Grade retention and inequalities that derive from grade retention can influence student school trajectories and careers. Grade retention can discourage students from education, and increase school failure and dropout. This study explored the relationship between grade retention and student intentions to enrol in higher education. We also studied…

In recent decades, higher education has experienced a massive expansion worldwide, which has often been linked to increasing higher education diversification. New sectors and new types of institutions emerged with this massification process to offer more diversified types of advanced training. At the same time, this expansion was often embedded in…

Increasing mature students' access to higher education (HE) is a worldwide priority. In Portugal, the 23+ policy which was launched ten years ago opened HE to these students. A critical analysis of eight years' data on the universe of mature candidates in HE in Portugal shows that this "opening" varies in inverse ratio to the social…

In the last decades, European higher education systems have been experiencing an unprecedented expansion, which created significant financial and political challenges. At the same time, we have seen a shift in attitudes towards public higher education that has promoted new ways of funding this sector. This context has led to major changes in the…