Sistemi universitari comparati. Riforme, assetti istituzionali e accessibilità agli studenti

Access to tertiary education expanded dramatically in the last century and higher education (HE) became an institution with a «mass» participation. The rapid increase in the number of enrolments has been followed by a raise in the heterogeneity of undergraduate population, raising compelling issues of social inequality in access to higher education. My work hypothesizes that they way in which HE systems are structured reduce or enhance the overall level of access and differences among social groups in the probability to successfully complete a tertiary degree. To test this hypothesis I analyze macro and micro data from 15 industrialized countries, with different institutional profiles and level of inequality The first part of the book contains an overview of the main developments of HE systems in a number of industrialized countries, while the second part of this work is dedicated to a) identify the main characteristics which define the institutional profile of HE systems; b) develop an empirical classification of HE systems on the basis of similarities and differences among their institutional configurations; c) analyze the relationships between institutional arrangements, participation and social inequality in student access. The empirical typology suggests the existence of fourth clusters, which have been labeled the Continental, Nordic, Anglo-Saxon and North-American regimes. It is showed that they have different institutional arrangements in terms of degree of school tracking, stratification and privatization of higher education, institutional autonomy and educational welfare, and they are also characterized by heterogeneous levels of student access and social inequality. The level of tertiary education attainment is higher in the Nordic and North-American regimes, followed by the Liberal and the Continental ones. A similar order emerges looking at inequality indicators: the Nordic countries are the most equal, followed by the Anglo-American systems. The Continental regime is instead characterized by a relatively high level of inequality, compared to the other systems. In the last part, a fuzzy-set analysis is used to discover whether particular combinations of institutional traits are systematically associated with a higher degree of participation and equality in tertiary education attainment. Results corroborate hypotheses derived from the economics of education and the social stratification studies. The combination of a low tracked school system with a high level of investment, privatization and occupational returns of higher education constitutes a sufficient condition for a large participation. A low level of tracking in the school system combined with a good financial affordability and a low privatization is related to a low degree of social inequality, whereas privatization and stratification seem not to amplify inequality.