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Since 1990, the Australian higher education system has experienced ongoing reform resulting in the number of universities and student populations more than doubling. Despite this expansion, inequalities in access to higher education related to family background and location persist. Due to the concentration of higher education campuses in the capital cities of each Australian state, inequalities related to geographic location may be as important as those related to socio-economic status. Our analysis of data collected by the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) research programme shows that students from regional and rural areas are less likely than their urban peers to enrol at university. Furthermore, this trend persists when levels of academic achievement at age 15 and Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) are accounted for. Given that demand for highly educated workers is increasing and that workers with no post-school qualifications are the most likely to experience unemployment or underemployment, the inaccessibility of educational opportunities may consign the current generation of non-metropolitan youth to extended periods of precarious employment.

As immigrants account for an increasing proportion of American youth, understanding how these young people experience change in their citizenship status is an important, yet rarely examined area for research. There is a plethora of evidence that opportunities to participate in American society are stratified according to class, race and ethnicity. Although formal citizenship confers important social, political and economic rights that may attenuate the effects of these intersecting factors, it may be difficult for adolescents to appreciate the longer term benefits of naturalization when their everyday experiences involve racial discrimination. In this paper we analyse the first two waves of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study to examine the effects of acquiring citizenship on perceptions of inequality and discrimination.

During the past three decades, the student populations of Australian universities have become more heterogeneous as the higher education sector expanded and new alternative entry pathways were established. Broadening access to university study and, therefore, to professional and semi-professional occupations, provides avenues for social mobility. In this paper, we examine whether students entering university via alternative entry pathways, and in particular, on-campus tertiary preparation programs, have similar levels of achievement and attainment as students who entered via the more traditional pathway after completing Year 12. Our analysis is conducted on data from one regional university and our results show that students who were not eligible to enrol on the basis of their secondary school results were no more likely than traditional students to discontinue their studies.

The expansion of the higher education sector in Australia opened up new pathways into university increasing the diversity of the student population. For non-traditional students, those who did not successfully complete secondary school, barriers to gaining entry into university have been dismantled, however, previous research suggests that non-traditional students are more likely than traditional students to drop out of higher education. This paper analyses administrative data for a cohort of first year undergraduate students attending an Australian university to examine the association between pathway to university and student retention and academic progression. Our findings show that after controlling for grade point average, students who completed an enabling course on campus prior to commencing their undergraduate program were less likely than students admitted on the basis of completing secondary school to discontinue their university studies. This suggests that enabling programs provided on campus may assist students who do not meet the minimum requirements for university entrance to complete a university degree.

As the Australian labour market restructures and the pace of technological advances quickens, reskilling and up-skilling are now required for sustained employability. Thus, many adults embark on further study after spending a period of time in the workforce. To examine the reasons for re-engaging, and for not re-engaging with education during adulthood, we conduct analysis of longitudinal data collected from a cohort of people who completed school in 1991. The majority of the participants completed an educational qualification between 25 and 44 years and were thus, lifelong learners. Understanding the patterns of re-engagement with education and the reasons why some people choose to re-engage whereas others do not contributes to current policy debates about how education prepares Australians for life.

The Australian Government's efforts to increase the proportion of Australians with university-level qualifications has placed educational aspirations at the forefront of education policy. Despite increasing numbers of young Australians enrolling in higher education, regional and rural students continue to be underrepresented in university populations. Previous research shows that levels of social capital are positively associated with educational aspirations; therefore, in this paper, we examine the associations between access to various forms of social capital and aspirations for post-school study and employment. We conduct analysis of data collected from 460 students attending government secondary schools located in and around Shepparton in regional Victoria. Of the various measures of social capital, we focus on parent-derived social capital, discussions with parents; student-derived social capital, participation in extracurricular activities and peer-derived social capital, aspirations of their friends. We explore how measures of social capital can be used to critically make sense and engage with the post-school aspirations of young people in the increasingly precarious landscape of youth employment in the twenty-first century.

Opportunities for social mobility are generated by education systems designed to alleviate the effects of social origin by providing equality of opportunities and resources. The persistence of the strong association between socioeconomic status (SES) and child's educational achievement and attainment suggests that social origin continues to play an integral role in the educational outcomes of successive generations of Australians. Sociologists draw on a range of theoretical perspectives to explain this association including Bourdieu's cultural and social capital theories. Using data collected by the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth 2009 (LSAY09) project, I examine the associations between student SES, school SES and two outcome variables: Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) score and university enrolment. The results indicate that low SES students attending high SES schools perform better on PISA tests than low SES students attending low SES schools. After controlling for PISA score, low SES students were less likely than their high SES peers to enrol at university. Furthermore, students attending low SES schools were less likely than their peers attending high SES schools to enrol at university, net of their individual SES and their PISA scores.

Between 1983 and 1993, grade 7/8 to grade 12 apparent retention rates more than doubled and secondary schools developed vocational education and training (VET) programmes as alternative pathways through secondary school. Previous research indicates that participation in VET programmes is associated with having low-educated parents and/or attending schools in low socioeconomic status areas. In this paper, I analyse data provided by the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Education Directorate to examine links between parental education, pathways through senior secondary college and post-school outcomes. The results indicate that students with at least one university-educated parent were less likely to take a VET pathway through senior secondary, even after controlling for level of achievement in grade 9. Students who took a non-university pathway were more likely than other students to be not engaged in either employment or study six months after completing grade 12. Pathway through school was also associated with type of post-school study undertaken.

The restructuring of the Australian labour market decreased demand for low-skilled workers and increased demand for highly skilled workers and professionals further strengthening the relationship between educational and occupational attainment. To satisfy the demand for highly educated workers, the government reorganised the higher education sector increasing the number of universities and trebling the number of places for domestic undergraduate students. Analysing data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey, this paper examines the association between parents' education and the likelihood of graduating from university for six birth cohorts of Australians. Overall, the findings suggest that although the expansion of the higher education sector in Australia provided alternative pathways into university, differences in educational attainment, on both quantitative and qualitative dimensions, persist.

As a nation built from the migration of peoples from every continent in the world, modern Australia developed a unique culture based on an egalitarian ethos. Recent research, however, suggests that social inequality is increasing and, in particular, social mobility is in decline. In this paper, I examine one aspect of social inequality that has long been regarded as a strong indicator of opportunities for social mobility: educational attainment. Using data collected by the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth 2003 (LSAY03) project, I examine the links between migration status and educational achievement at age 15, educational expectations, occupational aspirations, and educational attainment.

As the Australian labour market restructured during the 1980s and 1990s, Year 12 retention rates more than doubled between 1983 and 1993 secondary schools diversified to include vocational education and training programs as alternative pathways through school. From a human capital perspective, the completion of vocational qualifications in school may represent strategic investments that enhance labour market outcomes. Using data provided by the Education and Training Directorate of the Australian Capital Territory, this paper examines the links between parents' education and pathway through school. The results indicate that stratification within the comprehensive school system sorts students into different pathways according to parental education. After controlling for academic achievement in Year 9, students with lower-educated parents were more likely than those with university-educated parents to undertake a vocational education pathway. Furthermore, level of disadvantage of the school attended in Year 9 exacerbated rather than alleviated the effect of parental education.

The increasing rate of post-industrialisation in advanced economies has dramatically impacted on the availability of jobs in male-dominated occupations. Consequently, men with traditional gender attitudes may experience difficulties in finding employment that aligns with their conception of masculinity. Attitudes to gender roles develop during childhood as part of the process of socialisation; thus, family background, and in particular parental education and occupation, may influence the occupational aspirations of young people. To examine the associations between family background, a child's attitudes to gender roles and a child's occupational aspirations, analysis of the German National Education Panel Study (NEPS) Starting Cohort 4 data was conducted. The findings suggest that family background continues to be associated with attitudes to gender roles and occupational aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is widespread support for expanding access to universities for under-represented groups, such as students from lower socio-economic backgrounds and older students, because of the higher rates of return to university degrees. This study examines whether this assumption holds true for mature-aged graduates who have received their degrees in an era of mass participation. Using data from Australia, where around a quarter of university students are now over 25 years of age, the returns to higher education of mature-aged and younger graduates between 2001 and 2009 were compared. It was found that mature-aged graduates are more likely to reside in less-advantaged areas and to be the first person in their family to attend university but are less likely to be employed in the year before graduation, compared to younger graduates. However, in the year after graduation, employment status and earnings do not differ significantly for graduates regardless of their age at graduation.

The transition into a post-industrial economy changed the nature of the Australian labour market extinguishing jobs in traditional industries and creating jobs in new industries. Workers displaced from the manufacturing sector and women seeking to re-enter the labour market after taking time out for family reasons need to retrain in order to secure full-time employment in new industries. Consequently, returning to education is a relatively common occurrence in Australia as adults adapt to the changing demands of the labour market. Using the first 12 waves of the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia data, this paper examines the characteristics of those who return to education and gain new educational qualifications. The effect of upgrading educational qualifications on employment outcomes is also examined. The results show that those with higher levels of education were more likely than those with low levels of education to complete new qualifications after the age of 25 and that employment outcomes vary according to level of qualification completed.

During the latter half of the twentieth century, Australia, like many countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, experienced rapid expansion in participation in higher education which was supported by government through increases in the number of publicly funded university places. However, in spite of this expansion, a disproportionately large share of the undergraduate student population is still drawn from higher socio-economic backgrounds. This paper seeks to understand the persistence of inequality in higher education by examining changes in patterns of participation in Australian universities since the 1970s. Using logistic regressions to analyse data collected by three Australian surveys conducted between 1987 and 2005, the authors examine the influence of having a university-educated parent on an individual's chances of obtaining a higher education degree. They find that although the expansion of higher education has had some impact in terms of reducing inequality, having a university-educated parent continues to exert a direct effect on an individual's propensity to graduate from university. The paper draws on the theories of maximally maintained inequality and relative risk aversion to interpret institutional and student behaviour. The policy challenges of addressing structural inequality in higher education are also discussed. (Contains 6 tables and 2 notes.)