The Worldwide Expansion of Higher Education in the Twentieth Century
Top Cited Papers
- 1 December 2005
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in American Sociological Review
- Vol. 70 (6) , 898-920
- https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240507000602
Abstract
The authors analyze the rapid worldwide expansion of higher educational enrollments over the twentieth century using pooled panel regressions. Expansion is higher in economically developed countries (in some but not all analyses) as classic theories would have it. Growth is greater where secondary enrollments are high and where state control over education is low, consistent with conflict and competition theories. Institutional theories get strong support: growth patterns are similar in all types of countries, are especially high in countries more linked to world society, and sharply accelerate in virtually all countries after 1960. The authors theorize and operationalize the institutional processes involved, which include scientization, democratization and the expansion of human rights, the rise of development planning, and the structuration of the world polity. With these changes, a new model of society became institutionalized globally-one in which schooled knowledge and personnel were seen as appropriate for a wide variety of social positions, and in which many more young people were seen as appropriate candidates for higher education. An older vision of education as contributing to a more closed society and occupational system—with associated fears of “over-education”—was replaced by an open-system picture of education as useful “human capital” for unlimited progress. The global trends are so strong that developing countries now have higher enrollment rates than European countries did only a few decades ago, and currently about one-fifth of the world cohort is now enrolled in higher education.Keywords
This publication has 29 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Rebirth of the Liberal Creed: Paths to Neoliberalism in Four CountriesAmerican Journal of Sociology, 2002
- Political Modernities: Disentangling Two Underlying Dimensions of Institutional DifferentiationSociological Theory, 2002
- The Varying Effects of Regional Organizations as Subjects of Globalization of EducationComparative Education Review, 2002
- The Nation-State and the Natural Environment over the Twentieth CenturyAmerican Sociological Review, 2000
- Exporting the American ModelPublished by Oxford University Press (OUP) ,1998
- The Individualist Polity and the Prevalence of Professionalized Psychology: A Cross-National StudyAmerican Sociological Review, 1995
- Multinational Corporate Investment and Women's Participation in Higher Education in Noncore NationsSociology of Education, 1992
- Educational Ideology and the World Educational Revolution, 1950-1970Comparative Education Review, 1987
- Functional and Conflict Theories of Educational StratificationAmerican Sociological Review, 1971
- Universities and Academic Systems in Modern SocietiesEuropean Journal of Sociology, 1962