Ways Through Which Higher Education Is Managed - Essay Example

?Business Report about Higher Education Executive summary This report will focus on gaps and persistent study, breaking barriers, fair access challenge, and the various breakthrough and barriers to success in higher education. The analysis of the mentioned areas will provide more information on the various ways through which higher education is being managed in different parts of the world. At the end of this study the report will be able to give and avail various approaches and recommendations that should be considered to enable provisions of remedies for the various factors of discussion in higher education. Higher education can be said to be stage of learning that is mostly associated with universities, technology institutes, academic colleges, and seminaries. The purpose of higher education centres is to award various professional certificates and academic degrees to the students who are the main beneficiaries to their services. This report will have two sections and the first section will have introduction, statement of the problem, significance of the study, scope of the study, literature review, and methods of the study. The second section will have various findings, discussions, and recommendations. Section One Introduction to the study Very many countries have expanded their higher education opportunity for most of their students as well as other international students and an example of these countries is the United States. The urge for the various expansion processes is to appeal to other countries around the globe to put more emphasis on higher education since various skills and techniques can be learnt at these stages. However, the establishment of policies in these higher education institutions has proved to be a challenge to the United States as well as other countries. Some of the challenges that are faced in this 21st century are existence of gaps in the higher education due to the various economic hardship as well as lack of fair access also due to the economic hardships that some of the students faced. The gaps are also faced in terms of the enrolment of the female student verses male students in these higher education institutions. Poverty has also proved to be one of the major challenges that face many students that attend these institutions of higher education (Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission 2013, p.2). Statement of the problem The low enrolment of students in some higher education institutions like Ontario has raised a lot of concerns when it comes to pursuing higher education in this city. According to the College Student Alliance (2011), the low enrolment could be attributed to economic factors that tend to acts as a barrier to many students from poor families. Apart from low enrolment another problem that faces many students in higher education is lack of fair access to the various facilities within these institutions. Significance of the study This report will tend to provide various remedies and recommendations that can be used to solve the already existing problems in higher education. This study will also tend to focus on the various improvements in higher education enrolment through earlier preparation of the high school students to develop a liking for higher education institutions. Besides preparation of the high school students, this study will also focus on the various ways of streamlining the education processes in higher education institutions. Scope of the study This study will focus on the various limiting factors that act as barriers for many students who are joining these institutions. Besides the factors mentioned earlier such as gaps, fair access challenge, and various breakthrough, the study will also extend to good policy and practice among the processes of education in these institutions of higher learning. Literature review According to Ross and Kena (2012), a gap exists between the participation of the female and male students in various higher education institutions and the gaps cuts across all races. The issue of the gap has also been echoed by Achieve Incorporation, 2007, the number of the female students who are enrolling in these higher education institutions have significantly reduced as compared to their males counterparts and these gap could have been attributed to poverty rate as well low academic excellence for the female students back from the high school (Ross & Kena 2012, p.10). Poverty has also led to low enrolment of students in higher education since according to these authors close to 21% of many students are suffering from poverty related cases. Under representation of many students in some of the higher education institutions have also been caused due to poverty since it was noted that white population were much better off compared to other people who were not white (Brock 2010, p.115). The issue of under representation is also echoed by College Student Alliance report, 2011 and Nancy (2005) and in both cases poverty is highlighted as the main cause of under representation. For the development of equity in the society and reduction in the knowledge based shortage then most of the underrepresented groups are supposed to be supported to enable them to gain access to the higher education institutions (College Student Alliance 2011, p.21). According to Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission report, 2013 the most challenging situations faced by most of the higher education learning centres is fairness. The disadvantage groups that comprises of students from poorly developed areas always register low attendance to the higher education learning and this has created fairness challenge in the enrolment of the students at the various institutions of higher learning. Brock (2010) has also echoed all the cases of barriers and break-through and according to him, public attitudes and some policies imposed by the higher learning institutions have significantly lower the enrolment of many students. Lack of persistent as highlighted by Deepa (2005), Thomas and Lashawn (2006) has been a major challenge in higher education since there has been lack of retention more so for some students. This lack of persistent has greatly affected the education outcome in these institutions. Methods of study Sources of Data The data used for this study was obtained from secondary sources like various reports written by different groups such as Achieve Incorporation, Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission, and College Student Alliance. The information contained in these sampled reports was compared with information contained by other authors and through this comparison; some of the major challenges were highlighted. Section II DISCUSSIONS AND FINDINGS The four major challenges highlighted by this report are gaps and persistent study, barriers to success in higher education, and lack of fairness in the access of the higher education institutions. The major cause of the highlighted challenges is poverty since poverty originates from economic hardships and all the disadvantaged groups are all victims of poverty. The report on Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission 2013 has clearly indicated the adverse effects that poverty has on higher education learning since most of the students from poor families though with good grades are not able to access these institutions. Some of the students from high schools at times miss the pass mark for the government intake to institutions slightly and these students end up not joining these institutions due to lack of basic fees that they can enrol with in the various parallel programs offered by these institutions. The ability for many students to succeed in colleges is determined by the personal motivation and various objectives possessed by these students. Nonetheless, the skills and abilities of the students also play an important role in the determination of completion of their college education and studies. Table 1 Student enrolment between the year 1963 and 2005 Year Enrolment in millions 1963 0.4 1967 0.6 1971 0.9 1975 1.1 1979 1.1 1983 1.2 1987 1.2 1991 1.4 1995 1.42 1999 1.43 2003 1.6 2005 1.78 Figure 1 Pie chart representation of the various students enrolment report between the year 1963 and the year 2005 in most of the two and four year degree colleges. The enrolment trend between the year 1963 and 2005 shows an improvement more sop for the students in year two and year four in the colleges. Fig.2 Bar graph for the enrolment of college students between the years 1963 to 2005 RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS One of the major areas that should be considered for review in higher institutions of learning is the policies and the practices since this will boost the enrolment of the students. Implementation of strategies should be put in place by the various colleges’ administrators to ensure completion of the studies by most of the students. The evaluation of the reforms in the higher education should also be emphasized as this will help increase the enrolment of the students. The financial aid given to needy students should also be made effective as this would ensure that the needy students are accessible to this aid in the right time before commencement of the studies. References Achieve Incorporation, 2007, Closing the Expectations Gap 2007: An Annual 50-State Progress Report on the Alignment of High School Policies with the Demands of College and Work. [Online] Available at: http://www.achieve.org/files/50-state-07-Final.pdf [Accessed 6 Sept. 2013] Brock, T. 2010, Young adults and higher education: barriers and breakthroughs to Success, The Future of Children, Vol.20, No. 1, pp. 109-132 College Students Alliance, 2011, Breaking barriers: a strategy for equal access to higher education, College Student Alliance. [Online] Available at: http://www.ousa.ca/dev/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Breaking-Barriers.pdf [Accessed 6 Sept. 2013] Deepa, R. 2005. Learning Communities: Promoting Retention and Persistence in College. Research to Practice Brief, National College Transition Network 6. [Online] Available at: http://www.collegetransition.org/promisingpractices.research.learningcommunities.html [Accessed 6 Sept. 2013] Nancy, H. 2005, Add and Subtract: Dual Enrollment as a State Strategy to Increase Postsecondary Success for Underrepresented Students. [Online] Available at: http://www.jff.org/publications/education/add-andsubtract-dual-enrollment-state-s/156 [Accessed 6 Sept. 2013] Ross, T. & Kena, G. 2012, Higher education: Gaps in access and persistence study, National Center for Education Statistics. Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission, 2013, Higher education: the fair access challenge, [Online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/206994/FINAL_Higher_Education_-_The_Fair_Access_Challenge.pdf [Accessed 6 Sept. 2013] Thomas, B. & Lashawn, R. 2006. Paying for Persistence: Early Results of a Louisiana Scholarship Program for Low-Income Parents Attending Community College.Oakland, CA. Read More