For-profit Mid-career Programs
as a Second Chance for
Disadvantaged Social Groups
Hanna Ayalon and Gila Menahem
Tel Aviv University, Israel
Prepared for the Decowe Conference, Ljubljana, September 2009
Some information on the for-profit
programs in Israel
 A new phenomenon
 Master’s programs aimed at junior
managers with a Bachelor’s degree.
 Do not train researchers
 Charge high tuition fees
 Parallel to existing programs, but less
selective and more intensive
 Students complete studies in four
semesters (instead of two and more years)
Rational
 Financial crisis in the Israeli
universities
 Part of an international trend
Brief information on Israeli higher
education
 Until the 90th composed mainly of
research universities
 Traditional universities are divided
into elite and non-elite universities
 During the 90th – a remarkable
expansion due to the establishment
of academic colleges
 The colleges are considered the
second tier of higher education
 Currently, more than 50% of the
undergraduate students study in the
colleges
Fields of study
 Differ in attractiveness, prestige and
selectivity (Ayalon and Yogev 2005)
 Most prestigious – lucrative fields.
 Least prestigious – humanities.
Critics of the executive programs
 Turning higher education into a
business
 Enhancing educational inequality
The programs as a second chance
 Provides junior managers the
opportunity to upgrade their status
by winning a Master’s degree from a
prestigious university
 Previously deprived of this
opportunity due to social and / or
educational disadvantages.
 Convert their self-acquired resources
into educational credentials
Research question
 Do the for-profit programs serve as a
second chance for ethnically and
socially disadvantaged groups and /
or for educationally disadvantaged
members of privileged groups.
Data
 About 600 students in parallel
executive and regular programs in the
social science programs, Tel Aviv
University, 2006, 2007, and 2008.
Descriptive results
Student’s characteristics according to program
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
Mizrachim
Arab
College
Elite
university
For-profit
Non-elite
Regular
Humanities
Social
sciences
Graduation grade by program
87
86
85
84
83
82
81
Grade
For-profit
Regular
51
50
49
48
For profit
Regular
47
46
45
44
Father's occupational prestige
Age by program
40
35
30
25
For-profit
Regular
20
15
10
5
0
age
Income by Program
8000
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
For profit
Regular
Results of the logistic
regression
Dependent variable – the odds of
enrolling in an for-profit mid-career
versus a regular program
Socio-demographic characteristics
Model 1
Model 2
Model 3
-0.929**
-1.097**
-0.532
Mizrachim
0.502**
0.524**
0.719**
Parental
education
-0.020
0.013
-0.056
-0.011**
-0.018*
-0.016*
Female
Father’s
occupational
prestige
Educational characteristics
Model 2
Model 3
Non-elite
university
College
1.215**
0.789*
1.763**
2.209**
Humanities
1.679**
1.701**
Other
1.326**
-0.916
Graduation
score
-0.173**
-0.117**
Interactions
Mizrachim*”father’s
occ. prestige
-1.175**
-1.923**
Nonelite*humanities
-0.746
-0.410
Non-elite*other
-1.129*
-1.191
-0.306**
-1.742
-1.422*
-1.896**
College*humanities
College*other
-1.437**
Age
0.159**
Income
0.159**
Parental education
-0.056
Parental
education*income
0.029**
Major results
 The for-profit programs provide the
opportunity of a prestigious Master’s degree
to junior managers with the following
characteristics:
 Lower graduation scores
 Graduates of elite universities who did not
major in the social sciences
 Graduates of non-elite universities and
colleges who majored in the social sciences
 The upper stratum of the
disadvantaged ethnic groups
 The lower stratum of the dominant
ethnic group
Concluding remarks
 The executive programs compensate
members of the dominant ethnic
group for social disadvantages
 Members of the disadvantaged ethnic
group who enroll in the programs
have better social background.
 Students who use their high income
to upgrade themselves are more
often children of educated parents.
The executive programs – a second
chance for whom?
By using their high income, junior
managers use the programs to
overcome past social and educational
disadvantages.
Still, the programs mainly
compensate members of the
dominant ethnic group for
socioeconomic disadvantages.