These inequalities in higher education access have nothing to do with ability: this is about systems which are consistently failing poorer children. Among children who showed similar levels of ability aged 8, for example, the wealthiest were often over 30 percentage points more likely than the least-wealthy to enter all forms of tertiary education: including university, technical colleges, and teacher training. Even when they focused only on students who complete secondary school with comparable levels of learning, the researchers found that those from wealthier backgrounds were still more likely to progress to higher education.
What is clear is that these inequalities in higher education access have nothing to do with ability: this is about systems which are consistently failing poorer children.
The data used in the research was from Young Lives, an international childhood poverty study which is tracking two cohorts of young people from Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam. Young Lives includes information about education and attainment at ages 8, 12, 15, 19 and 22, and importantly therefore includes the many young people in lower-income countries who may enter higher education after age The percentage point gap between these quartiles was 45 in both India and Peru, 41 in Vietnam, and 17 in Ethiopia.
They then analysed higher education progression rates among increasingly comparable groups of students. First, they focused on those with similar demographic characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, and whether they lived in urban or rural settings.
They then progressively added more information about their education to examine students who were both in school, and achieving certain attainment levels, aged 8, 12 and Crucially, however, a gap still existed between rich and poor even among students who finished secondary school with comparable levels of learning. The researchers identified all children who had achieved a certain level of literacy at age 8, and then used numeracy and maths scores to compare the educational trajectories of the richest and poorest among this group.
