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Welfare State Transformations and Inequality in OECD Countries pp 157–183Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

The Trilemma of Higher Education and Equality of Opportunity: Social Background, Access to Higher Education and the Moderating Impact of Enrolment and Public Subsidization

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Part of the book series: Transformations of the State ((TRST))

Abstract

Class-based inequality of opportunity is especially pronounced with regard to accessing higher education. In this chapter it is argued that between-country variation in the effect of parental education on propensity to pursue an academic degree can in part be explained by taking into account characteristics of the higher education system. Analyses combining individual- with country-level data suggest that systems which utilize high levels of public subsidization alleviate class-based inequalities while those which increase higher education enrolment do not. In light of recent trends towards increasing enrolment at the expense of subsidization levels, these findings imply an intensifying inequality in access to higher education. They also support the view of education investment as a means to achieve a class-independent equality of opportunity.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Countries included in the sample are thus: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

  2. 2.

    The third variable—overall cost of the higher education system—is essentially a function of the configuration of the other two. Put differently, overall cost increases as either enrolment or public subsidization increase.

  3. 3.

    Data for Germany’s degree of public subsidization unfortunately is not available in the UNESCO database. However, it was possible to calculate it to the UNESCO’s definition by resorting to data provided by the federal statistical office of Germany.

  4. 4.

    Individuals who at the time of the survey indicated they already held a higher education degree were also coded into the Student category.

  5. 5.

    In fact, in multilevel random intercept models, effect sizes and significance levels of father’s and mother’s education levels as explanatory variables were almost indistinguishable.

  6. 6.

    When all other variables are held at their means, the coefficient translates into a predicted probability of 39.3 per cent for females and 32.5 per cent for males.

  7. 7.

    Over the entire range of the enrolment variable, the gap increases from 4.8 per cent (Enrolment Ratio = 25) to 14.9 per cent (Enrolment Ratio = 100), with all other variables held at their means. As a reminder, the overall fixed gap between these two groups was 9 per cent (see above).

  8. 8.

    The fact that the interaction is only marginally significant for the value 5 is most likely an artifact of the corresponding group. Only 610 respondents (3.6 per cent of overall sample) belong to this category, naturally leading to larger standard errors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Timm Fulge

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  1. Timm Fulge
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

    Melike Wulfgramm

  2. Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany

    Tonia Bieber

  3. SOCIUM, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Stephan Leibfried

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Fulge, T. (2016). The Trilemma of Higher Education and Equality of Opportunity: Social Background, Access to Higher Education and the Moderating Impact of Enrolment and Public Subsidization. In: Wulfgramm, M., Bieber, T., Leibfried, S. (eds) Welfare State Transformations and Inequality in OECD Countries. Transformations of the State. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51184-3_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51184-3_8

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