highly-graded degree. There are many causes and the disparity in educational achievement starts long before higher education. Yet, while this issue is better understood than it was, there has…

In this one-year qualitative study, the authors examined how border pedagogy is enacted by two Latino/a high school teachers in a border community in Southern California. Through classroom observations, the authors documented powerful student discussions that named complex borders (Giroux, 1992) that existed in their daily lives. We drew from…

It is argued that free-tuition higher education increases opportunity for underrepresented students with positive equity implications. Moreover, access to higher education for free expands existing visions of equal opportunity, as it changes aspirations and behavior. In 2015, Tennessee became the first state in the nation to implement a universal…

This article examines the inclusion of disabled students in the UK and Swedish higher education systems. In the United Kingdom, performance indicators focus on the participation rate of disabled students in comparison with those of non-disabled students, while in Sweden there are no specific performance indicators relating to disabled students.…

This paper brings together recent statistics relating to the participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in higher education. A number of key statistical realities relating to their enrolment into, retention during, and completion of, their university courses are depicted. Foremost among these realities is that despite…

Indigenous Australians are underrepresented and considerably disadvantaged within the Australian system of higher education. The various measures taken by Australian universities over the past decades have produced varying levels of success in increasing Indigenous participation and completion rates. In order to continue improving Indigenous…

This paper examined the gender imbalance among students in Nigeria's higher education and the possible ways to addressing them. The poor access of female gender to higher education in Nigeria has become a thing of great concern to all stakeholders such as School authorities, Government, International agencies and employers of labor. The paper…

This paper explores the drive to expand the quantity and quality of PhD's in South Africa and the impact this has had on under-represented groups, in particular black graduates. Based on both qualitative and quantitative data, the paper argues that while there has been a significant increase in the number of black students in doctoral education,…

British Colombia's Student Transitions Project (STP) is challenging long-held myths about the movement of students through the education system in that province and may become a catalyst for re-examining commonly held ideas about students' transition to post-secondary education across the country. The STP is a collaborative effort among B.C.'s…

Economic inequality is high and rising in a number of developed countries, including in the United Kingdom and the United States. There are growing concerns that this may have negative implications for equality of opportunity, and the extent to which social disadvantage is transmitted across generations. It is widely believed that providing…

The participation rate of Indigenous people in higher education is comparatively disparately low across all sectors. In this paper we examine the pivotal role of the university sector in addressing this inequity and releasing the potential for increased Indigenous enrolment, participation and completion in higher education. Indigenous higher…

For most of Minnesota's 150 years of statehood, its distinctive economic advantages were largely a function of its natural resources, such as timber, taconite and tourism. Today, while these and other resources remain cornerstones of the state economy, it is clear that the intellectual capacity of Minnesota's people is emerging as a promising…