Data on the applicants’ revealed preferences when entering higher education is used as a proxy to build the Higher Education Space (HES) of Portugal (2008–2015) and Chile (2006–2017). The HES is a network that connects pairs of degree programs according to their co-occurrence in the applicants’ preferences. We show that both HES network structures reveal the existence of positive assortment in features such as gender balance, application scores, unemployment levels, academic demand/supply ratio, geographical mobility, and first-year drop-out rates. For instance, if a degree program exhibits a high prevalence of female candidates, its nearest degree programs in the HES will also tend to exhibit a higher prevalence when compared to the prevalence in the entire system. These patterns extend up to two or three links of separation, vanishing, or inverting for increasing distances. Moreover, we show that for demand/supply ratio and application scores a similar pattern occurs for time variations. Finally, we provide evidence that information embedded in the HES is not accessible by merely considering the features of degree programs independently. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the higher education systems at revealing and leveraging its non-trivial underlying organizing principles. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first network science approach for improving decision-making and governance in higher education systems.

中文翻译：

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高等教育空间：将学位课程与个人选择联系起来

申请人进入高等教育时所显示的偏好数据被用作构建葡萄牙（2008-2015年）和智利（2006-2017年）高等教育空间的代理。HES是一个网络，根据学位课程对的同时出现，将其对应聘者的偏好联系起来。我们显示，这两种HES网络结构都揭示出正向分类的存在，这些正向分类的特征包括性别平衡，应用程序得分，失业水平，学术需求/供应率，地域流动性和第一年辍学率。例如，如果学位课程显示出女性候选人的高流行率，那么与整个系统中的流行度相比，其在HES中最接近的学位课程也倾向于呈现出更高的流行度。这些模式最多可延伸至两个或三个分离，消失，或倒转以增加距离。此外，我们表明，对于需求/供应比率和应用程序分数，时间变化会出现类似的模式。最后，我们提供证据表明仅通过单独考虑学位课程的功能就无法访问嵌入HES中的信息。这些发现有助于在揭示和利用其非平凡的基础组织原则时更好地理解高等教育系统。据我们所知，这是改善高等教育系统决策和治理的第一种网络科学方法。我们提供的证据表明，仅通过独立考虑学位课程的功能就无法访问嵌入在HES中的信息。这些发现有助于在揭示和利用其非平凡的基础组织原则时更好地理解高等教育系统。据我们所知，这是改善高等教育系统决策和治理的第一种网络科学方法。我们提供的证据表明，仅通过独立考虑学位课程的功能就无法访问嵌入在HES中的信息。这些发现有助于在揭示和利用其非平凡的基础组织原则时更好地理解高等教育系统。据我们所知，这是改善高等教育系统决策和治理的第一种网络科学方法。