University access for disadvantaged children: A comparison across English speaking countries

DoQSS Working Paper No. 12-11 December 2012 by John Jerrim (Institute of Education, University of London), Anna Vignoles (University of Cambridge) and Ross Finnie (University of Ottawa)

Abstract

In this paper we consider whether certain countries are particularly adept (or particularly poor) at getting children from disadvantaged homes to study for a bachelor’s degree.

A series of university access models are estimated for four English speaking countries (England, Canada, Australia and the United States) which include controls for comparable measures of academic achievement at age 15.

We not only consider access to any university but also admission to a ‘selective’ institution.

Our results suggest that socio-economic differences in university access are more pronounced in England and Canada than Australia and the United States, and that cross-national variation in the socioeconomic gap remains even once we take account of differences in academic achievement.

We discuss the implications of our findings for the creation of more socially mobile societies.

JEL classifications: I20, I21, I28

Full report (PDF 53pp)

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