Abstract
China is experiencing high social inequality accompanying influential education reforms. The Independent Freshmen Admission (IFA) policy was one of the multiple strategies in higher education reforms in China against the social context of high social inequality and the expansion of higher education. By comparing students admitted through IFA with those admitted by the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE), we examined how family advantages contributed to higher education inequality in terms of educational opportunity, process, and results. Using data from an elite university in Beijing, we found that: (1) Family advantages improved a student’s likelihood of being admitted through IFA, exhibiting opportunity inequality. (2) No significant difference in academic grades existed between the students admitted through IFA and NCEE. In comprehensive quality, however, those recruited through IFA performed significantly better than those admitted through NCEE. (3) Family social capital not only increased the likelihood of students being admitted through IFA but also, through direct and indirect effects, increased their comprehensive quality performance in terms of receiving student association and social practice awards.
Highlights
Education plays an essential role in modern society as it is a channel to achieve social mobility and socioeconomic status
With the expansion of education, some scholars argued that family advantage contributed less to education inequality (Treiman, 1970), while other studies found that family background remained a significant effect on educational opportunities, despite the expansion of education (Shavit and Blossfeld, 1993; Buchmann and Hannum, 2001)
69.76% studied science in high school, 82.48% held an urban hukou before being admitted to the university, and 60.48% came from cities
Summary
Education plays an essential role in modern society as it is a channel to achieve social mobility and socioeconomic status. It is a tool for reproducing social inequality as family resources are important potential advantages for children’s educational opportunities and achievements (Blau and Otis, 1967; Wu, 2010). With the expansion of education, some scholars argued that family advantage contributed less to education inequality (Treiman, 1970), while other studies found that family background remained a significant effect on educational opportunities, despite the expansion of education (Shavit and Blossfeld, 1993; Buchmann and Hannum, 2001). The effect of family background on higher education inequality should be discussed in the context of specific systems and backgrounds. China is a unique setting to study how social inequality contributed to education reproduction as it is experiencing a high social inequality accompanying significant reforms in the higher education system. China is experiencing high-income inequality measured by the Gini coefficient. The Gini coefficient in China increased from 0.30 approximately in 1980 to 0.467 in 2017, indicating that a huge gap existed
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