Socioeconomic Background of University Students in Finland after World War II

Abstract

Abstract In Finland higher education has expanded and the number of students has increased since World War II. During the period front 1945 to 1985 the socioeconomic background of new university students has also changed. The article analyses the change in the socioeconomic background of Finnish students in higher education as a whole. In different parts of Finland new students come from different socioeconomic groups. In southern and south‐western Finland, in particular, most of the new students come from upper socioeconomic groups. The differences in the socioeconomic background between regions of the country have increased during the 1980s. The new students are consistently found to come from upper socioeconomic classes especially in medicine, law, economics and technology. In contrast, in the humanities and in education the distribution of the new students according to socioeconomic background corresponds better to that of the whole population. In the near future Finnish higher education will face new...