IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hig/wpaper/19edu2014.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Barriers Of Access To Elite Higher Education In Russia

Author

Listed:
  • Ilya Prakhov

    (National Research University Higher School of Economics.)

Abstract

Despite the trends of massification of Russian higher education and recently introduced standardized entry exams, university applicants still may face barriers during the process of admission. As a result, they may be admitted to less selective universities, which generally offer low quality education programs as opposed to selective universities. This paper examines the factors which influence student choice of university as measured by the level of university selectivity. We show that university selectivity can be determined not only by the Unified State Exam scores among admitted students (the main criteria of applicant selection in Russia), but by characteristics that are not directly related to the applicants’ abilities: parental education, family income, cultural capital, as well as by features of secondary school (type of school and class specialization) and level of investment in pre-entry coaching. These factors raise questions about equal opportunities for admission and the accessibility of top quality higher education for applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Suggested Citation

  • Ilya Prakhov, 2014. "The Barriers Of Access To Elite Higher Education In Russia," HSE Working papers WP BRP 19/EDU/2014, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hig:wpaper:19edu2014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.hse.ru/data/2014/12/08/1105103649/19EDU2014.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrey Ampilogov & Ilya Prakhov & Maria Yudkevich, 2013. "One or Many? Using the New Opportunities of the Unified State Exam in Russian University Admissions," HSE Working papers WP BRP 12/EDU/2013, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    2. Chevalier, Arnaud & Conlon, Gavan, 2003. "Does It Pay to Attend a Prestigious University?," IZA Discussion Papers 848, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Hanushek, Eric A & Rivkin, Steven G & Taylor, Lori L, 1996. "Aggregation and the Estimated Effects of School Resources," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 78(4), pages 611-627, November.
    4. Sergey Shishkin, 2006. "Elite and mass higher education: Socio-economic differentiation," Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow, National Research University Higher School of Economics, issue 2, pages 203-221.
    5. Prakhov, Ilya & Yudkevich, Maria, 2019. "University admission in Russia: Do the wealthier benefit from standardized exams?," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 98-105.
    6. Stacy Berg Dale & Alan B. Krueger, 2002. "Estimating the Payoff to Attending a More Selective College: An Application of Selection on Observables and Unobservables," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 117(4), pages 1491-1527.
    7. Arleen Leibowitz, 1977. "Parental Inputs and Children's Achievement," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 12(2), pages 242-251.
    8. Ludger Wößmann, 2003. "Schooling Resources, Educational Institutions and Student Performance: the International Evidence," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 65(2), pages 117-170, May.
    9. Trow, Martin A, 2000. "From Mass Higher Education to Universal Access: The American Advantage," University of California at Berkeley, Center for Studies in Higher Education qt9f02k0d1, Center for Studies in Higher Education, UC Berkeley.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ilya A. Prakhov, 2014. "The Dynamics Of Investment In Pre-Entry Coaching And The Returns From Private Tutoring In Russia," HSE Working papers WP BRP 18/EDU/2014, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    2. Prakhov, Ilya, 2015. "The dynamics of investment in pre-entry coaching and the returns from private tutoring among university applicants in Russia," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 37(1), pages 107-124.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ilya Prakhov, 2015. "Barriers Limiting Access to Quality Higher Education in the Context of the USE: Family and School as Constraining Factors," Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow, National Research University Higher School of Economics, issue 1, pages 88-117.
    2. Prakhov, Ilya & Kotomina, Olga & Sazhina, Alexandra, 2020. "Parental involvement and the educational trajectories of youth in Russia," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    3. Olga Kotomina & Ilya Prakhov & Alexandra Sazhina, 2019. "Parental Involvement And The Educational Strategies Of Youth In Russia," HSE Working papers WP BRP 53/EDU/2019, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    4. Carroll, David & Heaton, Christopher & Tani, Massimiliano, 2014. "Returns to University Quality in Australia: A Two-Stage Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 8473, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Drydakis, Nick, 2016. "The effect of university attended on graduates’ labour market prospects: A field study of Great Britain," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 192-208.
    6. Gartell, Marie, 2009. "Stability of college rankings - A study of relative earnings estimates applying different methods and models on Swedish data," Working Paper Series 2009:19, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    7. Eliasson, Kent, 2006. "The Role of Ability in Estimating the Returns to College Choice: New Swedish Evidence," Umeå Economic Studies 691, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    8. Darwin Miller, 2007. "Isolating the Causal Impact of Community College Enrollment on Educational Attainment and Labor Market Outcomes in Texas," Discussion Papers 06-033, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    9. Zara Daghbashyan & Björn Hårsman, 2014. "University choice and entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(4), pages 729-746, April.
    10. Ammermuller, Andreas & Heijke, Hans & Wo[ss]mann, Ludger, 2005. "Schooling quality in Eastern Europe: Educational production during transition," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 579-599, October.
    11. Suqin Ge & Elliott Isaac & Amalia Miller, 2022. "Elite Schools and Opting In: Effects of College Selectivity on Career and Family Outcomes," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 40(S1), pages 383-427.
    12. Eliasson, Kent, 2006. "How Robust is the Evidence on the Returns to College Choice? Results Using Swedish Administrative Data," Umeå Economic Studies 692, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    13. Joniada Milla, 2012. "University Quality and Labour Market Outcomes of Canadian Youth," Working Papers 1212, University of Guelph, Department of Economics and Finance.
    14. David Carroll & Chris Heaton & Massimiliano Tani, 2019. "Does It Pay to Graduate from an 'Elite' University in Australia?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 95(310), pages 343-357, September.
    15. Walker, Ian & Zhu, Yu, 2018. "University selectivity and the relative returns to higher education: Evidence from the UK," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 230-249.
    16. Suhonen, Tuomo, 2013. "Are there returns from university location in a state-funded university system?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 465-478.
    17. Woessmann, Ludger, 2007. "Fundamental Determinants of School Efficiency and Equity: German States as a Microcosm for OECD Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 2880, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Iftikhar Hussain & Sandra McNally & Shqiponja Telhaj, 2009. "University Quality and Graduate Wages in the UK," CEE Discussion Papers 0099, Centre for the Economics of Education, LSE.
    19. Milla, Joniada, 2017. "The Context-Bound University Selectivity Premium," IZA Discussion Papers 11025, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Lang, Kevin & Siniver, Erez, 2011. "Why is an elite undergraduate education valuable? Evidence from Israel," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 767-777.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    accessibility of higher education; elite higher education; Unified State Exam; educational strategies of students;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hig:wpaper:19edu2014. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Shamil Abdulaev or Shamil Abdulaev (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/hsecoru.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.