Abstract
Although religion has historically been a structuring dimension of higher education systems in Europe, very little research interrogates the contemporary link between religion and higher education. But why should that be done? Building from the European Social Survey data, we show that it helps understanding the roles played by higher education in a given society. Furthermore, it grasps religious belongings as a potential indicator of inequalities, along with ethnic and socio-economic background. It thus underlines the cognitive dimension of inequalities, and calls for a broader taking into account of individual belongings in their analysis.
Highlights
To understand these issues, data are used from the European Social Survey
Religion has historically been a structuring dimension of higher education systems in Europe, little research interrogates the contemporary link between religion and higher education
RELIGION, EDUCATION, AND SOCIETY The first striking result consists in a global trend: In Europe, the most secular societies tend to be those with a higher level of education
Summary
Data are used from the European Social Survey. From the five waves of this survey (2001–2010), we obtained a sample of 181,492 individuals born between 1939 and 1979, from 30 European countries. It is about taking religious backgrounds or belongings into account, in the reading of inequalities of access to higher education. Some groups have been refrained from accessing higher education, and European societies are, today, still more or less organized along religious lines.
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