Does the growth in higher education mean a decline in the quality of degrees? CEPS Working Document No. 405/March 2015

In this paper the authors construct a theory about how the expansion of higher education could be associated with several factors that indicate a decline in the quality of degrees. They assume that the expansion of tertiary education takes place through three channels, and show how these channels are likely to reduce average study time, lower academic requirements and average wages, and inflate grades. First, universities have an incentive to increase their student body through public and private funding schemes beyond a level at which they can keep their academic requirements high. Second, due to skill-biased technological change, employers have an incentive to recruit staff with a higher education degree. Third, students have an incentive to acquire a college degree due to employers’ preferences for such qualifications; the university application procedures; and through the growing social value placed on education. The authors develop a parsimonious dynamic model in which a student, a college and an employer repeatedly make decisions about requirement levels, performance and wage levels. Their model shows that if i) universities have the incentive to decrease entrance requirements, ii) employers are more likely to employ staff with a higher education degree and iii) all types of students enrol in colleges, the final grade will not necessarily induce weaker students to study more to catch up with more able students. In order to re-establish a quality-guarantee mechanism, entrance requirements should be set at a higher level.

Equal educational opportunity for Puerto Rican children : hearings before the Select Committee on Equal Educational Opportunity of the United States Senate, Ninety-first Congress, second session, on equal educational opportunity, Washington, D.C., November 23, 24, and 25, 1970.

Reprint of the 1970 ed. published by the U.S. Govt. Print. Off., Washington, which was issued as pt. 8 of Equal educational opportunity.

Second annual conference on problems of schools in transition from the educator's viewpoint : March 21-22, 1960, Gatlinburg, Tenn.

Mode of access: Internet.

Hearings on service academies' honor code before the Military Personnel Subcommittee of Armed Services, House of Representatives, Ninety-fifth Congress, first and second session, including reports by the service academies on the Borman Commission study, October 5, 6, 1977, August 1, 1978.

Mode of access: Internet.

Second NIOSH Solid Sorbents Roundtable : [proceedings] /

Includes bibliographical references.

Basic training course/ emergency medical technician. Course guide. Second edition.

Mode of access: Internet.

Basic training course/ emergency medical technician. Instructor's lesson plans. Second edition.

Mode of access: Internet.

Second report of the Wellcome research laboratories at the Gordon memorial college, Khartoum.

Mode of access: Internet.

Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and related agencies appropriations for 2013 : hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, One Hundred Twelfth Congress, second session /

Shipping list no.: 2012-0266-P (pt. 1A), 2012-0262-P (pt. 1B), 2012-0267-P (pt. 1C), 2012-0317-P (pt. 2), 2013-0006 (pt. 3), 2013-0008-P (pt. 4), 2013-0027-P (pt. 5), 2013-0033-P (pt. 6), 2013-0042-P (pt. 7), 2013-0038-P (pt. 9).

Experimentation in the adaptation of the overhead projector utilizing 200 transparencies and 800 overlays in teaching engineering descriptive geometry curricula, June 1, 1959 to August 31, 1960. Final report, grant no. 741023.09, U. S. Office of Education, Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare.

"Corrected graph iv" leaf inserted.

New York in the nineteenth century. A discourse delivered before the New York Historical Society, on its sixty-second anniversary, November 20, 1866.

Published by order of the Executive Committee.

Catalogue of the first special exhibition of national portraits ending with the reign of King James, the Second, on loan to the South Kensington museum. April 1866.

At head of title: Science and art department of the Committee of Council on education.

Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and related agencies appropriations for 2005 : hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, One Hundred Eighth Congress, second session /

Shipping list no.: 2004-0116-P (pts. 1A-B), 2004-0162-P (pt.2), 2004-0180-P (pt. 3), 2004-0204-P (pt. 4), 2004-0198-P (pt. 5), 2004-0199-P (pt. 6), 2004-0207-P (pt. 7), 2004-0208-P (pt. 8).

Department of Defense appropriations for 1967 : hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, Eighty-ninth Congress, second session.

Includes index.

An address, delivered before the New-Hampshire state lyceum, in the Representatives' hall, at their second annual meeting, June 5, 1834.

Mode of access: Internet.