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This paper documents how extensive economic education can reduce the risk of getting into financial trouble by comparing people who enter business and economics programs with people who enter other higher education programs. To identify the causal effect, I exploit GPA admission thresholds that quasi-randomize applicants near the thresholds into different higher education programs. I find that admission to an economics program reduces the probability of loan default and delinquency by one half. This large reduction is associated with changes in financial behavior, but it is not associated with differences in the level or stability of people's income. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix , which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Revealed preference rankings, using data from student admission platforms, present an alternative to conventional academic rankings whose reference criteria are fluctuating and manipulable. We show how admission procedures, whether centralized or decentralized, generate raw information about individual student preferences that can be exploited to construct rankings. Next, we examine the case of the SIGEM ranking of French business schools, an original example of ranking using data from a centralized admission system. This analysis contributes to understanding the strengths and limitations of revealed preference rankings in the higher education sector. While revealed preference rankings address many issues found in other ranking methodologies, some fundamental challenges still persist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child labour presents a pervasive challenge in developing nations, significantly impacting long-term economic growth by hindering the accumulation of human capital. This study utilises data from the China Family Panel Studies to investigate the impact of commute time to school on child labour. The empirical results indicate that a one-hour increase in a child’s commute time to school correlates with a statistically significant increase of 6.3 percentage points in the likelihood of the child engaging in the labour market, as well as an increase of 2.3 hours in weekly working hours. Moreover, the mechanism analysis suggests that longer commute time reduces children’s learning time, resulting in lower academic performance and educational expectations. Consequently, this increases the likelihood of children joining the labour market during compulsory education. These results underscore the need for enhancing transportation infrastructure and optimising school locations in developing nations to counteract child labour by shortening commute times and improving educational access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper provides novel evidence on the role of gender in the performance of university students, which is particularly relevant to the debate on the performance of female students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects. Design/methodology/approach: Our approach relies on the metafrontier approach proposed by Huang et al. (2014), which measures students' efficiency within a given faculty and the impact of the faculty's technology on students' efficiency. We use a sample of 53,159 first-year students in 8 faculties from a large university in southern Italy from 2002–2003 to 2010–2011. Findings: Students' efficiency is relatively low, reflecting an essential role of unobserved heterogeneity. The different technologies of somewhat similar faculties have minimal impact on efficiency. There is a performance gap against women in five faculties, which on average is strongest for the faculties in the pure and applied science area. This gap increases with the proportion of female students and decreases with female lecturers. Practical implications: The metafrontier has the benefit of providing relevant policy information on the drivers of student success by relying on data that universities routinely generate and preserve. Originality/value: The stochastic metafrontier approach allows us to separate the group-specific frontiers from the metafrontier, yielding a decomposition of the efficiency scores of various faculties into technical efficiency scores and technological gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a systematic review of the literature on evaluation and program planning strategies for technology integration in education. The aim of the review was to examine the evidence on different types of strategies that can be used to design, implement, assess, and improve technology integration in educational settings, as well as the factors that influence their success. The review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and searched four databases for relevant studies published between 2010 to May 2023. A total of 124 studies met the inclusion criteria and were appraised for quality using multiple quality assessment tools. The findings were synthesized using a narrative synthesis approach. The review identified and compared various models and approaches for technology integration, such as design-based research, logic model, backward design, Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation (ADDIE) model, and Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition (SAMR) model. It also explored how organizational, technological, pedagogical, teacher, and student factors interact with the evaluation and program planning strategies and affect the outcomes of technology integration. Furthermore, the review has highlighted the importance of evidence-based practice in technology integration and the need for continuous improvement based on data from multiple sources and methods. Moreover, this review also discussed the limitations and challenges of the review and suggested directions for future research and policy development. Besides, the review contributes to the existing literature on technology integration in education by providing a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the evaluation and program planning strategies and their interaction with various factors that influence their success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims to examine the relationship between Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) knowledge, sustainability attitudes, sustainable entrepreneurship, and sustainable behaviors among students enrolled in business-related courses at Spanish universities. Employing the Knowledge-Attitude-Behavior (KAB) model, this study innovatively disaggregates the attitude variable into attitudes toward sustainability and sustainable entrepreneurship. The findings affirm the direct and indirect effects posited in the model, indicating that familiarity with SDGs positively impacts attitudes toward sustainability, subsequently influencing sustainable behaviors. Moreover, positive attitudes toward sustainable entrepreneurship also directly influence sustainable behaviors. Additionally, the study examines the moderating influence of receiving a scholarship; results indicate that attitudes toward sustainability and sustainable entrepreneurship significantly shape behavior, with the scholarship variable altering the relationship between attitudes toward entrepreneurship and behavior. These outcomes underscore the significance of enhancing SDGs awareness and nurturing favorable attitudes toward sustainability and sustainable entrepreneurship among university students to stimulate sustainable behaviors and advance SDGs objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The University of the Philippines (UP) uses high school grades and standardized test scores for predictive admissions, balancing academic performance with affirmative action for underprivileged applicants. Using a novel UP panel dataset, I find that high school grades better predict academic performance, while entrance exam scores reflect background characteristics. Simulations suggest that reducing the weight of standardized exams boosts the qualification rates for public and private school students, but lowers it for science high schools and Metro Manila students. The findings indicate that relying more on grades could enhance both excellence and equity in college admissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Host country education can be crucial for the social integration as well as labour market outcomes of refugees and asylum seekers. To meet the same admission criteria for studying at German higher education institutions (HEI) as other international student applicants, refugees and asylum seekers can attend pre-study programmes at preparatory colleges or language centres of HEI. According to the self-determination theory, the satisfaction of basic psychological needs is relevant to learning motivation and success in educational contexts. This paper examines the differences in the satisfaction of basic needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) and learning motivation between refugees and other international student applicants, and the extent to which these differences explain inequalities in the probability of success in pre-study programmes. Data from participants in pre-study programmes at 18 HEI show no significant differences in basic need satisfaction and learning motivation between the respective groups of learners. While basic need satisfaction and motivation make only a small contribution to the explanation of success in pre-study programmes, the biographical and social situation manifested in previous study experiences, age, and social resources seem to be of significance. Implications for further research and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) is a novel perspective to analyse the interplay between support systems and businesses in regions. Simultaneously, universities have been playing increasingly important roles in entrepreneurship, fostering economic growth both through the wider regional economy (RE) and their own university EEs (UEEs). Entrepreneurs in residence (EiRs), chosen by universities as exemplar entrepreneurs, therefore provide potentially important conduits between the regional economy, UEEs and entrepreneurs, leading us to explore how and why do EiRs and universities interact in relation to entrepreneurial ecosystems to enhance the regional economy? Our qualitative study of a UK university case, conducted in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic which severely impacted many businesses’ access to resources, gives a particular temporal context to this research. It identifies accessing resources, building legitimacy and undertaking bridging activities as the three highest-level dimensions characterising EiR–university interactions, which have relevance for both the UEE and regional economy more widely, offering a framework for future EiR programmes. This study contributes to the regional entrepreneurship and EE literature, by examining the role of regional universities as anchor tenants and catalysts of entrepreneurial growth and resilience within regions, and calls for further research into the evolution of EiR–university interactions in different institutional contexts.

This paper investigates the effects of college tuition on student debt and human capital accumulation. We exploit data from a random sample of undergraduate students in the United States and implement a research design that instruments for realized tuition with relatively large changes to the advertised tuition of students who enrolled at the same school in different cohorts. We find that $5,000 in higher tuition causally reduces the probability of graduating with a graduate degree by 3.1 percentage points and increases student debt by $1,480. Higher tuition also leads to a decline in mortgage balances and an increase in credit card delinquencies. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix , which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How much do students benefit from student loan subsidies? We investigate this question, exploiting a natural experiment: a demand shock due to the 2011 tightening of credit standards in the PLUS program. We first establish that the Bennett hypothesis is best explained by colleges charging large markups over their marginal costs, rather than by advantageous selection. Then we use our results to estimate that students plausibly capture less than 60 cents of each dollar of resources expended on loan subsidies. We discuss alternative approaches that would more directly benefit students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, China emerged as one of the world’s largest producers of academic research papers contributing massively to national and international journals annually. This prolific output serves as evidence to the dedicated efforts of Chinese universities to foster research activities among their teaching staff. However, the role of academic leaders, particularly that of school deans, on research productivity within these institutions remains an important and unresolved question. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of the academic achievements of deans on the research output of business schools of China prestigious 985/211project universities. For this purpose, we manually collected data on the deans of business schools of 985/211 project universities from 2000 to 2018 as well as data on published research papers by each school. Empirical results show that during the tenure of an ‘academic dean’, the average number of papers published by business schools increased by about 10.6% annually. After being converted into standard ‘Economic Research Journal’ articles, this effect increased by as much as 28%. The above results are robust with several different model specifications and definitions for academic deans. Our research findings hold significant policy implications, not only for China's education system but extends to various knowledge-intensive institutions, such as hospitals, research labs, and consultancy organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to evaluate the influence of education on tax evasion. This study proposes a theoretical model, in which an agent can choose to allocate his labor effort between two production technologies. Higher levels of education lead to more skilled and specialized workers, and the tax authority can observe the use of advanced tools and equipment. The main result is that an increase in the general level of education leads to a labor effort substitution effect, showing that higher education can reduce tax evasion and the size of the shadow economy. Both static and dynamic estimation techniques are employed to test the theoretical findings, using a sample of 133 countries, over the period 2001–2020. The empirical analysis confirms the significant negative association between education and shadow economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the critical determinants of efficiency in European Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The contemporary landscape presents a wide range of challenges and opportunities, necessitating unprecedented levels of efficiency. Our primary objective is to unravel the fundamental elements that drive the efficiency of European HEIs. To achieve this, we employ a novel methodological approach, integrating Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) with a Machine Learning technique, specifically Feature Selection. This combination sheds new light on areas previously less explored in DEA, including the intricate interplay among variables. Our empirical investigation contributes to the academic discourse by presenting a comprehensive, multi-country analysis from a multifaceted viewpoint. We assess the efficiency levels of European universities, highlighting the influence of factors such as student fee funding, Ph.D. program intensity, and international mobility on achieving high efficiency scores. The findings of this study have some implications for policy-making, suggesting strategies to enhance the efficiency levels of HEIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the role of organizational factors in research collaboration networks among European universities. The study of organizational drivers in shaping collaboration patterns is crucial for policy design aimed at reducing research fragmentation and fostering knowledge creation and diffusion. By using Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs) and controlling for spatial factors, we investigate the role of two main mechanisms guiding the partners' selection process: organizational attributes and homophily. We investigate two distinct scientific collaboration networks (i.e., projects and publications) and two research domains (Physical Sciences and Engineering, and Life Sciences) over the 2011–2016 time period. Our empirical evidence reveals that, among the main dimensions indicated by the literature, research capability (measured by the dimension of doctoral programs) has the clearest and most stable impact either on the tendency to establish collaboration ties or as homophily effect. In terms of policy implications, it emerges that organizational similarity in research capability matters and policy makers should consider doctoral programs as a strategic variable to promote successful collaborations in scientific research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research purpose of this paper was to explore the evaluation of skills by academic staff to improve the quality of the administration process in higher education institutions (HEIs) from two perspectives. Firstly, the authors investigated whether there are statistically significant differences between the genders of academic staff in higher education institutions regarding the evaluation of their skills and competencies. Secondly, the study aimed to determine if there are statistically significant differences in competencies perceived between academic staff of STEM sciences and those with academic experience in other sciences in terms of assessing their professional competencies. The purpose was determined by the impact of self-assessment of professional competencies on the improvement of administrative processes.

Entrepreneurship's evolving role now extends beyond economic realms to encompass broader societal and environmental imperatives. Sustainable entrepreneurship emerges as a linchpin in addressing contemporary challenges, offering innovative solutions that harmonize economic resilience with environmental and social objectives. Yet, the determinants underpinning individuals' intentions towards sustainable entrepreneurship, particularly within the Algerian context, remain underexplored. Keeping this into consideration, our research endeavours to identify the motivational factors influencing the decision to engage in sustainable entrepreneurial activities among students at the Kolea University Pole.

As societal challenges grow, so does the role of universities in finding social and technological solutions. Technical universities are prominent in educating future innovators and developing desired technological and social change. This paper seeks to identify commonalities and better understand differences to develop strategies for mutual support and exchange of best practices. The methodological approach focuses on three questions concerning 1) the common understanding of transdisciplinary, 2) the diversity of transdisciplinary approaches to sustainable development, and 3) the different institutional structures that enable and promote transdisciplinary approaches to sustainability. The qualitative exploratory research suggests that a higher level of societal engagement in scientific research positively impacts societal transformation towards sustainability. This research is also a first step towards making transdisciplinary research at technical universities more visible and transparent to provide better support and create a mutual learning environment for discussing and continuously developing strategies for organizational change.

It is well established that UK students who had attended private schools before university perform less well at university, on average, than students educated in state schools. Using data for a particular university, we find that while this result holds for White students, among Black, Asian and Mixed Ethnicity (‘BAME’) students private schooling is – on average – associated positively with degree class; again this is true regardless of gender but is stronger among males. This is driven by a strong positive association among Black students and students of Mixed Ethnicity. Among Asian students, there is no association on average – but this conceals a strong negative association for those from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic probation policies place restrictions on low-performing college students, incentivizing them to improve their performance or leave the program. We examine the effect of an intensive academic probation policy that includes mandatory study time. Using a regression discontinuity analysis and administrative data from the U.S. Air Force Academy, we find that placement on academic probation increases performance without increasing attrition and increases completion of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees. These impacts are surprising in light of research showing increased attrition and shifts towards easier course loads at other institutions, suggesting that more intensive interventions may help low-performing college students without discouraging program completion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine how increased admissions competition at elite U.S. colleges has affected the admissions advantage that legacies and athletes (LA) receive. Using 18 years of Harvard admissions data, we show that nonlegacy, nonathlete (NLNA) applications expanded, while LA applications remained flat. Yet, the share of LA admits remained stable, implying substantial increases in LA admissions advantages. These facts imply a strong degree of complementarity in the number of LA admits and overall admit quality. If the admissions advantages for LA applicants had been constant throughout this period, there would have been a large increase in the number of minority admits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A skilled principal is an invaluable asset in the evolving landscape of higher education institutions, where challenges continually arise and the global economy demands adaptability. This study explored the essential skills and knowledge necessary for principal roles in Islamic Economics and Finance (IEF) schools. A qualitative multiple-case study approach was employed, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 34 academics from four IEF schools at public universities in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. The study revealed six essential skill and knowledge areas that IEF school principals must possess to thrive: advocacy for IEF education, developing and communicating a clear strategic vision, efficiently managing resources and workloads, fostering a collegial environment, providing effective instructional leadership, and building and sustaining strong partnerships. Improving the skills and knowledge of IEF principals can lead to better school management and education. The findings of this study hold significant importance in the advancement of leadership programs designed for IEF school principals and provide valuable insights for policymakers and stakeholders regarding the indispensable knowledge and skills that principals of IEF schools must possess.