Ethnicity on top of social class? Inclusion and diversity in access to higher education degrees in Europe (1950–2010)

Abstract

The massification of higher education has been an important development across education systems in Europe over the second half of the 20th century. Nurtured by political, economic and social goals, including the improvement of social justice in education and beyond, massification has been associated with inclusion as a goal of higher education systems. Generally, it has been construed as the realisation of a democratic project. This article reports on a study that examined the extent to which higher education systems effectively have moved towards a better inclusion of the various social groups composing national populations. Based on a quantitative analysis using data from the European Social Survey, this article presents an assessment of the level of inequalities in access to higher education degrees by employing indicators that are traditionally used by countries participating in the survey (gender, socio-economic background) and indicators that are not as widely shared (ethnic belonging, religion) in order to offer an original and comprehensive analysis of the extent to which national social diversities are represented in higher education. A comparison of three generations (born 1930–1949, 1950–1964 and 1965–1979) shows a development of decreasing inequality between the first two generations, but a slowing or interruption of this development in the 1980s. Also, the effect of social belongings on educational trajectories became more complex. The importance of ethnic belonging increased, underscoring the importance to consider ethnicity in addition to socio-economic dimensions in sociological research. The study outcomes highlight differences in individual country trajectories in relation to the geopolitical reconfiguration of political territories.