Perception of Elite and Universal Systems of Higher Education: An Explanation of the Empirical Thresholds

Authors

Olga Kosheleva, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow
Vladik Kreinovich, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow

Publication Date

9-2013

Comments

Technical Report: UTEP-CS-13-61

Abstract

Systems of higher education are usually divided into elite, mass, and universal, depending on the proportion of young people who attend college. Human experts perceive a system as elite is less than 15\% of young people of the 18--21 age group attend college, and as universal if more than 40% of young people of this age group attend college. The corresponding 15% and 40% thresholds are, however, purely empirical. In this paper, we provide an explanation for these empirical thresholds -- an explanation based on the known psychological 7 plus minus 2 law.