Less inequality through universal access? Socioeconomic background of tertiary entrants in Australia after the expansion of university participation

Krzysztof Czarnecki

doi:10.1007/s10734-017-0222-1

Krzysztof Czarnecki

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-017-0222-1

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Journal: Higher Education	Publication Date: Dec 20, 2017
Citations: 16	License type: open-access

Affiliation: Poznań University of Economics and Business

Abstract

This article investigates the consequences of an expansion of domestic university places in Australia after 2009 for inequalities in access to tertiary education. I focused on how different individual-level socioeconomic factors were influencing not only the likelihood of continuing education at the tertiary level but also a type of institution one studies at. Thus, I simultaneously analyse vertical and horizontal dimensions of inequalities in access. The expansion has not dramatically changed the differentiated access within different socioeconomic groups. However, the influence of parental education and secondary school context on continuing education has weakened. But those who have benefited the most are young people from upper service class. They not only approach near-universal access faster than other social classes but also improve their relative chances to study at the most prestigious institutions. Controlling for academic ability at the age of 15 showed that socioeconomic background continuous to matter after that age. This means that student-oriented equity policies undertaken closer to the point of transition to tertiary education have a capacity to decrease educational inequalities. Results are discussed against the background of the current higher education policy trends regarding equity in access.

Highlights

The main purpose of this article is to assess the hypothesis which can be derived from the theory of “effectively maintained inequalities” (EMI, Lucas 2001) and the recent work of Simon Marginson (2016): as higher education participation expands, there is a tendency for social inequality in distribution of post-secondary educational outcomes to increase
I looked at the changes of average partial effects (APE) of each socioeconomic factor on the post-secondary educational outcomes (Fig. 1, solid lines)
The significant rise in number of undergraduate university places in Australia after 2009 allowed me to verify this in a contemporary context, while investigating at the same time to what extent inequalities in access to any tertiary education have changed

Summary

Introduction

The main purpose of this article is to assess the hypothesis which can be derived from the theory of “effectively maintained inequalities” (EMI, Lucas 2001) and the recent work of Simon Marginson (2016): as higher education participation expands, there is a tendency for social inequality in distribution of post-secondary educational outcomes to increase. Most of the advanced economies have experienced a rapid expansion of participation in tertiary education and, in turn, the proportion of highly educated population. This was expected to enhance intergenerational social mobility by making young people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds more likely to enrol in tertiary studies. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, many countries have started to face a slower growth of the number of available professional and managerial jobs for graduates (Wren 2013) This coincided with an ongoing increase of the pool of individuals with tertiary degrees

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