Merit Matters: Student Perceptions of Faculty Quality and Reward (2016)

International Journal of Educational Development
Lead Article, 2016

Abstract: This empirical research explores a role that the quality of teaching and students’ competence play in shaping students’ views about the upward mobility opportunities in their higher education institutions. In the absence of meritocracy, this study finds, students are likely to label the educational system as corrupt. When the merit-based competition does not determine who moves up within higher education, one’s belonging to the political, social, and economic elites tends to become the alternative basis for the upward mobility. Moving away from the merit-based mobility can have broad social consequences particularly in developing countries that are poorly equipped to react to such digressions, underlining the relevance of this work cross-nationally.

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