How Much Do You Know About Higher Education?

Higher Education: A Summary

• Higher education is tertiary education that leads to an academic degree after completing secondary education.
• The right of access to higher education is mentioned in several international human rights instruments such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966.
• In the US, higher education is provided by universities, colleges, polytechnics, vocational schools, universities of applied sciences, trade schools, and other career-based colleges that award degrees.
• Higher education includes teaching, research, exacting applied work, and social services activities of universities.
• The oldest known institutions of higher education are credited to Dynastic Egypt, with Pr-Anx built as libraries and scriptoriums.
• Since World War II, developed and many developing countries have increased the participation of the age group who mostly studies higher education.
• Higher education is essential to national economies, both as an industry and as a source of trained and educated personnel for the rest of the economy.
• Universities have been criticized for permitting or actively encouraging grade inflation.
• The supply of graduates in many fields of study is exceeding the demand for their skills, aggravating graduate unemployment, underemployment, overqualification, credentialism, and educational inflation.
• A 2014 report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development states that by 2014, 84 percent of young people were completing upper secondary education over their lifetimes in high-income countries.
• The Lisbon Recognition Convention stipulates that degrees and periods of study must be recognized in all of the Signatory Parties of the convention.
• Higher education is referred to as post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education.