TITLE:
Socioeconomic Status and Its Effects on Higher Education Opportunity: The Case of Greece
AUTHORS:
Marilou Ioakimidis, George Papakonstantinou
KEYWORDS:
University Costs, Family Income and Expenditures, Social Mobility
JOURNAL NAME:
Theoretical Economics Letters,
Vol.7 No.6,
October
19,
2017
ABSTRACT: Gaining access to higher education theoretically
enables social mobility for students from lower socioeconomic classes but
students from lower-income, working class families are much less likely to
attend university. Data from a sample survey of over 2000 Greek university
freshmen were analyzed using multiple linear regression analysis to identify
factors influencing the affordability of a first-year university education in
Greece. Results showed that family income is the strongest predictor of the
affordability of higher education in Greece and that a university education is
substantially more affordable for the upper socioeconomic or management classes
in Greece compared to that for working class families. This finding partially
explains why families from the upper socioeconomic strata in Greece invest the
most in preparing their children for university admission. This also helps
explain why approximately 80% of the first-year university slots are occupied
by “management class” families. While the average Greek family invests almost
half of their annual income to support a child’s university education, the
families of working class families sacrifice almost 60% of their annual income
to achieve the same goal, something they can much less afford to do. It should
come as no surprise then that the children of working class families occupy
only one in five classroom seats in the Greek system of higher education. More
research is needed to understand the underlying causes of this disparity.
Alternatively, more can be done from a social policy perspective to help
promising low-income secondary students become better prepared academically for
pursuing and applying to institutions of higher education in Greece.