Organizational Comparative Perspectives on Elite University Admissions: A Systems Approach

• In Event: Organizational Theory in Higher Education

Abstract

University admissions have been structured to stratify populations of would-be students to distinct social classes. This is true of both the United Kingdom and the United States. Even though both countries have broadened access to diverse student populations and their elite university admissions strategies have diverged and evolved, both countries simultaneously sustain an unequal system admissions system shrouded in forms of “meritocracy.” Using interview data of admissions selectors in both contexts, we are find that while there are similar stratified outcomes of both contexts, the organizational mechanisms that are fuel each process is different. Using systems theory and professional logics as conceptual frameworks, this study offers practical and scholarly contributions to understand the organizational processes of elite university admissions.

Authors

• Jeffrey K. Grim, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• Anna Mountford Zimdars, University of Exeter