Compensatory and Multiplicative Advantages

Social Origin, School Performance, and Stratified Higher Education Enrolment in Finland

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2234796
AutoresLaura Heiskala (0000-0002-2463-1697, INVEST Research Flagship Center, University of Turku, 20014 Turku, Finland, autor de correspondencia), J Erola (0000-0002-8008-7032, INVEST Research Flagship Center, University of Turku, 20014 Turku, Finland), Elina Kilpi-Jakonen (0000-0003-0526-0170, INVEST Research Flagship Center, University of Turku, 20014 Turku, Finland)
Año2021
Volumen37
Número2
Páginas171-185
Fecha de publicación2021-03-23
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEuropean Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0266-7215 • E-ISSN: 1468-2672
EditorialOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/esr/jcaa046
OpenAlexW3095612975
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas28
Referencias citadas32

The rules of intake, which determine how educational institutions are accessed, play a significant part in generating intergenerational educational inequalities. Different rules may allow parental advantages to compensate for students' lack of advantages (such as academic performance) or to multiply and help only those students who are in a position to use such additional advantages. In this article, we study compensation and the multiplication of advantages in the context of the Finnish higher education system. Entrance exams and a dual model (universities and polytechnics) make this system stand out among many other Western countries and hence suitable for this study. Using high-quality Finnish register data, we study the associations between parental education and stratified higher education enrolment across the school performance distribution. Our results show that polytechnics provide access for poorly performing students from higher social origins (compensatory advantage). Polytechnic education also attracts well-performing students from lower social origins, which leads to a situation in which well-performing students with higher social origins have a substantially larger probability of enrolling in university compared to well-performing students with lower social origins (multiplicative advantage

Compensation (psychology) · Context (archaeology) · Demographic economics · Distribution (mathematics) · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Higher education · Inequality · Mathematics education · Multiplicative function · Position (finance) · Quality (philosophy) · Social science · Social stratification · Sociology · Higher Education Research Studies · Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies · Mathematics · Psychology · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Psychology