Explaining Social Selectivity between General and Vocational Educational Routes to Higher Education Entrance Qualification and Access to Higher Education in Germany

In Germany, there are mainly two routes to higher education entrance qualification (HEEQ). The traditional route (67% of HEEQs) via general upper secondary schools (GUSS) is chosen after primary school. An alternative route via vocational upper secondary schools (VUSS) is entered after different forms of general lower secondary education. Evidence suggests that attaining a HEEQ is socially selective in both GUSS and VUSS, although VUSS as a form of “second chance” education were intended to decrease social inequality in educational participation. Our research questions are: Are there differences in social inequality in attaining a HEEQ and transitioning to higher education (HE) between VUSS and GUSS? What explains different effects of social inequality between the two pathways? Based on rational choice theories of educational inequality we expect that social inequality regarding the probability to achieve a HEEQ and to access HE is stronger for students in GUSS than for students in VUSS due to stronger status maintenance motives, higher subjective success probabilities and subjectively perceived benefits, and lower subjectively perceived costs. Using longitudinal data by NEPS SC4, we apply logistic regression and mediation models for both GUSS and VUSS and two dependent variables (“attaining a HEEQ: yes/no”, N = 5,093; “transitioning to HE or vocational education and training (VET) after acquiring a HEEQ: yes/no”, N = 4,597). Our analyses show that compared to students in GUSS, students in VUSS have a substantially lower socioeconomic status, are less likely to attain a HEEQ and to enter HE but more likely to enter VET. The results suggest that institutional differentiation contributes to the fact that students with less favorable social backgrounds tend to be channelled into lower-tier schools, where they can obtain HEEQ but remain to be less likely to successfully transition to HE.