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...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Herbaut, Estelle, Geven, Koen
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2019
Subjects:	HIGHER EDUCATION SOCIAL INEQUALITY TERTIARY EDUCATION COMPLETION RATES EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT FINANCIAL AID
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

id	okr-10986-31497
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-314972022-09-20T00:14:00Z What Works to Reduce Inequalities in Higher Education? A Systematic Review of the (Quasi-)Experimental Literature on Outreach and Financial Aid Herbaut, Estelle Geven, Koen HIGHER EDUCATION SOCIAL INEQUALITY TERTIARY EDUCATION COMPLETION RATES EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT 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 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. 2019-04-03T20:41:25Z 2019-04-03T20:41:25Z 2019-04 Working Paper 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 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8802 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	HIGHER EDUCATION SOCIAL INEQUALITY TERTIARY EDUCATION COMPLETION RATES EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT FINANCIAL AID
spellingShingle	HIGHER EDUCATION SOCIAL INEQUALITY TERTIARY EDUCATION COMPLETION RATES EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT FINANCIAL AID Herbaut, Estelle Geven, Koen What Works to Reduce Inequalities in Higher Education? A Systematic Review of the (Quasi-)Experimental Literature on Outreach and Financial Aid
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8802
description	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.
format	Working Paper
author	Herbaut, Estelle Geven, Koen
author_facet	Herbaut, Estelle Geven, Koen
author_sort	Herbaut, Estelle
title	What Works to Reduce Inequalities in Higher Education? A Systematic Review of the (Quasi-)Experimental Literature on Outreach and Financial Aid
title_short	What Works to Reduce Inequalities in Higher Education? A Systematic Review of the (Quasi-)Experimental Literature on Outreach and Financial Aid
title_full	What Works to Reduce Inequalities in Higher Education? A Systematic Review of the (Quasi-)Experimental Literature on Outreach and Financial Aid
title_fullStr	What Works to Reduce Inequalities in Higher Education? A Systematic Review of the (Quasi-)Experimental Literature on Outreach and Financial Aid
title_full_unstemmed	What Works to Reduce Inequalities in Higher Education? A Systematic Review of the (Quasi-)Experimental Literature on Outreach and Financial Aid
title_sort	what works to reduce inequalities in higher education? a systematic review of the (quasi-)experimental literature on outreach and financial aid
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2019
url	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
_version_	1764474459680407552

What Works to Reduce Inequalities in Higher Education? A Systematic Review of the (Quasi-)Experimental Literature on Outreach and Financial Aid

Similar Items