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In this paper, we consider whether certain countries are particularly adept (or particularly poor) at getting children from disadvantaged homes to study for a bachelor's degree. A series of university access models are estimated for four English-speaking countries (England, Canada, Australia and the USA), which include controls for comparable measures of academic achievement at age 15. Our results suggest that socioeconomic differences in university access are more pronounced in England and Canada than Australia and the USA and that cross-national variation in the socioeconomic gap remains even once we take account of differences in academic achievement. We discuss the implications of our findings for the creation of more socially mobile societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to construct ranking indicators from the perspective inside of the university and shift the ranking target from overall university quality to undergraduate education quality. In dealing with the complexity of the concept of undergraduate education quality, two-stage questionnaire survey was conducted to gain comprehensive opinions from 20 higher education evaluation experts. The Fuzzy Delphi Method then was introduced to perform data analysis and help final indicator selection as well as the distribution of weights. The results compared with ranking systems conducted by US NEWS and Guardian showed weighting differences and greater comprehensiveness in terms of the types of measures, sources of data and different perspectives from the students, employers and the academics. Most important of all, this study provided a more transparent ranking system and detailed ranking methodology that are crucial for users’ understanding and use of the ranking system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]