University education, intelligence, and disadvantage: Policy lessons from the UK, 1960–2004
https://voxeu.org/article/university-education-intelligence-and-disadvantage
Access to university has expanded significantly in the US and Europe over the last five decades, and plans for further growth figure prominently on many policy agendas. This column examines the enlargement of post-secondary education in the UK after 1970. The authors argue that expanding university access corresponded with a decline in both the average intelligence of graduates and the wage premium across cohorts. Those who benefited from the expansion were primarily less-intelligent students from advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, not the high-ability students from disadvantaged backgrounds the policy was designed to reach.
Why Have College Completion Rates Increased?
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20200525
We document that college completion rates have increased since the 1990s, after declining in the 1970s and 1980s. We find that most of the increase in graduation rates can be explained by grade inflation and that other factors, such as changing student characteristics and institutional resources, play little or no role. This is because GPA strongly predicts graduation, and GPAs have been rising since the 1990s. This finding holds in national survey data and in records from nine large public universities. We also find that at a public liberal arts college grades increased, holding performance on identical exams fixed.
We should admit that not all students have the talent to flourish in college.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/some-students-are-smarter-than-others-and-thats-ok
My take:
https://thehill.com/opinion/education/590971-will-the-us-higher-education-bubble-finally-burst/
https://voxeu.org/article/university-education-intelligence-and-disadvantage
Access to university has expanded significantly in the US and Europe over the last five decades, and plans for further growth figure prominently on many policy agendas. This column examines the enlargement of post-secondary education in the UK after 1970. The authors argue that expanding university access corresponded with a decline in both the average intelligence of graduates and the wage premium across cohorts. Those who benefited from the expansion were primarily less-intelligent students from advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, not the high-ability students from disadvantaged backgrounds the policy was designed to reach.
Why Have College Completion Rates Increased?
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20200525
We document that college completion rates have increased since the 1990s, after declining in the 1970s and 1980s. We find that most of the increase in graduation rates can be explained by grade inflation and that other factors, such as changing student characteristics and institutional resources, play little or no role. This is because GPA strongly predicts graduation, and GPAs have been rising since the 1990s. This finding holds in national survey data and in records from nine large public universities. We also find that at a public liberal arts college grades increased, holding performance on identical exams fixed.
We should admit that not all students have the talent to flourish in college.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/some-students-are-smarter-than-others-and-thats-ok
My take:
https://thehill.com/opinion/education/590971-will-the-us-higher-education-bubble-finally-burst/
