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    Comparing and learning from English and American higher education access and completion policies

    Dougherty, K. and Callender, Claire (2020) Comparing and learning from English and American higher education access and completion policies. Policy Reviews in Higher Education 4 (2), pp. 203-227. ISSN 2332-2950.

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    Abstract

    England and the United States provide a very interesting pairing as countries with many similarities, but also instructive dissimilarities, with respect to their policies for higher education access and success. We focus on five key policy strands: student information provision; outreach from higher education institutions; student financial aid; affirmative action or contextualisation in higher education admissions; and programmes to improve higher education retention and completion. At the end, we draw conclusions on what England and the US can learn from each other. The US would benefit from following England in using Access and Participation Plans to govern university outreach efforts, making more use of income-contingent loans, and expanding the range of information provided to prospective higher education students. Meanwhile, England would benefit from following the US in making greater use of grant aid to students, devoting more policy attention to educational decisions students are making in early secondary school, and expanding its use of contextualised admissions. While we focus on England and the US, we think that the policy recommendations we make carry wider applicability. Many other countries with somewhat similar educational structures, experiences, and challenges could learn useful lessons from the policy experiences of these two countries.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): Higher education, Higher education policy, English higher education, US higher education, Higher education access, Higher education retetention, Higher education success, Information and guidance, Outreach from higher education institutions, Student financial aid, Affirmative action, Contextualisation in higher education
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences
    Depositing User: Claire Callender
    Date Deposited: 02 Mar 2020 13:16
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:58
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/31092

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