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ESRC Research Pathfinder Programme Collaborative Analysis of Micro data Resources Brazil India. Assessing the impact of higher education expansion o n economic restructuring, occupational change and access to opportunity in Brazil and India. Kate Purcell IER University of Warwick, UK.
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ESRC Research Pathfinder Programme Collaborative Analysis of Micro data Resources Brazil India Assessing the impact of higher education expansion on economic restructuring, occupational change and access to opportunity in Brazil and India Kate Purcell IER University of Warwick, UK
Economic restructuring, ‘the knowledge economy’ and the global change – implications for economic growth, social integration and employment in Brazil and India • Higher education in Brazil and India and labour market change: key background policy and contextual issues • Informationto map the recent and potential graduate labour markets – what is potential of, and challenges for, parallel and comparative research? • Statistical analyses and mixed methods research in the UK: feasibility of parallel analyses in Brazil, India and other emerging economies? • Better data to inform national and international policies: how best can effort and investment be made?
Brazilian and Indian HE Issues • Supply of HE places does not meet demand, or requirements of economy • Past under-investment in State-funded HEIs • Widespread lack of regulation, especially in growing private sectors • Inequality of access and information: • by socio-economic background – State universities largely accessed by elite young people from elite private schools and colleges; • By gender • by location (rural/urban and region) • By colour (in Brazil) and caste and religion (in India) • Variable quality of provision – ranging from world-class to very poor quality • Emigration of graduates from elite HEIs to overseas opportunities –not so much the case for Brazil • Widespread underemployment of graduates • Graduate unemployment (India) and few opportunities for graduates in rural areas (both) • Complacency and vested interests of elites in countries with wide disparities in wealth, resources and opportunities
In both countries (as in the UK) the obstacles are prior to HE enrolment = i.e. most people belonging to marginalized groups (lower castes and women in India; non-white groups in Brazil) are not eligible for HE, because they don´t reach or complete secondary education; • among those who achieve eligibility, a high proportion proceed to HE; • in both countries, there have been affirmative action intiatives to address inequalities of access to education and career opportunities; • BUT (– as in the UK) the quality of HE provision and the returns to different types of courses, and different knowledge, skills and credentials, are highly unequal.
Affirmative action - India • Quotas for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in HE post-independence and for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in 2007. • Affirmative action in higher education partly based on the premise that participation of target groups is low • Limited understanding of issues relating to the measurement of participation in higher education and the ‘deficits’ experienced by different groups • Need to measure ‘deficits’ that can be attributed to group-specific identities (controlling for other factors) • Measurement of ‘deficits’ should inform the nature and scope of affirmative action • Should one explore non-quota options for affirmative action?
Afirmative Action - Brazil Afirmative action focused on social (students from public secondary school) and colour/race (black, mixed, indigenous) definitions (- many different programs and rules: 1. Public HE institutions Quotas (reserved places) or bonus (extra points) for members of marginalized groups; universities allowed autonomy to define the rules. 2. Private HE Institutions PROUNI (Federal governement-funded ‘University for all’ programme):scholarships in private HEIs for marginalized groups (combining social & racial criteria), with exemption of federal taxes for the participating institutions.
Higher education in the emerging economies: key questions • What are the returns to higher education (HE) investment for graduates, employers, communities and national economies? • What should be the basis of HE planning and provision…. • ..and who is responsible for providing and paying for it? • Should student demand or employers’ needs drive the expansion of higher education? • Does the expansion of higher education increase social and economic equality of opportunity?
The research questions • What are the strengths and weaknesses of existing micro-data sources in relation to addressing these questions? • What can be done to amalgamate, reinterpret or reclassify, replicate or develop exiting sources and how can information gaps be rectified for future practice? • How effectively is it possible to investigate the relationship between HE provision, economic restructuring and social change? (What is the relationship between the supply of and demand for highly-qualified and educated labour market recruits?) • What facilitates and obstructs access to HE, career opportunities and human potential ? (How effective have recent attempts been to reduce inequalities of access?)
Analysing occupational change in relation to HE expansion: a classification of graduate jobs • Traditional graduate jobs • The established professions, for which, historically, the normal route has been via an undergraduate degree programme • Modern graduate jobs • The newer professions, particularly in management, IT and creative vocational areas, engineering, which graduates have been entering increasingly since educational expansion in the 1960s • New graduate jobs • Areas of employment to which graduates have increasingly been recruited in large numbers; mainly administrative, design, technical and ‘caring’ occupations • Niche graduate jobs • Occupations where the majority of incumbents are not graduates, but within which there are stable or growing specialist niches which require higher education skills and knowledge For further details, see http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ier/research/completed/7yrs2/rp6.pdf
Data sources to be used In Brazil • Socio-demographic data from the PNAD (National Household Sample Survey) conducted annually by the Office of Demographic Research in Brazil (allows urban/rural comparisons) • Longitudinal data from the RAIS-MIGRA and transversal RAIS data base (Annual administrative record, Ministry of Labor – a census of the Brazilian formal labour market (including detailed investigation of selective dataset of graduates) • Analysis of data from two major affirmative action programmes of the operation of quota and bonus* systems at two large universities. (* i.e. enhancement of entrance exam grades) In India • National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO), Employment Unemployment Survey, 1993-94, 1999-2000, 2004-05 (HE participation, caste, religion, household, occupation, sector, etc). • National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO), Special Survey on social (education) infrastructure, 1995-96 and 2005-06 (includes use of public and private HEIs and ‘recognized’ and ‘unrecognized’ HEIs. In India
An example of the challenges posed by this kind of comparative analysis: comparing social and educational disadvantage in different cultural and socio-economic contexts: In Brazil, race or ethnicity is not a system of classification :’colour’ is, currently classified as White, Mixed (made up of Black/indigenous, Black/White, etc.) and Black. The population of Black and Mixed is growing fast. Respondents to official surveys (and applicants to universities) self-classify colour, and this has been subject to some subjective shifts in recent years. The state is not allowed to classify individuals. In India, those in lower castes are the marginalised groups. Castes are classified by certification only. But there are differences in access to economic and social advantage (including access to HE) according to religion, with Muslims relatively disadvantaged in relation to other groups. In the UK, there are wide disparities in access to socio-economic advantage and education among minority ethnic groups and among the white majority, and all of these are essentially related to social class. AND ASTHE THREE SOCIETIES BECOME INCREASINGLY MULTICULTURAL , ETHNIC GROUPS MORE SOCIALLY INTEGRATED, AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES INITIATIVES MORE WIDESPREAD THE PATTERNS OF DISADVANTAGE EVOLVE.
Summary of activities • Comprehensive investigation of existing data sources • Preliminary development of new data analysis instruments, building on UK work • Consultative workshops with key stakeholders • Production of reports and thematic papers • Proposal for further empirical research building on the findings.
This tripartite research is being conducted by interdisciplinary teams of researchers in India and in Brazil – sociologists, economists, management studies specialists with expertise in using these databases and experience of primary survey and case study research. THE CORE TEAM Kate Purcell, Clare Lyonette and Ritva Ellison,IER University of Warwick, UK Nadya Araujo Guimaraes, Alvaro Comin, Marcia Lima and Antonio Sergio GuimaraesCEBRAP, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil Jeemol Unni, GIDR/IRMA India Rakesh Basant, ORF Delhi/ IIM Ahmadabad India For further information about this project and links relating to the Institute’s UK higher education and labour market research and related projects see: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ier/research/glmf