University admissions and access

Annotated references

Ben Wilbrink

Many issues and principles are involved in designing, maintaining and evaluating admissions. A very important class of issues are the practival ones, such procedures, deadlines, availability of examination results, etcetera. One such issue is whether students should apply before their examination results are available, should be allowed to apply early, to change their application after their examination results have come in, etcetera. In the United Kingdom, for example, the question is whether to move to a PQA system, a Post Qualification Admissions system. In the United States there is discussion about the fairness of the privilege allowed some students to apply earlier than other students. In the Netherlands discussion is more principled, the question being discussed whether to implement selective admissions at all. Practical issue number one is here the cost of such admissions procedures, while the predictive validity of these admissions procedures repeatedly proves way too low to justify even the costs. In the UK the costsmust be skyhigh also, the amazing thing is everybody seems to accept them as somehow unavoidable. Of course, it is theoretically possible to replace them with a very cheap lottery procedure, rpoving there must be some room for discussion and research into the issue whether these admissions are cost effective and fair to alle parties involved.

Elena L. Grigorenko, Linda Jarvin, Weihua Niu and David Preiss (2008). Is there a standard for standardized testing? Four sketches of the applicability (or lack thereof) of standardized testing in different educational systems. In Patrick C. Kyllonen, Richard D. Roberts and Lazar Stankov (Eds) (2008). Extending intelligence. Enhancement and new constructs (157-182). Erlbaum. [I do not know of any version that is aailable online]

• Table 9.1: Brief summaries of matriculation and college entry examinations administered in Chile, China, France and Russia.
• China, p. 164: "Recently, standardized tests have faced new criticisms from both psychologists and the public for their influential roles in people's lives and the limited validity of these tests in predicting future performance. More and more people are concerned about the overuse of standardized tests in people's everyday lives. However, despite this criticism, under government leadership, China is marching into a new era of using standardized tests as the major criteria in selecting the best of its vast human resources." p. 177: "In China, there is a need for a selection tool that will sort out the brightest of its huge population for a comparatively limited number of placements in higher education institutions."
• p. 177: "In Chile, the issue is matching—Who 'deserves' to go to what school?"p. 173: Russia is struggling to introduce the CSE (Common State Examination), an examination serving "as both a school graduation and a college entrance exam". p. 174: "When treated as a component of the admission process into higher education institutions, the CSE score determines not only acceptance, but also eligibility for and level of financial support. Clearly, the stakes of the CSE are very high."
• p. 177: In France, everyone can get higher education, and, moreover, get it virtually for free. Correspondingly, there is no need to bother with the expense and headache of developing and administering the machinery of standardized testing." p. 177: Russian governments can pay only about "30% of what it needs to support the standard-oriented level of education." "So, the students (or rather their parents) need to be charged to keep the system going. (...) That is where standardized testing can be very helpful—charge the parents for the scores of their children!"
• p. 178: "In short, in all of the discussed examples, standardized testing is either banned or promoted to solve other than straightforward educational or individual differences issues. In the three countries in which standardized testing is widely used, it is used as a tool to address specific societal problems."
• p. 179: "... the chapter asserts that the use or the lack of of use of standardized tests is not a neutral event, at least in the four countries analyzed. This use is socially charged and can be understood and appreciated only in the context of a general analysis of an educational system that uses standardized tests.""
• Thanks, Grigorenko and colleagues. The chapter is helpful in getting rid of the naive and schematic view on admissions testing as a meritocratic procedure (all bad connotations of the term intended here also!). The USA testing industry is the main culprit in entertaining the simple minded idea that all one needs to get started is a so called 'valid' aptitude test; regretfully, politicians in European countries, and undoubtedly elsewhere also, are quite vulnerable to this kind of PR.
• A comment in Dutch: Ik heb uitvoerig geciteerd, omdat dit artikel ongelooflijk goede inzichten geeft in toelatingsprocedures binnen verschillende stelsels/landen. Natuurlijk zijn er een aantal internationale vergelijkende studies, in deze pagina genoemd, maar die zijn decennia of een halve eeuw oud, gaan over stelsels die in de beschreven vorm niet meer bestaan, en laten door de vele details de grote lijn nauwelijks zien. Grigorenko en collega's: dank. O ja, de situatie in de VS is niet aan de orde, maar het is evident dat de invloed van de Amerikaanse testindustrie op de vormgeving van procedures in andere landen overweldigend is.

Susanne Rijken, Ineke Maas and harry B. G. Ganzeboom (2007). The Netherlands: Access to higher education—Institutional arrangements and inequality of opportunity. In Yossi Shavit, Richard Arum and Adam Gamoran: Stratification in higher education. A comparative study. Stanford University Press.

• contents here
• The pictured pages are from this chapter.
• NB. Contrary to what the authors state, the restriction of numbers in admissions to some programs (numerus fixus, regulated by law) is because of problems in accommodating larger numbers of students (medicine: lack of places in hospitals for co-assistents); only recently it is possible to also argue for restriction on the basis of expected labor demand. b.w.

Charles F. Manski (1989). Schooling as Experimentation: a Reappraisal of the Postsecondary Dropout Phenomenon. Economics of Education Review, 8, 305-312.

• Abstract: Dropout from postsecondary schooling is widely considered a social problem. In fact, reducing dropout would not necessarily make society better off. This conclusion derives from analysis of the process of postsecondary enrollment and completion. The key observation is that students contemplating enrollment do not know whether completion will be feasible or desirable. Hence, enrollment is a decision to initiate an experiment, one of whose possible outcomes is dropout. Experiments should be evaluated by their ex anre expected return, not by their ex posr success rate. It follows that, told only the completion rate of enrofled students, one cannot judge whether the right enrollment decisions have been-made.

Robyn M. Dawes (1975). Graduate admission variables and future success. Science 1975, 187, 721-723.

• How it is impossible for admission variables to correlate substantially with future success!!!!!!
• Absolutely a key publication, yet mostly forgotten by later authors.
• One of the mechanisms involved is immediately understandable: students may differ substantially in the way they have reached outstanding achievements: by working very hard, by being very clever, by being talented, etcetera, as well as any possible combination of such variables. As a result in selected groups of admitted students these variables typically will not correlate very well with each other, maybe even negatively. Dawes proves that under these circumstances the validities of such variables taken separately must be low.
• This article must be highly relevant to issues of combinations of tests: should they be combined conjunctively, or should always at least some compensation be allowed? (Lord, 1963).
• As such, the article goes directly against the grain of advice given by the Dutch Onderwijsraad to demand students to pass both the school examination and the central secondary school examination .

Burton R. Clark (Ed.) (1985). The school and the university. An international perspective. London: University of California Press.

• Guy Neave: France
• Ulrich Teichler: The Federal Republic of Germany
• Margaret Maden: England and Wales
• Lars Ekholm: Sweden
• William K. Cummings: Japan
• Stanley Rosen: The people's Republic of China
• Ernesto Schiefelbein: Latin America - Philip Foster: Africa
• Carol Stocking: The United States
• Gary Sykes: Teacher education in the United States

Gerald W. Bracey (2001). Test scores in the long run. Phi Delta Kappan, 82 questia

A. H. Halsey (1991). An international comparison of access to higher education. In David Phillips (1992): Lessons of cross-national comparison in education p. 11-36. Oxford Studies in Comparative Education, Volume 1. Wallingford: Triangle Books.

A. I. Vroeijenstijn (rapporteur), B. L. A. Waumans and J. Wijmans (1992). International programme review electrical engineering. IPR-EE Committee. Utrecht: VSNU. isbn 9080101516.

• p. 48: "The committee could not find an explanation for the fact that Gent and Leuven have an entrance examination and still have drop-out rates of 25% and 15% respectively for all engineering freshmen."
• The committee did not suggest any explanation either. Selection psychology does offer that explanation: people will always see opportunities for selection; there ought to be a law that selection might be allowed only if evidence of its added validity is available. In fact, psychologists have a professional code that binds them to this condition. There was no psychologist member in the committee of sixteen members. Nevertheless, the committee was sharp in making the observation at all. The contrast is the fact that the other engineering programmes did not have an entrance selection, and had drop out numbers in the first year comparable to those of the selective programmes of Gent and Leuven. A clear indication of a waste of talent in Belgium.
• A personal comment on the Committee Report has been filed here

USA

Paul R. Sackett, Nathan R. Kuncel, Justin J. Arneson and Sara R. Cooper (2009). Does socioeconomic status explain the relationship between admissions tests and post-secondary academic performance? Psychological Bulletin, 135, 1-22.

• The authors answer the question in the negative. The test-grades relationship in their database is .47, statistically controlling for SES reduces the relationship to .44. In my opinion this reduction is important, because under extreme selection ratios this might result in significant SES-effects in admissions. (see my 1994, in Dutch. Well, I'll have to read the articles text 'close.' However, I do not expect the authors to have made any methodological mistakes. I am curious. Much turns on restriction of range, and indeed the anuthors give much attentin to this problem (remember: testscores are used to select candidates, therefore the data on grades are obtained from selected students having higher test scores; the relationship we are interested in is the counterfactual relationship of test scores and grades, in case all candidates [or random samples of canidates] are admitted)

Wayne J. Camara and Ernest W. Kimmel (Eds) (2005). Choosing students; Higher education admissions tools for the 21st century. Erlbaum.

• I have annotated the chapters in this book on a special page

Nicholas Lemann (1999). The big test. The secret history of the American meritocracy. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux.

• Reviewed by William P. LaPiana (2000), NewYork LawSchool. pdf
• Nicholas Lemann interview op de html 'secrets of the SAT.'

David Owen (1999). None of the above. The truth behind the SATs. Revised and updated. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.

• Review John Katzman, "president and founder of the Princeton Review, which boasts helping 100.000 students each year prepare for the SAT. The copany employs a how-to-beat-the-test approach to taking the SAT."

The College Board (2003). 10 Real SATs. New York: College Entrance Examination Board. isbn 0874477050.

• 'The only source of real SAT questions cover to cover' and that is 685 pages and a cd-rom.

Patricia Conley (1995) The allocation of college admissions. In J. Elster (Ed.) Local justice in America (p. 25-80). New York: Russell Sage.

Rachel Toor (2001). Admissions confidential. An insider's account of the elite college selection process. New York: St Martin's Press. isbn 0312284055.

Ross Gregory Douthat (2005). Privilege. Harvard and the education of the ruling class. New York: Hyperion. isbn 1401301126.

Dominic J. Brewer, Susan M. Gates and Charles A. Goldman (2002). In pursuit of prestige. Strategy and competition in U.S. higher education. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers. isbn 076580056X

• [Technical papers twin-volume is available for free, at the RAND corp. pdf.]
  The mechanism behind all this selectiveness. A delightful and insightgul RAND study, based on site visits to about 200 institutions representative of the degree-granting field in the USA, on how strategy and competition destroy educational quality.

Jerome Karabel (2005). The chosen. The hidden history of admission and exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Boston: Houghton Mifflin (see site for contents). isbn 9780618574582 or 0618574581.

• This publication is a major event in academia. Many reviews available on the internet, for example The Economist.
• See also the Washington Post discussion with Karabel.
  pdf of chapter 18 The battle over merit (scans of separate pages; on my site)

  [p.550]: "If the ideal of a pure meritocracy is destined never to be realized, it does not follow that attempts to render the system more meritocratic are doomed to failure. just as the admissions regime that emerged in the decades after World War II was more meritocratic than the one that preceded it, so, too, is it possible that the system of the future could more closely approximate the meritocratic ideal. Indeed, the strange system of elite college admissions that we have inherited from the past may prove surprisingly vulnerable to public scrutiny and debate. Many of the features we have long taken for granted were created at particular historical moments; the time has come to eliminate or modify several of them. It is with the goal of stimulating further scrutiny and debate that I offer several possible avenues of reform."
  LEGACIES (...) "This policy has come under attack in recent years as a kind of affirmative action for the privileged." (...)
  EARLY ADMISSIONS (...) "The problem with these programs is twofold: students who use them enjoy an advantage in the admissions process, and students admitted on early decision (though not early action) are obliged to attend the accepting institution and hence cannot compare financial aid offers.60 Both patterns further advantage the already advantaged." (...)
  ATHLETES (...) "Recognizing that the recruitment of athletes has compromised their core academic mission, the Ivy League has recently taken some measures to bring the situation under control. In June 2003, the Ivies voted to cap the number of athletes admitted each year to play in the 33 sports sponsored by the league, to raise the academic requirements for admission, and to reduce the number of places reserved for football players from 35 to 25 per college." (...)
  CLASS DIVERSITY (...) "As for highly selective institutions in general, a recent study found that students from the top percentile of the socioeconomic distribution are twenty-five times more likely to attend a "top-tier" college than students from the bottom quartile." (...) "Indeed, contrary to the repeated claims of elite colleges, 'applicants from low socioeconomic backgrounds, whether defined by family income or parental education, get essentially no break in the admissions process.'" (...) "But remedying the massive underrepresentation of poor and workingclass students will not be easy. It will require, at the very least, a forthright acknowledgment of the problem as well as the adoption of specific measures to address it." (...)

Derek Bok (2006). Our Underachieving Colleges : A Candid Look at How Much Students Learn and Why They Should Be Learning More. Princeton University Press info.

• Derek Bok begint juli 2006 aan een nieuwe termijn (zijn eerste was rond 1980) als interim-president van Harvard University. Hij zal die gelegenheid ongetwijfeld benutten om zijn in dit boek neergelegde analyse en visie een begin van uitvoering te geven. Als dat lukt, dan gaat de mammoethtanker van koers veranderen.
• In een interview: "Q: What is the biggest challenge now facing colleges? A: There is a great tendency to focus on how smart the kids are once they arrive but pay no attention to how much they improve after that. The college that takes students with modest entering abilities and improves their abilities substantially contributes more than the school that takes very bright students and helps them develop only modestly. We really need to take the focus off entering scores and put it more on how much value is added."

William G. Bowen, Martin A. Kurzweil and Eugene M. Tobin (Eds) (2005). Equity and excellence in American higher education. University of Virginia Press site. isbn 0813923506.

• "The authors argue that despite our rhetoric of inclusiveness, a significant number of youth from poor families do not share equal access to America's elite colleges and universities. (...) the authors urge all selective colleges and universities to continue race-sensitive admissions policies, while urging the most selective (and privileged) institutions to enroll more well-qualified students from families with low socioeconomic status. "
• review by Richard Rothstein (Economic policy Institute), published january/february 2006 in Academe
• Brookings briefing transcript April 29, 2005. Event information: "The authors make the case for selective colleges giving an admissions boost—a "thumb on the scale"—to students from low-income and first-generation college backgrounds, as a complement to race sensitive admissions. Panelists will take questions from the audience following their remarks. ".
• William G. Bowen (April, 2004). In pursuit of excellence. Lecture I. pdf; The Quest for Equity: 'Class' (Socio-Economic Status) in American Higher Education: "presents evidence on how family income and parental education impact admission and academic performance at some of America's most selective colleges and universities." Lecture II ; Lecture III. Stand and Prosper! Race and American Higher Education, Lecture II pdf

Empty promises. The myth of college access in America. A Report of the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance Washington, D.C. June 2002. pdf

Edward P. St. John in collaboration with Eric H. Asker (2003). Refinancing the College Dream. Access, Equal Opportunity, and Justice for Taxpayers. The Johns Hopkins University Press. site

Daniel Walfish (January 5, 2001). Chinese Applicants to U.S. Universities Often Resort to Shortcuts or Dishonesty. Students can buy essays, stand-ins for exams, and improper access to standardized tests. The Chronicle of Higher Education International. html

• Very selective admissions create their own fraud problems, especially so if the candiates come from a culture accustomed to very stringent preparation for admissions tests: China. There is more than a grain of truth to the Walfish message, even if ETS is not disclosing as much information on their Chine problems as the public - or American admissions officers - would want them to do. The test that seems to be the victim of fraudulent disclosing of test items is the TOEFL, since august 2006 administered over the internet (ETS announcement). There is an ETS (january 2001) letter to graduate schools and their admissions deans in the USA, a transcript of the letter authored by ETS board members and directors Patricia Swan, Kathryn Forte, Tom Rochon and Marilyn Rymniak, is available here.

P. J. Bickel, E. A. Hammel & J. W. O’Connell (1975). Sex bias in graduate admissions: Data from Berkeley. Science, 187, 398-404. pdf

• abstract Examination of aggregate data on graduate admissions to the University of California, Berkeley, for fall 1973 shows a clear but misleading pattern of bias against female applicants. Examination of the disaggregated data reveals few decision-making units that show statistically significant departures from expected frequencies of female admissions, and about as many units appear to favor women as to favor men. If the data are properly pooled, taking into account the autonomy of departmental decision making, thus correcting for the tendency of women to apply to graduate departments that are more difficult for applicants of either sex to enter, there is a small but statistically significant bias in favor of women. The graduate departments that are easier to enter tend to be those that require more mathematics in the undergraduate preparatory curriculum. The bias in the aggregated data stems not from any pattern of discrimination on the part of admissions committees, which seem quite fair on the whole, but apparently from prior screening at earlier levels of the educational system. Women are shunted by their socialization and education toward fields of graduate study that are generally more crowded, less productive of completed degrees, and less well funded, and that frequently offer poorer professional employment prospects.
• The phenomenon is known in the literature as Simpson's paradox, the aggregation fallacy, the reversal paradox (Messick & Van de Geer, Psychological Bulletin 1981)

United Kingdom

Zimdars, Anna (2010) 'Fairness and undergraduate admission: a qualitative exploration of admissions choices at the University of Oxford', Oxford Review of Education, 36: 3, 307 — 323

• "The article investigates unequal admissions patterns at the University of Oxford. Statistical work shows differences in admission rates by social class, ethnicity, gender, qualification status and secondary schooling. In-depth interviews with admissions tutors, college and university officials and observations of eight admissions meetings provide insights into the processes behind those admis- sions patterns. "

Alison Godard (February 4, 2005). Bristol admission secrets revealed. The Times Higher Education Supplement html

• “Eric Thomas, the vice-chancellor, said: "Admissions tutors, if they have a very substantial number of applications and have a limited number of places, may consider it fairer to give an offer to someone performing well in a educationally disadvantaged background than to someone with a more enriched educational background. There are both types of background in both sectors (state and independent schools).”
• see also html

Jane Mellanby, Mario Cortina-Borja & John Stein (2009). Deep learning questions can help selection of high ability candidates for universities. Higher Education, 57, 597-608.

Admissions to Higher Education Steering Group (2006). Fair admissions to higher education: Recommendations for good practice. [Chair of the Admissions to Higher Education Review: Steven Schwartz] pdf

NFER (2006). A validity study of the use of an aptitude test in university entrance. cfm.

• "This proposal is for a six-year study with the aim of examining the validity of the use of an aptitude test in university entrance. It would be undertaken in association with the Sutton Trust and the College Board, USA, using a version of the US educational aptitude test, the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT). "
• "In summary, a review of existing research indicates that the SAT (or similar reasoning-type aptitude test) adds some predictive power to school / examination grades, but the extent of its value in this respect varies across studies. In the UK, it has been shown that the SAT is an appropriate test to use and that it is modestly associated with A-level grades whilst assessing a different construct. No recent study of the predictive power of SAT results for university outcomes has been undertaken in the UK, and this proposal aims to provide such information."

Alan Willmott (2005). Thinking Skills and Admissions. A report on the Validity and Reliability of the TSA and MVAT/BMAT Assessments. Cambridge assessment report. pdf.

• 1.1: "The University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES) has been involved with the development of assessments of 'Thinking Skills' since the late 1980s. At that time, the numbers of people wishing to undertake Higher Education were growing rapidly and many of these people did not possess traditional entry qualifications. There was also a view that A-Levels were not necessarily the best predictors of success in Higher Education and UCLES established a research and development programme focussed on the provision of tests of academic aptitude. A detailed discussion of the work of UCLES in this period is given by Chapman (2005) and Fisher (2005) provides a discussion on how the concepts behind 'Thinking Skills' have been developed since they were first introduced."

Huws, N., Reddy, P. and Talcott, J. (2006). Predicting university success in psychology: The importance of subject specific academic skills. Psychology Learning and Teaching 5 (2), 35-42.pdf

• Superficial study, exemplary in that.

Teresa Tinklin and David Raffe (2001?) Scottish School Leavers Entering Higher Education. pdf

• introduction Within a relatively short period, higher education in Scotland has expanded to become a mass system and there have been major changes in its organisation and funding. There is a strong policy interest in the breadth of access to higher education and in its articulation with secondary education. The Scottish Office Education and Industry Department commissioned the Centre for Educational Sociology (CES) at the University of Edinburgh to conduct a series of studies based on data from the Scottish School Leavers Surveys (SSLS), from January 1998 to April 2000, and the first of these studies examined entrants to higher education. It studied changing patterns of school-leaver entry to higher education from 1978 to 1993 and examined the relative importance of factors that influence entry.

Marion Bowl (2003). Non-Traditional Entrants to Higher Education.

• "This book explores the reality of access to higher education for working class and ethnic minority adults. The four year action research project on which the book is based draws on the experiences of thirty-two people. They reflect on what held them back from engaging with further and higher education for so long, what eventually motivated them to aim for university and how they experienced life and study when they got there."
• http://styluspub.com/books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=68139

ALASDAIR FORSYTH and ANDY FURLONG (2003). Access to Higher Education and Disadvantaged Young People. British Educational Research Journal, 29, 205-225

• abstract This article will highlight the difficulties faced by qualified but disadvantaged young people in accessing higher education. This is an issue which has strong implications for education policy, economic efficiency and social justice. Over the past two decades, despite large increases in overall access to higher education, the gap in level of participation between the most affluent and most disadvantaged school-leavers has remained intact. This article will examine patterns of educational attrition amongst less affluent young people, who gain sufficient qualifications to enter higher education. In other words, in order to redress the imbalance in the uptake of places in higher education, this article will distinguish between the factors which qualify young people to access university and those which predispose them to participate. A range of factors (barriers) which impacted upon levels of participation in higher education was found. Access to higher education was primarily dictated by level of school achievement, although this in turn was found to be a function of disadvantage. Furthermore, some qualified but disadvantaged young people forwent the opportunity to enter higher education on leaving school, while others enrolled in less advanced courses, for reasons other than academic ability.
• Hoort bij 'groeiende deelname aan hoger onderwijs.' Sociologische benadering. Past misschien bij de nieuweste inzichten van mensen als Derek Bok in de USA, dat er in feite een sterke sociale selectie plaatsvindt, er dus veel talent verloren gaat.

Liz Thomas and Jocey Quinn (2007). First generation entry into higher education. An international study.. The Society for Research into Higher Education.

• Very disappointing, to me at least. Rather sociological. Refers a lot of literature, Bourdieu among others (that's good), while omitting landmark publications (Alexander Astin; Derek Bok; Bowen; Karabel).
• Carefully repressed from this text: any notion of intellectual talent not being equally distributed (sorted out) in different social classes.
• Why students leave higher education ..... (p. 83 ff). Here the familiar failure to recognize students might have positive reasons to leave a particular course.
• In the same paragraph the failure to recognize many leavers eventually will return to higher education.
• With all due respect, I do not trust the authors for the analyses they have given in this book. The picture is biased in a number of ways to an extent that is unknown. Wish I knew.
• Part of the trouble is a recency bias in the literature: only a few of the publications mentioned date from 1999 or earlier.
• Wish the authors had read the beautiful study by Jan Brands, interviewing Dutch university alumni from the lower/lowest social classes.
• The sociological bias is evident from implicit assumptions such as (p. 2) "The focus therefore is on engaging people from groups who are currently under-represented in higher education." Under-represented is taken to be straight disproportionality. That is begging the question, isn't it? What would be a 'right' proportionality for particular groups?
• Want to know the international buzz about access? Read this book. However, it will not get you educated.
• [Whoever contributed the information on the Dutch lottery system for admission to studies with a restricted number of available places (p. 117), got it all mixed up. Better information: here]
• Well, yes, I myself have been a first-generation entrant, knowing fully well the mixed blessings of such a position in life. I applaud the attention given to first generation entrants 'as a group.' One of the problems: they do not form 'a group' at all.
• Focus. That's it: no focus. Lost sight of the wood because of being fascinated by its trees.
• I did not even get away with one interesting title from those listed (except Bourdieu and Passeron, but I already knew about that one .... )

Hefce (2006). Review of widening participation research: addressing the barriers to participation in higher education. pdf
Hefce (2006). How to think about widening participation in UK higher education pdf

Lindsay Paterson (2001). Education and Inequality in Britain. Paper prepared for the social policy section at the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Glasgow, 4 September 2001. pdf

• Bird's eye view of developments in the 20th century. Presents data as well. Nice list of (sociological) publications that matter.

Anna Zimdars, Alice Sullivan & Anthony Heath (2009). Elite Higher Education Admissions in the Arts and Sciences: Is Cultural Capital the Key? Sociology, 43, 648-666.

• abstract This article examines the extent to which cultural capital helps to explain the link between social background and gaining an offer for study at the University of Oxford. We find that cultural knowledge, rather than participation in the beaux arts, is related to admissions decisions.This effect is particularly pronounced in arts subjects. We only partly support Bourdieu's postulation of cultural capital as the main differentiator between fractions of the middle class. Measures of cultural capital do not account for the gender gap in admission and only explain a small part of the disadvantage faced by South-Asian applicants.

France

Ruth Morse (August 27, 2004). Glittering grades do not guarantee greatness. The Times Higher p. 21.

• ".... in France, thee are two distinct systems. Despite insistence on a level playing field, there is a competitive elite system, for which good schools and home advantages are necessary."
• "The deliberate social choice of reproducing a small elite manufactures attitudes to entitlement of its own: to the best jobs, to preferential pay, to fast-track promotions. This creates another spectrum: the one that runs from confidence to arrogance. It seems impossible to impress on elite students in any country the brute fact that there are at least two good candidates for each place, that luck [lays its part in their successes, and that arbitrary actors are often as influential as their achievements in putting them where they are."
• "Ruth Morse is professeur des universités at Université Paris VII."

China

Cheng and Luxia (2006, see below)) give some information on the actual admissions situation in China. The admissions test battery exists of five or six tests, among them Chinese, mathematics and English are compulsory. The number of English test takers in 2004 was 7.23 million. Twenty years ago the selection ration was one in five: 600.000 places for three million candidates. This highly competitive situation necessitated test development on a professional level, the English test was chosen for a pilot project.

Liying Cheng and Luxia Qi (2006). Description and Examination of the National Matriculation English Test Language Assessment Quarterly: An International Journal, 3, 53-70.

• abstract Annually in the People's Republic of China (China) several million secondary school graduates who wish to gain entrance to Chinese universities and colleges take the National Matriculation English Test (NMET)-the university entrance test of English for the entire country. This article first describes the test, and then focuses on examining its validity, reliability, discrimination power, fairness, impact, and washback in relation to the problems and challenges faced by a highly selective and competitive Chinese school system faces.
• In the followin gi will use, and cite from, a test version of the article (b.w.). " ... university admissions are made, in most cases, solely on the basis of the candidates' scores in the entrance examinations, although in certain cases other factors are taken into consideration. For example, in 2003 the children of those doctors and nurses who gave their lives saving Severe Accurate Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) patients can have 20 points added to their total scores in the university entrance examinations. Other events that can help a candidate obtain extra points include prizes won at national contests such as math or physics contests as well as courageous deeds such as saving a drowning child (...)"
• The NMET was used nationwide from 1992 on, and was meant also to give direction to the teaching of English, less linguistic knowledge, more practice and use, what Cheng in her work calls washback.
• The test contains 75 MC items (listening and reading items use 5 dialogues and 5 pieces of text respectively). Additionally there is a section proofreading, using 10 error correction MC items, and a guided writing exercise. Speaking English is not tested. Total test time is two hours. The tests are constructed according to set of specifications. The National Education Examinations Authority (NEEA) produces four parallel forms of the test, some cities and provinces produce their own form according to the set specifications.
• "However, a recent investigation of the Senior III secondary school English courses (Qi, 2003, 2004) has found that teaching to the test is a widespread practice, which has narrowed the curriculum in use. The NMET is in effect treated as the curriculum and teaching content, which in turn is organized based on what is tested and how it is tested. For example, reading was observed to be usually taught in the MC format in schools, a format the NMET extensively adopted. Various reading activities listed in the Senior III English textbooks, such as "read and discuss" and "reading followed by summary writing," were rarely used. "
• Another example of washback is that proofreading is treated as a skill such as reading or writing and relevant exercises that are patterned after the NMET proofreading format fill the Senior III English classrooms (Qi, 2003). This means that students are frequently exposed to short texts of about 10 lines with one line being correct and the other nine each containing an error (see Appendix A) and students have to read such texts line by line, focusing on the artificial errors. How useful such practice is in improving the students' language proficiency is doubtful."
• ETS June 16, 2006 Internet-Based TOEFL® Test Launch Announced for China page "This is the first time ETS has worked to integrate authentic test material into mainstream curriculum," says Mari Pearlman, Senior Vice President of ETS's Higher Education Division. "The instruction reflects the integrated nature of how English is actually used. It supports the innovative TOEFL iBT test. And, for the first time ever, it provides the missing link between learning English and preparing for the test.""

James J. Heckman and Xuesong Li (2003). Selection Bias, Comparative Advantage and Heterogeneous Returns to Education Evidence from China in 2000. NBER Working Paper Series pdf

• abstract This paper uses newly available Chinese micro data to estimate the return to college education for late 20th century China when allowing for heterogeneous returns among individuals selecting into schooling based on these differences. We use recently developed semiparametric methods to identify the parameters of interest. We demonstrate that heterogeneity among people in returns to schooling is substantial. People sort into schooling on the basis of the principle of comparative advantage, which we document to be an empirically important phenomenon in modern Chinese labor markets. Standard least squares or instrumental variable methods do not properly account for this sorting. Using new methods that do, we estimate the effect on earnings of sending a randomly selected person to college is a 43% increase in lifetime earnings (nearly 11% annually) in 2000 for young people in urban areas of six provinces of China. The effect of college on those who go is 13%. Our evidence, and simple least squares evidence, suggests that after 20-plus years of economic reform with market orientation, the return to education has increased substantially in China, compared to the returns measured in the 1980's and the early 1990's.

Belgium

Ann Hendricx en Herman Neuckermans (2001). Het toelatingexamen voor de studies burgerlijk ingenieurarchitect in Vlaanderen. Tijdschrift voor Hoger Onderwijs, 19 pdf

• "Sinds juli 1991 kent het programma burgerlijk ingenieur-architect een eigen toelatingsexamen voor kandidaat-studenten. Dit examen bestaat uit drie grote onderdelen: een wiskunde-examen, een grafische proef en een verhandeling. Dit artikel vat de resultaten samen van de statistische analyse die werd uitgevoerd om de validiteit van het toelatingsexamen na te gaan. Uit de resultaten blijkt dat het examen een waardevolle mix is, die zowel het 'kennen' (wiskundeproef) als het 'kunnen' (grafische proef en verhandeling) van de kandidaat-studenten in kaart brengt. Toch mag het verband tussen het toelatingsexamen en de latere studieresultaten niet overschat worden."
• Dit is een vreemd artikel. De auteurs hebben geen flauw vermoeden van het bestaan van een uitgebreide wetenschappelijke literatuur over selectie. In hun onschuld komen ze dan ook tot absurde conclusies. Dat er weinig of niets van toekomstig studiesucces valt te voorspellen, is een artefact van de door de auteurs gevolgde procedure door alleen de toegelaten studenten in de analyses te betrekken. De daaruit volgende restriction of range dempt eventueel bestaande samenhangen. Zij hebben wel ergens de klok horen luiden: "Het werken met een controlegroep – welke kans maakt iemand die het ingangsexamen niet gehaald heeft? – zou het validatieonderzoek ook op dit gebied enorm vooruit helpen, maar is om evidente redenen niet mogelijk." De klepel hangt hier: het is doodnormaal om een wèl een controlegroep in het onderzoek te betrekken. En als dat om kosten-redenen niet kan, dan is er altijd nog de mogelijkheid om te generaliseren op basis van onbestreden wetenschappelijke kennis over het soort selectie-situatie waar het hier om gaat. Afijn, we weten weer hoe het er in België aan toegaat. Wat zouden deze auteurs over de bevinding in Vroeijenstijn (zie boeven) gemeld hebben, als ze deze publicatie gekend zouden hebben?
• Merk op, voor wie van mij anders verwacht, dat ik de auteurs tegenwerp dat zij ten onrechte concluderen dat de selectie in technische zin niet zou werken. Iets anders is of je, alle kosten en baten, voor- en nadelen afwegend, zo zou moeten willen selecteren. Nee dus. Zeker voor een ingenieursopleiding is zo'n extra selectie (in de studie zelf wordt namelijk ook nog eens stevig geselecteerd) maatschappelijk verkwistend, om nog maar te zwijgen van persoonlijke schade die kanidaten lijden.
• Het probleem met publicaties als deze is dat een publieke reactie in het TvHO als buitengewoon onaardig overkomt, door de auteurs waarschijnlijk niet op waarde wordt geschat, en zo alleen maar tot frustraties leidt. De beschikbare literatuur over deze klasse van selectieproblemen is overduidelijk. Even duidelijk is in de geschiedenis van het onderwijs dat er geen onderzoek zo populair is als het doen van onderzoek naar wat samenhangt met wat bij selectieprocedures. Die manier van onderzoeken is voorbehouden aan naieve onderzoekers. Niet dat je dat als onderzoeker zelf altijd in de hand hebt: ik heb als opdrachtonderzoeker ook heel wat keren van het ene moment op het andere onderzoek moeten doen waarbij ik vrijwel alleen op mijn naiviteit moest koersen. Dat neemt niet weg dat dergelijk onderzoek schadelijk is voor de reputatie van sociaal-wetenschappelijk onderzoek.

Netherlands

D.N.M. de Gruijter, M. Yildiz en J. 't Hart (2006). VWO-examenresultaten en succes in de propedeuses Geschiedenis en Psychologie. Deelonderzoek van experimenten met selectie: selectie op basis van vooropleidingen. Leiden: ICLON, rapport nr 164.

D. N. M. de Gruijter, M. Yildiz en J. 't Hart (2006). VWO-examenresultaten en succes in de propedeuses Rechten. Leiden: ICLON, rapport nr 165.

Germany

Sebastian Braun & Nadja Dwenger (2009). Success in the university admission process in Germany: regional provenance matters. Higher Education, 58, 71-80.

• abstract Interessant casus: de verschillen tussen staten in cijfergeven zijn nbehoorlijk groot, die cijfers spelen bij selectie aan de poort een grote rol, wat leidt tot pittige problemen wat eerlijke toelating betreft. Grote dataset gebruikt.

fachportal-paedagogik.de site For one or two items you will be allowed to download them as guest. You may search die Literaturdatenbank, though.

Dirk Lewin und Irene Lischka (2004). Passfähigkeit beim Hochschulzugang als Voraussetzung für Qualität und Effizienz von Hochschulbildung. Arbeitsberichte 6'04. ISSN 1436-3550. pdf

Wissenschftsrat (2004). Empfehlungen zur Reform des Hochschulzugangs pdf

Hochschulzugang und -zulassung in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland aus rechtlicher Sicht (Legal discussion on access and admission to HE in Germany)./ Gabriele Sandfuchs / Bayerisches Staatsinstitut für Hochschulforschung und Hochschulplanung [IHF][Germany].-- In: Beiträge zur Hochschulforschung, no. 1/2, p. 125-138, 2000. ISSN: 0171-645X CONTENTS: Access and admission to German institutions of HE have been discussed for many years. The opportunities for prospective applicants to select studies and universities are increasingly restricted. In the future, there will be more ways for the institutions of HE to select their students. New admission procedures will be established. [niet gezien, van UNESCO site, in October 2006 no online version (Google, search on title)]

Hartmut von Hentig (1980). Die Krise des Abiturs und eine Alternative. Stuttgart, Ernst Klett.

• The book describes an educational experiment. Half of the more than 800 pages present examples of examination questions. This book is unique in its own kind, a goldmine of ideas, as well of experiences in the politics needed to realize the experiment. It is very difficult to understand, especially for everybody foreign to the German educational scene.

Spain

José Díaz Esteve (2001). Hacia la evaluación de la inteligencia académica y del rendimiento escolar. Siencia y Sociedad, 26, 151-203. pdf

• Presents some literature on intelligence testing. Has nothing to say about selectivity in the Spanish educational system.
• This might exactly be the problem in Spain: there is not even a rudimentary knowledge on selectivity in education, whether psychological or sociological (for example, Bourdieu).

http://www.twoworldsunited.com/university_spain_system.html">http://www.twoworldsunited.com/university_spain_system.html about the procedures to follow for foreign students to gain admission to higher education in Spain.

http://www.euroeducation.net/prof/spainco.htm

• "Admission to university-level studies
  Name of secondary school credential required: Título de Bachillerato
  For entry to: Facultades, Colegios Universitarios, Escuelas Superiores Técnicas
  Alternatives to credentials: Over 25s Aptitude test organized by the UNED University, Bachillerato (or COU) and a specific aptitude test for artistic studies. Título de Técnico Especialista (or Técnico Superior) for direct access to specific university studies related to previous studies.
  Entrance exams required: Students must sit for the Prueba de Accesso a la Universidad, except for the Escuelas Universitarias (only Bachillerato, COU or Título de Técnico Especialista/Técnico Superior).
  Other admission requirements: Curso de Orientación Universitaria and Prueba de Acceso a la Universidad."
• Searching the web for 'Prueba de Accesso a la Universidad' does not result in anything other than the text given above. The problem is the spelling of 'Accesso' must be 'Acceso'. Thanks to Google for the hint. 77.400 hits. Thanks again. A better term to use seems to be "Prueba de Aptitud para a la Universidad"

http://www.wes.org/eWENR/02July/Practical.htm

• "Admission to faculties, advanced technical schools and university colleges is based on the Prueba de Aptitud para a la Universidad (national university entrance exam). The exam is held each June. Because of the huge demand for higher education in Spain and the limited number of places, students with low score may not be admitted to the school of their choice, or even gain university entrance at all"
• "The most recent reform law, the Ley Orgánica de Universidades/LOU (Universities Organic Law), enacted in 2001, promises to significantly reorganize Spain's system of higher education along the lines of the Bologna Declaration."
• "Under the LOU universities are now free to set their own admissions requirements in lieu of the national college entrance exams. Student groups claim this threatens equal access to higher education, diminishes transparency in the selection process and could lead to a substantial cut in government grants"

historical and/or history

Broome, Edwin Cornelius Broome (1903/1963 reprint). A historical and critical discussion of college admission requirements. College Entrance Examination Board.

• Broome begint voor de 17e en 18e eeuw met opsommingen van reglementen, waarin staat dat Tully gelezen moet kunnen worden, en meer van dergelijke dingen (steeds gedifferentieerder naarmate de tijd vordert). Het probleem is dat nergens een aanduiding is te vinden van hoe een en ander dan in de praktijk gaat: worden kandidaten inderdaad ook wel afgewezen, of worden ze bijgespijkerd (het middeleeuwse model van Parijs), of wordt er gewoon gigantisch de hand gelicht met de toelatingsvoorwaarden?
• p. 46: “Between 1800 and 1870 eight new subjects found a place among admission requirements - geograhy, English grammar, algebra, geometry, ancient history, physical geography, English composition, and United States history.... Besides the continual addition of new subjects, there was a gradual but substantial increase in the amount of Latin and Greek required for admission.”
• p. 47: “The year 1870, or thereabouts, marks a natural transition in the history of college admission requirements. At this time the old colonial college, with its medieval traditions, its single degree, and its homogeneous course of study, was rapidly evolving into the modern university. Students who had left college as boys at the outbreak of the Rebellion returned men, no longer amenable to the old-fashioned disciplines.”
• p. 58 wijze van examineren van Engelse literatuur. “At present the usual requirement in English for admission to college is the knowledge of certain classics in both English and American literature; some of the works are to be read carefully and others to be studied minutely. The candidate”s mastery of the subject is tested by questions on the subject-matter, literary form, structure, etc., of the books assigned for careful study, and by the copositio of a few paragraphs on several topics chosen from the others. Exercise books are frequently accepted as partial evidence of preparation.The idea in its simplest form originated at Harvard in 1874.”
• p. 68: “A third tendency, which belongs more strictly to the method of the entrance examination yhan to the subjects, is that examinations are becoming tests of power rather than of the mere acquisition of facts. Instances of this tendency are the emphasis placed on sight translation in the language examinations, the growing importance of English composition, of the solution of original problems in geometry, and of independent work in science. (Original problems in geometry and experimental work in science are part of the examination for admission to Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Leland Stanford, and several other leading colleges). As a result of this latter tendency in college admission requirements, there has been a significant revolution in preparatory school methods of teachning, a shifting of the emphasis from stultifying memoriter work to that more quickening sort which calls for independent thought and constructive ability. In the teaching of foreign languages the actual use of the language and wide reading in its literature have supplanted much of the old-time exhaustive study of formal grammar; and the study of science has moved from the library to the laboratory.” (over backwash effect dus, in dit geval een positief voorbeeld).

Anderson, R. D. (1989). Education & opportunity in Victorian Scotland. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Anderson bestudeert de toegankelijkheid van het onderwijs, de veranderingen in het onderwijs die met veranderingen in die toegankelijkheid samengaan, en hoe een en ander zich afspeelt in de ongemakkelijke relatie tot het Engelse selectieve onderwijsstelsel. Wat bijzonder interessant is: de strijd tussen voorstanders van selectie en degenen die vrije toegankelijkheid (tot publieke kennis etc, tot de universiteit) wilden handhaven (maar dat uiteindelijk wel hebben verloren). Het is helemaal niet zo'n gek idee, zoals Anderson aangeeft, om vandaag de dag nog eens naar de argumenten voor die vrije toegankelijkheid te kijken. Misschien liggen hier toch mogelijkheden om maatschappelijke winst te behalen, nu maatschappelijke omstandigheden zo radicaal anders zijn dan een eeuw geleden waarin de geslotenheid en de bureaucratische eenvormigheid van het universitaire gebeuren zijn beslag kreeg.

Hartmut Sgharfe (2002). Education in ancient India.. Brill. questia Ch. 11: Admission and the Right to Teach and to Study.

world

Frank Bowles (1963). Access to higher education. Volume 1. The international study of university admissions. Paris: UNESCO. New York: Columbia University Press.

• Yes, this is the Bowles from Bowles and Gintis
• The problems of admission
• The admissions process
• The forces of change
• The world admissions scene
• (App. C) Financial aid to students
• Access to higher education. Volume II National studies. The international study of university admissions. UNESCO and the International Association of Universities. Paris, 1965.
  • CAPES: Brazil
  • Egidio Orellana and Erika Grassau: Chile
  • Michel Debeavais, Remy Filliozat, Didier Lecerf and André Garci: France
  • K. G. Saiyidain and H. C. Gupta: India
  • Daishiro Hidaka: Japan
  • G. W. Parkyn: New Zealand
  • Frank Bowles: Senegal
  • R. G. MacMilan: Republic of South Africa
  • V. A. Kitaitzev: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
  • El Said Mostafa El Said: United Arab Republic (Egypt)
  • J. A. Lauwerys: United Kingdom (England and Wales)
  • Elmer D. West: United States of America

Yossi Shavit, Richard Arum and Adam Gamoran (Eds) (2007). Stratification in higher education. A comparative study. Stanford University Press.

• contents here

UNESCO has undertaken a new project on access in 2006, see site

• "Access to Higher Education, - growing demand, lack or limited capacity, equity and success, new approaches using ICTs, distance education, Open Content movement, and other related issues."
• A selected bibliography of publications on the subject has been prepared, and is available as rtf file. For example:
• Feeding the elite: the evolution of elite pathways from star high schools to elite universities/ LeTendre, Gerald K.; Geertz Gonzales, Roger; Nomi, Takako / International Association of Universities [IAU].-- In: Higher Education Policy, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 7-30, 2006. ISSN: 0952-8733

Europe

John Henry Newman (1858/1946). Het begrip universiteit. I. In negen toespraken gehouden voor de katholieken van Dublin, II In losse voorlezingen en opstellen gericht tot de leden van de Katholieke Universiteit. Bussum: Uitgeverij Paul Brand.

• Cardinal Newman has written about the admissions exam. For example in volume II, IV par. 1. he presents transcribed interviews of two extreme cases. Fantastic stuff. He really thinks an admissions exam really is a summative test of the Latin school: does the candidate understand the construction of the Latin or Greek sentence?

US

Riesman, David (1980). On higher education. The academic enterprise in an era of rising student consumerism. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. "... analyzes the consequences for teaching and learning of the escalating competition for student customers."

Kinda F. Wightman (2003) (prepublication draft). Standardized testing and equal access: A tutorial. Chapter 4 in Mitchell J. Chang, Daria Witt, James Jones, and Kenji Hakuta (2003). Compelling interest. Examining the Evidence on Racial Dynamics in Colleges and Universities. Stanford University Press. pdf.

• Section: An historical perspective on the use of standardized tests in the higher education admission process.. The other section is historical also, covering the last three or four decennia: The Role of Admission Test Scores in Litigation about Special Admission Policies and Practice.

Marcia Graham Synnott (1979). The half-opened door: discrimination and admissions at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, 1900-1970. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.

• ao: Portraits and philosophies of two Harvard presidents: Charles W. Eliot and A. Lawrence Lowell - Harvard: Debate on restriction, 1922 - Harvard: Methods of sifting candidates for admission, 1920s to 1950s - Yale: reaction and stabilaztion, 1900s to 1940s - Princeton: The triumph of the Clubs, 1900s to 1950s - Conclusion: a new elite, 1940s to 1970s

Elmer D. West (1963). The United States of America. Access to higher education. Volume II National Studies (pp. 593-648). Paris: UNESCO. New York: Columbia University Press.

• Dael Wolfle wrote a short introduction. "And how can the institution select the entering student who will profit most from what it has to offer?" What a colossal misjudgment this is!
• Elmer West regrettably has done a superficial job (taking too much intentions, like the one expressed by Wolfle, for granted instead of testing it against empirical data), a lot of work nevertheless. A pity. West tries to impress his readers with the sheer numbers of (the growth in) access to higher education; much of his references are statistical reports and other secondary literature.
• The value of this self-sufficient chapter probably lies in what, in hindsight, it has left out.

Wayne J. Camara en Ernest W. Kimmel (Eds) (2005). Choosing students. Higher education admissions tools for the 21st century. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. isbn 0805847529. Samenvatting, kritische bespreking, links zie

• camarakimmel.htm

  http://www.benwilbrink.nl/literature/admissions.htm