Abstract:

Theoretically, with an increase in state-funded places at the stage of higher education, it could lead to an increase in equality in access to higher education for students with different backgrounds. However, inequality can be seen in another manifestation at this stage. This research examines the theory of Effectively Maintained Inequality [Lucas 2001], according to which a quantitative increase in places available for a certain level of education will lead to a qualitative difference. Based on the longitudinal project "Trajectories in Education and Career", we study the educational choice of students after middle and high school graduation. Moreover, in addition to the academic performance and socio-economic status (SES) of students, we take into account their personal characteristics, Grit. Grit is widely considered a trait composed of perseverance of effort (PE) and consistency of long-term interests (CI) that is positively associated with educational and professional attainments.  

Our study was conducted on a large sample of students (N = 3110) from a national longitudinal study of Russian school graduates. These students were also participants in both the TIMSS and PISA studies.

The results showed that after graduating from high school, the direct role of socio-economic status is more important for the transition to an academic trajectory (higher education) than academic performance. Even with high educational achievements, low SES students are less likely to make a choice in favor of a university and prefer vocational education institutions. When choosing between selective and non-selective universities, the role of academic performance weakens even more. The characteristics of the family directly affect the choice of trajectory, and become key predictors.

Also, perseverance of effort was a better predictor than interests, although the effects of perseverance on long-term educational outcomes were more often indirect. Consistency of interests did not predict educational trajectories or achievements. Accordingly, we failed to find any consistent patterns in perseverance and interests with long-term educational outcomes. The findings so far reflect that it is only perseverance that matters. The consistency of interests construct looks very promising for future research, but for now it is too ill-defined and cannot be properly measured.

Keywords:

Socioeconomic inequality in education, Grit, Perseverance, Consistency of interests, Access to education