Evidential insights: factors affecting higher education readiness

Abstract

The modern world has transformed industry-education partnerships towards skill-based contributions to society. Productivity emerges as the new indices of harnessing human potential in the current age of science and technology. This need has propelled the need for immediate transformation within the higher education system to imbibe skills and capacities in the transitioning population for preparation towards STEM-dominated higher learning programs. Contrastingly, the current evidence of preparation for higher learning is not strongly situated in the context of the Indian education system. The objective of this paper is to introduce a framework of Higher Education Readiness with the conceptualization of skills that can foster STEM learning in the transitioning young population of India. It aims to investigate the differences in the readiness ability along the demographic lines of gender and spatial reference by using the Higher Education Readiness test. Data from the district with a high literacy rate was collected to address the objectives of the study. The results demonstrate that female students compete equally with male students on performance in Higher Education Readiness abilities yet fail to pursue STEM disciplines in their higher learning programs. The paper is expected to provide the factors associated with readiness for higher education. Based on the data enabled evidence, the findings demand influential changes in the policies related to STEM education for stronger educational management at the secondary level. The findings of the study would help in the transformation of the educational management towards vocationalisation and increasing productivity levels in the learning individual.