International Perspectives on Higher Education Admission Policy

Session Submission Type: Group Panel

Description of Session

MAIN QUESTIONS & FRAMEWORKS
Raby’s paper explores the open access policies of American community college global counterparts, because they provide opportunities for non-traditional students, in terms of age, gender, race/ethnicity, disability, and academic ability. In the context of humanistic change, the philosophy that maintains these institutions and the application of practice in the context of global economic constraints will be profiled.

Wolhuter’s paper aims to explicate and assess higher education admission policies at South African institutions of higher education. It addresses contemporary praxis that challenges Apartheid policies of strict racial segregation within the national context of low gross tertiary enrolment, extremely high levels of internal inefficiency and elevated attrition rates.

Lane’s paper examines contextual admissions as a form of affirmative action within the UK system of higher education. Her conceptual and policy analysis derives from the intersection of four models, namely meritocratic, liberal, social reproductive, and social justice, and focuses on the conflict between institutional autonomy and central government control.

Turner’s paper investigates credit accumulation and transfer in the UK. It discloses new insights into the pervasive but problematic assumption that there exists consensus among specialists in any particular field as to what is required knowledge for an entrant to the field, and that courses are designed to ensure that graduates possess that basic knowledge on graduation.

Li’s paper tackles the intricacies of undergraduate admission policy in the Mainland People’s Republic of China. Her extensive literature review reveals gaps in what is known about policy and practice, such as the joint role of central and provincial governments in the administration of public universities and colleges. In some provinces, control is also shared with municipal governments, highlighting the role of place in interpreting centralized guidelines for recruitment.

Albert’s paper presents the diversity of university entrance procedures in contemporary Japan as a case of rethinking meritocracy. Growing resistance to the post WWII elitist policy of rewarding only hard work and high performance, has led to creation of a national Admission Office system which complicates institutional struggles to balance finance, organizational reputation, and cultural pressure for student diversification.

Orkodashvili’s paper conceptualizes higher education access in the context of public school quality, readiness of school graduates for higher education entry examinations, the position of low SES in terms of preparation for entering higher education institutions. It unveils a tangled system of standardization, testing, and corruption caused by deregulation within the post-Soviet region in the late 1990s, concluding that adherence to the criteria of international standards enhances the levels of macro-satisfaction that lead to global social justice.


IMPORTANCE TO CIES AND THE CONFERENCE THEME
In the spirit of Ubuntu, “this panel will tackle theoretical, empirical, and practical questions in the critical examination of existing higher education programs at the local and global levels”. It will examine issues of equity, recruitment, access, admission documentation, admission form assessment, accountability, and evaluation of the admission process. The presentation will be characterized by respectful, inclusive language, an internationally recognized lexicon, and a balanced presentation of admission policy and practice from four continents and seven countries.

The pedagogical value of this panel will apply to multiple higher education audiences that include policy makers, policy implementers, policy beneficiaries, policy evaluators, and policy analysts. Furthermore, because the presenters will be discussing papers in our 2015 Peter Lang book, International Perspectives on Higher Education Admission Policy, this panel will be a venue for ongoing “dialogue and discussion, promote and disseminate high quality research in the comparative education field and provide an opportunity to share and analyze “best” practices and models in forty different educational settings”. In short, it will contribute to “the advancement of theory, practice, methodology, and fieldwork in comparative and international education”.

SESSION STRUCTURE
The Session will be chaired by the book editor who is also a contributing author and an experienced chair, presenter, and discussion. Session time will be divided into panel presentations and whole or small group discussion. Presentations will take 70 – 84 minutes, allocated equally among the panelists, and discussion will fill the remainder of the session. Ideally, this panel will be given a two-hour (120 minutes) block in the HE SIG schedule. An audience of 40-75 people is anticipated.

Sub Unit

• SIG: Higher Education

Organizer

• Virginia Stead, Peter Lang Publishing (New York)

Chair

• Virginia Stead, Peter Lang Publishing (New York)

Individual Presentations

• Embracing Humanism Through Open Access at Community College Global Counterparts - Rosalind Raby, University of Phoenix

• Higher Education Admission Policy in South Africa - C. C. Wolhuter, North West University

• Contextual Admissions as Affirmative Action: A Conceptual and Policy Analysis - Laura Lane, University of Sheffield

• Credit Accumulation and Transfer in the UK - David Andrew Turner, University of South Wales / Beijing Normal University

• Place Matters: Undergraduate Admission Policy in Mainland P. R. China - Dongmei Li, The University of Texas at Austin

• Rethinking Meritocracy: The Diversification of University Entrance Procedures in Contemporary Japan - Guillaume Albert, International Christian University

• Higher Education Access Policies in the Post-Soviet Region: Standardization, Testing, Corruption - Mariam Orkodashvili, Vanderbilt University