It has been almost five years since Michigan voters chose to ban race-conscious programs from state-funded institutions. The impact of the decision was swift and painful for many, particularly in the state's public higher education landscape. Minority enrollment in public colleges--which was already low--plummeted in many categories as…

Prejudice and systematic discrimination have often been mentioned as major causes for the chronic underachievement of Roma students. In this paper we present a case study of a Romanian teacher involved in Second Chance, an educational program implemented in Romania in 2004 for the benefit of disadvantaged groups such as the Roma population. Since…

Through 14 years of teaching music in the Greater Toronto Area, the "music makes you smarter" notion has imbued many of the conversations I have had with multiple stakeholders in public education. Such conversations have suggested that the ancillary benefits of teaching music have now become the principal reason why we teach music--what…

This report documents the upward trend in "secret shopping" among today's prospective student Web users, along with the latest changes in electronic communications technologies used by college and university admissions offices. The report is based on a survey of college and university enrollment and admissions officers across the U.S. in March…

This paper explores the complex ways in which the marketisation of education and the associated publication of performance data have contributed to the emergence of a new politics of recognition which has paradoxically served further to naturalise educational inequalities. Of all the reforms associated with subjecting education to market forces,…

4-H youth development programs nationwide are responding to the 4-H National Science, Engineering, and Technology (4-H SET) Initiative to involve more youth in Science, Engineering, and Technology activities. The goal is to increase the numbers of youth choosing to pursue SET careers. This article describes a program that is having great success…

The quest for engineers during the past boom and predictions of future shortages have focused attention on the low enrolment figures in science and technology (S&T) subjects. Normally, it is assumed that young people shy away from "tough majors" or make irrational choices, based on an absence of information. While not denying the…

This presentation identifies emerging themes in a study combining documentation analysis (Atkinson & Coffey, 2004) and interviews that examine policy statements, promotional materials and various institutional documents from selected English as a Second Language (ESL) programs at one Canadian University. It looks at how and why ESL programs…

Purpose: The global market for international students have become highly competitive and many institutions, particularly higher education institutions, rely heavily on fee income from overseas students. This study aims to examine the countries from which Australian education institutions draw such students and used this information to better…

This article reports that with world markets shuddering, higher education remains one of the few bright spots in a gloomy global economic landscape, prompting already stiff competition for international students to become even more heated. Leading destination countries like Australia, Britain, Canada, and the United States have all posted recent…

Not long ago Japanese campuses were Spartan affairs with few frills American students take for granted. But times have changed. College enrollments are plummeting as Japan's supply of youngsters dries up and universities prepare for a profound shakeout that could see more than a quarter of all campuses closing in the next few years. Now, Japanese…

Tens of thousands of international students every year use local recruiters in their homeland to help them get into colleges abroad. Despite the proliferation of the Internet, with e-mail and applications that can be submitted online, students in the developing world still heavily depend on commissioned agents to help them navigate what is to many…

The Fulbright Program is one of the most successful fellowship programs around. About 1,500 students and 1,300 scholars from the United States and abroad are studying and working on Fulbrights this academic year. But the U.S. State Department, which oversees the program, has been concerned in recent years about the lack of diversity among American…

More prominent in the 21st century than ever are the internationalization of the competition for talents, the globalization of their mobility, and the diversity of the demand for them. This article analyzes the major features and content of the international cooperation and exchanges, and further discusses their tactics and measures in the process…

This research explores the factors that affect persistence decisions of undergraduate students at a small, private, liberal arts college. Pre-institutional commitment, the commitment to a specific higher education institution by a student prior to arriving on campus for the first academic term, is examined for its effect on student persistence…