This book provides a path for resolving challenges related to access, diversity, equity, and other issues facing higher education admissions. It illuminates current higher education admissions practices in a global context, highlighting common obstacles. The chapters outline decision-making models used in college admissions, details those assessments commonly employed in admissions, and provides innovative perspectives on the future of admissions. The book's multidisciplinary approach defines much-needed changes in admissions brought about by shifts in the makeup of student populations and in higher education itself. Rationales for moving away from traditional assessments used in admissions and expanding the criteria used to ensure a student's academic success are discussed. Readers will come away with an understanding of the current issues, philosophies, and historical circumstances facing higher education admissions across the globe and will be equipped to contemplate and react to future possibilities and opportunities.
Part I. Global Challenges and Common Admissions Models María Elena Oliveri: 1. An overview of higher education admissions processes Rochelle Michel and Simone Pollard; 2. Comparing college aspirations across PISA countries: are 17 percent oranges less than 75 percent apples? Matthias von Davier and Hak Ping Tam; 3. Merit-based admissions in higher education Christina Wikström and Magnus Wikström; 4. The open admissions model: an example from the United States Kevin M. Williams and Cathy Wendler; 5. Character-based admissions criteria in the United States and in Europe: rationale, evidence, and some critical remarks A. Susan M. Niessen and Rob R. Meijer; 6. Cross-cultural and global competencies and their role in admissions policies and practices Stephanie McKeown, Adrienne Vedan, Jackson Traplin, Leah Sanford and Cynthia Bourne; Part II. Country-Specific Admissions Practices Cathy Wendler: 7. Admission policies and practices and the reshaping of access patterns to higher education in Africa Ibrahim Oanda; 8. Chile's admissions tests: pending changes and revisions Mladen Koljatic and Mónica Silva; 9. Issues of perceived fairness in admissions assessments in small countries: the case of the Republic of Cyprus Elena C. Papanastasiou and Michalis P. Michaelides; 10. Higher education admissions practices in Israel Avi Allalouf, Yoav Cohen and Naomi Gafni; 11. Access, equity, and admissions in South African higher education Naziema Jappie; 12. Admissions practices in Sweden Per-Erik Lyrén and Christina Wikström; 13. Revisions of admissions testing in Vietnam: from elite to mass higher education Duy Ngoc Pham and Hong Cong Sai; Part III. Assessments Used in Higher Education Admissions María Elena Oliveri: 14. General academic and subject-based examinations used in undergraduate higher education admissions Rosemary Reshetar and Martha Pitts; 15. Language proficiency assessments in higher education admissions Thomas Eckes and Hans-Joachim Althaus; 16. Measuring student character: modernizing predictors of academic success Nathan Kuncel, Khue Tran and Shu Han Zhang; Part IV. Rethinking Higher Education Admissions Cathy Wendler: 17. The ACT holistic framework® of education and workplace success Jeremy Burrus, Jason Way, Becky Bobek, Kristin Stoeffler and Ryan O'Connor; 18. Using mathematical models to improve access to postsecondary education Rebecca Zwick; 19. After admissions: what comes next in higher education? María Elena Oliveri, Robert J. Mislevy and Norbert Elliot.
María Elena Oliveri is a research scientist at Educational Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey where her research focuses on fairness, validity, and innovative assessment design for diverse populations. Cathy Wendler is the Senior Strategic Advisor in the Psychometric, Statistics, and Data Sciences Division at Educational Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey. Her research areas include validity, higher education issues, large-scale testing, and constructed-response scoring.
