What Works to Reduce Inequalities in Higher Education? A Systematic Review of the (Quasi-)Experimental Literature on Outreach and Financial Aid
Policy makers are increasingly searching for ways to allow more disadvantaged students to access and complete higher education. The quickly growing (quasi-)experimental literature on policy interventions in higher education provide the opportunity...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/650601554221255443/What-Works-to-Reduce-Inequalities-in-Higher-Education-A-Systematic-Review-of-the-Quasi-Experimental-Literature-on-Outreach-and-Financial-Aid http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31497 |
| Summary: | Policy makers are increasingly searching
for ways to allow more disadvantaged students to access and
complete higher education. The quickly growing
(quasi-)experimental literature on policy interventions in
higher education provide the opportunity to identify the
causal effects of these interventions on disadvantaged
students and discuss inequality mechanisms at the last stage
of the educational system. The paper reviews 75 studies and
rigorously compares more than 200 causal effects of outreach
and financial aid interventions on the access and completion
rates of disadvantaged students in higher education. The
paper finds that outreach policies are broadly effective in
increasing access for disadvantaged students when these
policies include active counseling or simplify the
university application process, but not when they only
provide general information on higher education. For
financial aid, the paper finds that need-based grants do not
systematically increase enrollment rates but only lead to
improvements when they provide enough money to cover unmet
need and/or include an early commitment during high school.
Still, need-based grants quite consistently appear to
improve the completion rates of disadvantaged students. In
contrast, the evidence indicates that merit-based grants
only rarely improve the outcomes of disadvantaged students.
Finally, interventions combining outreach and financial aid
have brought promising results, although more research on
these mixed interventions is needed. |
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