The expansion of student international mobility has been discussed increasingly with respect to concerns about social inequality. The outbreak of the COVID pandemic has exacerbated the risks of studying abroad. Due to the differences in the ability of students from different social backgrounds to cope with risks, the inequality of opportunities…

Support for higher education is a known and well-documented venue for financial transfers within families, but practices of family support beyond college are less understood. Drawing on interviews with recent master's degrees recipients who have student debt, I find key class differences in the process and forms of family financial assistance for…

In recent decades, the income gap between low- and high-income families has widened in the United States. Although students from low-income households need to have opportunities for narrowing this gap by enrolling in and graduating from college, the higher education system reproduces the status quo in various ways. This outcome results partly from…

Purpose: This research examine participation in a dual enrollment program and a student's race and socioeconomic status. In addition to examining the college retention and graduation rates (student success) of dual and non-dual enrolled students, this study looked at potential race and socioeconomic disparities. Design/methodology/approach: A…

The benefits of growth in university enrolments are contingent on the articulation of university expansion with changes in other areas, particularly the economy. The costs of a mismatch are felt at the societal level, but especially by individual graduates. This article describes problems faced by professionals in one country that has experienced…

Studying abroad can positively influence students' personality development, transversal skills, and labour market outcomes. At the same time, students from a high social origin are more likely to study abroad than students from a low social origin. Against this background, recent research has suggested that international student mobility (ISM) may…

Despite evidence to the contrary, there is a continuing charge of 'poor quality courses' -- or that higher education provides little benefit to individuals -- some parts of the media and government. The Office for Students (OfS) acknowledges that 99% of students in England are on courses where employment outcomes satisfy requirements. There is a…

This article analyses whether Brazilian graduates feel that their higher education programmes have contributed to the development of civic competences (ethics, critical thinking and respect for diversity), necessary to become active citizens in a democratic and fair society. The analysis considers disciplines and students' socioeconomic and…

Given the dramatic risks and rewards to different graduate pathways, it is imperative to understand disparities in access to the highest levels of education. This paper responds to a tension between the traditional understanding that parents' education ceases to influence children's educational trajectories after college and the more recent…

Much research on adults in higher education has focused on issues of access and participation. As a result little is known about what happens to working-class students after leaving university even though employability is high on the agenda HE research on this topic in relation to such students is sparse. This research focuses on the voices of…

With support from the Boston Foundation, a team of organizations--NextGen Talent, the Boston Private Industry Council, and Burning Glass Technologies--conducted research to assess how well Boston Public Schools (BPS) graduates who attend four-year colleges are connecting to internships and good first jobs, along with the existing capacity in…

Framed within a Gramscian analytical perspective, this article contrasts the 'transparent neoliberalism' of one of its leading organic intellectuals, Friederich Hayek, with one of the key discourses of 'euphemized neoliberalism' in the UK: higher education's promise of social justice through social mobility. The article discusses the disjunctions…

This article extends Bourdieu's convertibility of different forms of capital to understand the patterns of study abroad by elite graduates from Peking University, China. We draw upon empirical data from a first-hand survey study involving 1,417 graduates from Peking University. The statistical analyses suggest a pattern of the conversions from…

In this article, we draw from a recent empirical study to consider how a person's classed trajectory impacts students from different class backgrounds in higher education (HE). Students face rapidly evolving social and academic circumstances and must build reasonable strategies to navigate their trajectory from education to work. In these…

Opportunity is not evenly spread across the country. A young person's socio-economic background -- including the income level of their family, their parents' educational qualifications, and their family's wealth -- all play a critical role in shaping their future. But as well as variations between families and across socio-economic groups, Britain…