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Distance Effects, Social Class and the Decision to Participate in Higher Education in Ireland

The Economic and Social Review

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Title Distance Effects, Social Class and the Decision to Participate in Higher Education in Ireland
 
Creator Cullinan, John
Flannery, Darragh
Walsh, Sharon
McCoy, Selina
 
Subject higher education; particpation, distance; social class
 
Description While a number of international studies have attempted to assess the influence of geographic accessibility on the decision to participate in higher education, this issue has not been addressed in detail in an Irish context. The aim of this paper is to fill this gap and to present a higher education choice model that estimates the impact of travel distance on the decision of school leavers to proceed to higher education in Ireland, while also controlling for a range of individual level characteristics and school related variables. To do so we use data from the 2007 wave of the School Leavers’ Survey and find that, on average, travel distance is not an important factor in the higher education participation decision, when factors such as student ability are accounted for. However, further analysis shows that travel distance has a significantly negative impact on participation for those from lower social classes and that this impact grows stronger as distance increases. We also find that the distance effects are most pronounced for lower ability students from these social backgrounds. This has important implications for higher education policy in Ireland, especially in relation to equity of access and the design of the maintenance grant system.
 
Publisher The Economic and Social Review
 
Contributor —
 
Date 2013-09-10
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Peer-reviewed Article
 
Format application/pdf
 
Identifier http://www.esr.ie/article/view/62
 
Source The Economic and Social Review; Vol 44, No 1, Spring (2013): Irish Economic Association Twenty-Sixth Annual Conference Dublin April 2012; 19–51
0012-9984
 
Language eng
 
Relation http://www.esr.ie/article/view/62/53
 
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