Widening Access to Higher Education – Social Inequality and Routes to Universities

German education policy aims to widen the access to higher education by raising the permeability of the German educational system. Yet the quota of so called non-traditional students, which do not have a general qualification for university entrance, is still very low, pending at about 2 percent. Despite some research on non-traditional students in the 1980s there is neither a decent knowledge about their study practice, nor about barriers in their studies or their way to universities.

Our presentation focuses the routes of non-traditional students to university. Inspired by the work of Bourdieu we analyze effects of social, cultural and economic capital on the duration from school-leaving until start of studies by comparing non-traditional students with those holding a general qualification for university entrance. Using event history analyses we show how social inequality influences individuals’ routes to universities and approach reasons for underrepresentation of working-class students.

Our study “Passages from Employment to Studies – PETS” is a solid basis for analyzing this question as it focuses passages of students at the Department of Socioeconomics of the University of Hamburg. By comparing traditional and non-traditional students, data allow to analyze effects of different types of capital on routes to universities. Findings indicate that for traditional students higher social capital accelerates the process of entering university, while higher cultural and economic capital slows it down. In contrast, for non-traditional students only cultural capital prolongs the process. Consequently upper class students tend to take more time for entering university, while little capital forces process acceleration. On the one hand this can be explained by opening the possibility for taking a sabbatical, if enough economic capital is available. Also higher cultural capital indicates a different mode of deciding for studies. On the other hand social capital seems to pressure students into ready-made routes.