Title: Optimal admission to higher education.

Abstract:

(1) This paper constructs higher education admission rules that maximise graduation rates.

(2) An application shows that only students with maximum mathematics in secondary school ought to be admitted to a psychology programme. Students with less mathematics ought to find it easier to be admitted to an economics programme than to a law programme, even though economics is the most difficult programme from which to graduate without a strong background in mathematics.

(3) Indirect gains from optimal admission include the potential of making whole cohorts of students more able to graduate with a higher education degree.