Educational Inequality in China -- Preliminary Findings from Recent High School Graduates in Urban Nanjing

China has undergone an expansion of higher education in the 1990s. The crude university enrollment rate jumped from 1.6% in 1978 to 24.2% in 2009. The university enrollment rate among high school graduates increased from 27.3% in 1990 to 83.6% in 2010. At the same time, Chinese universities are stratified into key universities and non-key universities, which differ significantly in resource input and prestige. Researchers argue that in the era of mass education, the focus of educational inequality should move from quantitative to qualitative differences. Class inequality in the US is found to be maintained through family practices in competition for prestigious universities rather than mere educational attainment. Moreover, when it comes to labor market stratification, both university prestige and extracurricular activities are screening devices adopted by employers.

Educational inequality in China has attracted much research attention in the past decade. However, little is understood about educational inequality in China in the qualitative terms. The present study thus explores the relationship between family origin and inequality in university education in terms of institutional prestige and participation in extracurricular activities. Data come from a panel survey of 759 recent high school graduates in urban Nanjing. A vast majority of these students (98.4%) were enrolled in post-secondary education in 2012, among whom 96.6% attended universities or colleges in China. The analyses are restricted to the in-school subsample.

Preliminary findings reveal that 21.5% of the respondents go to key universities. Students with university-educated fathers, students coming from prestigious high schools, and students with better self-reported academic performance are more likely than their counterparts to enter key universities. Father’s education and occupations, high-school prestige, and key university are significant correlates of social participation and occupancy of leadership position. Implications of the findings will be discussed.