Students without higher education background tend to have less clear study intentions and more often doubt their choice to enter higher education. Bachelor students whose parents attained a higher education degree themselves report higher certainty with regard to their study intention than their peers without higher education background in all but one country.
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Main issues
Students’ parents can have substantial influence not only on their childhood, but also on later stages of education and even later life (Antonucci, 2016; Mazzonna, 2014). This chapter therefore presents data on the educational and economic background of students, with a particular focus on equity-related aspects.
Participative equity
Inclusive higher education, accessible to students of all backgrounds, is a key concern of higher education policy-makers (European Commission, 2017; Marconi, 2015). Past ministerial commu niqués in the Bologna Process have stressed the intention for systems to be more inclusive, so that the student body in the countries of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) would reflect the diversity of the population, i.e. that a state of participative equity should be attained in European higher education (Bucharest Communiqué, 2012; Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve Communiqué, 2009; London Communiqué, 2007; Yerevan Communiqué, 2015). Participative equity is attained when all possible social groups take part in higher education to the same degree (Mühleck & Griga, 2010). Ideal participative equity would have the make-up of the student population be exactly proportional to the make-up of the general population of the same age in all possible characteristics. However, certain groups have been traditionally underrepresented in higher education in many countries. One such group is that of students without higher educa tion background.
Students without higher education background
Students qwithout higher education background, i.e. students whose parents’ educational attainment does not exceed upper secondary education, have been the focus of extensive research. Parental education has long been shown to be related to educational attainment (Shavit & Bloss feld, 1993), and more recent studies continue to show that students without recent familial experience in higher education enter higher education to a lesser degree than their peers whose parents hold higher educational degrees in many countries (e.g. Haim & Shavit, 2013). Expla nations for this phenomenon have posited that the unfamiliar “habitus” of actors in higher education (teachers, students) and the unknown culture and practices within higher education prevents students without higher education background from developing a feeling of belong ingness and integration at their education institutions (Bourdieu, 1984; Holmegard, Madsen, Ulriksen, 2017). Other theories focus more on the background-specific norms, resources and constraints which influence educational and career choices in different ways, even when the academic performance is equal (Becker & Hecken, 2009; Boudon, 1974; Breen & Goldthorpe, 1997; Thompson, 2017).
Even when qstudents without higher education background have successfully entered higher education, other inequalities may persist, as access to higher education is not the only aspect of equity. Salmi & Bassett (2014) distinguish between equity of access, equity of results, and equity of outcomes. Studies in several higher education systems have shown that widened access to higher education often goes along with an increased degree of stratification. Vertical stratification refers to sequential degrees at different levels (e.g. short cycle – Bachelor – Master), while hori zontal stratification refers to the differentiation within a higher educational system, e.g. with regard to the type of higher education institutions (HEIs), particular institutions, or field of study, which vary in their selectivity, academic and economic prestige, retention rates, and labour market value (Marconi, 2015; Marginson, 2016; Triventi, 2013). Participation in higher education
may therefore be of different value depending on the particular choices made, and studies have shown that the choices within stratified systems depend on students’ socio-economic back ground (Brown, 2017; Marginson, 2016; Triventi, 2013).
Financial status of students’ parents
While income and wealth are two distinct concepts (Skopek, Bucholz, & Blossfeld, 2014), both have been shown to influence the educational attainment across generations in families in different countries (European Commission, 2017; Pfeffer & Hälsten, 2012; Torche & Costa- Ribeiro, 2012; Wightman & Danziger, 2014). A family’s income is not only related to prior educa tional attainment, but also to the possibilities for the acquisition of social and cultural capital and of course directly affects the amount of direct financial support a family is able to offer their children (Wightman & Danziger, 2014). In addition, family wealth may provide “insurance against negative mobility outcomes during the status attainment process” (Pfeffer & Hällsten, 2012, p. 1); i.e. wealth may give students with well-off parents the certainty that there is some thing to fall back on in case their educational endeavour fails, thus increasing their propensity to make the attempt to gain a higher educational degree.
The EUROSTUDENT data set provides information not only on the educational attainment and financial situation of students’ parents, but also enables a look at the study choices and condi tions of students without higher education background, as well as a self-assessment of their past and current situation.
The main questions this chapter strives to answer are therefore:
What is the educational and socio-economic background of students’ parents?
How well represented are qstudents without higher education background in the EUROSTU DENT countries?
Who are the qstudents without higher education background, and in which ways do their study conditions differ from those of their peers?
How do these students assess their past and current study situation?