We aimed to evaluate the impact of governmental financial aid in vocational and college enrollment, solving the endogenous process in the application to benefits. Using a two-step instrumental varia- bles procedure, we found that college financial aid increases college enrollment by 30%. Being selected to college financial aid reduces the probability of vocational enrollment, although only vocational financial aid does increases this probability, which may be understood as a substitution effect.
Higher Education
University Dropouts, a sociological approach to the decision making process of the students (Abstract)
How to explain the phenomenon of college students drop out? This work aims to disclose a proposed explanatory model that addresses this issue from the educational decision making process of youth under the conceptual framework of sociology of education, specifically through analytical research program of “school choice depending on the social position”, proposed by the French sociologist Raymond Boudon (1983), which conceptualizes the educational decisions of students and their families in terms of expectations related instrumental maintain position in the social structure, education and defensive strategy, which incorporates beliefs about the academic, economic and social benefits associated future educational credentials, and perceived limitations on the structure of opportunities own social origin; also integrating precisions and theoretical reformulations by Ri- chard Breen and John Goldthorpe (1997) on minimum educational thresholds by social class; and the conceptualization of instrumental and intrinsic preferences in relation to the education of agents developed by Diego Gambetta (1987).
Social Trajectories of first generation’s rural subjects accessing to university education in the Maule Region, Chile
This paper aims to illustrate the social history of first generation’s rural youth accessing to the uni- versity in the Maule region, Chile. In a society wherein education has become the most important positions allocation mechanism, there is a need for a reflection on the conditions of production and distribution of knowledge/power in an economically vibrant and socially exclusionary social order.
It is possible to evidence that rural areas in the Maule region have both a diverse distribution of goods and assets and an uneven location of markets and institutions. Additionally, the milieu affects the individual portfolio opportunities by either restricting or granting the access to quality services. Higher education acts as a conversion strategy for a young low-income people, because it allows social mobility and breaking off the collective inertia. Simultaneously, higher education also represents a reproduction’s mechanism. Although young people obtain a higher quality of life by graduating from a university, such graduations does not necessarily imply a better social status.
Education, equity and distributive beliefs: Evidence from the Chilean case (Abstract)
During the year 2011, Chile has been scenario of several student’s demonstrations claiming for more equity in the access to the higher education. The high support to the protests by the side of the general population (nearly 89% of approval in public opinion polls) seems to suggest the existence of a large consensus about the weaknesses of the Chilean educative model, a model that would challenge the traditional ideals of meritocracy and social mobility that are at the core of the educational systems in modern societies. In this context, a question that remains open is to what extent these claims are mostly based on consensual equality ideals, or whether they are influenced by individual socio-economic determinants vis-à-vis rational motives. Using data of the social inequality module International Social Survey Program (ISSP) of 2009, this research analyzes perceptions and beliefs about education and the distributive system as well as the influence of income and educational variables, through a structural equation modeling framework. Preliminary results indicate the pre- sence of socioeconomic cleavages in relation to the fairness of the educational system, questioning the assumption about a normative consensus.