Francisco Ramirez conducts cross-national studies on the role of education in the formation of world society and the influence of world society on educational developments. These studies include topics such as patterns of women's access to higher education, the role of education and science in economic development, the interrelationships among education, citizenship, and human rights, and the impact of globalization on universities.

Research focus

• Higher Education
• International and Comparative Education
• Leadership and Organization
• Sociology

Current Research Projects at SCRIPTS
After a period of global neoliberalism, critics have gained more centrality – questioning democracy, open markets, and the society of expanded individual rights. Education, central to liberal visions of society, comes under more attack. Together with his co-PIs (Patricia Bromley, Stanford University; Evan Schofer, University of California, Irvine) and research collaborators (David J. Frank, University of California, Irvine; Julia C. Lerch, University of California, Irvine; Wesley Longhofer, Emory University; John W. Meyer, Stanford University), they propose to collect new data to understand the origin and extent of this phenomenon, to assess its impact on educational developments around the world and offer some explanations for the phenomena observed. They propose a “large-N” cross‐national and longitudinal approach to study illiberal attacks on education. The goal will be to assemble a broad set of empirical measures that capture illiberal attacks on education for the entire world (approximately 200 countries over the period from 1980-2017). This will allow them to document global, regional, and country-­level historical trends to ascertain the extent of the phenomenon. They will then develop statistical models to identify the correlates of illiberal attacks on education, and whenever possible to identify causal effects that bear on our competing explanations.

See the publication list of Francisco Ramirez here.