The Hidden Dynamics of the Expansion of Higher Education

• In Event: 70.037 - International Issues in Higher Education

Abstract

On the basis of the author’s previous work the paper argues that there are important, but not transparent, regularities in higher education expansion that can be shown by exploring long-term growth patterns on the basis of gender, cohorts and ethnic groups. These emerge by looking at the expansion patterns through the lens of exponential growth of attendance or graduation, correcting for cohort sizes. A credential account which involves the students as key actors responsible for the expansion of higher education, notably with the direct involvement of the labour market and the educational institutions, provides a theoretical framework supported by the exponential nature of the growth.

Author

• Jontorfi Jonasson, University of Iceland