Social influences on progression from school to university:
Do schools have status, sex and achievement?






L J Bornholt

University of Sydney



P A Parker and G H Cooney

Macquarie University



















Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Australian 
Association for Research in Education AARE

Perth, November, 1993


Social influences on decisions from school to university:   
Do schools have status, sex and achievement?

Abstract


The decisions made by senior high school students to apply to 
university, and their subsequent progress through the offer and 
acceptance of a place, and then enrolment, have raised questions 
of access and equity about the process.  Comparisons within 
metropolitan government schools (N=13,684) acknowledge that 
proportions of applications and offers vary by school system 
(state, catholic and independent) and location (rural, urban).  
Explanations of bias in the proportions of students going on to 
university depend on the stage considered.  Students at some 
schools were less likely to apply, and others were less likely to 
accept an offer, or defer.  Apparent effects of socio-economic 
status and school type can be understood in relation to 
aggregated high school achievement scores (taking into account 
that more girls go on to university).  Gender issues within the 
school social context raised further questions about the role of 
course preferences in the decision process. 


Introduction 

     The paper addresses ways in which we may understand better 
the influence of gender within the social context of schools on 
the progress of high school students going on to University.  A 
related paper reports a two-level analysis of school factors in 
university admissions (Parker and Bornholt, 1993).  For this 
study, we have chosen comparable social contexts to examine the 
decisions about application, offer, acceptance and enrolment, in 
metropolitan state schools in NSW, and in matched sets of schools 
in two metropolitan regions.  The analyses integrate the 
influences of socio-economic status, and gender within school 
type. 

     First, some thoughts on general principles.  Let's say that 
assessment at the end of high school (as an aggregated score) is 
a satisfactory way to determine entry to university, and assume 
that those who could go on to university, do apply. 

     It can be argued that if the system  (apply, course 
preferences, offer, accept, enrol, and attend) is as good as it 
can be, then student profiles depend on achievement alone.  



                                       

        100 % ³           ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ 

              ³           ³ ..  

 proportion   ³           ³. 

 of offers    ³           ³. 

              ³    .    . ³ 

              ³   ... . . ³ 

          0   ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ    School 

              low                      high   Achievement  



   Figure 1   School achievement and going on to university 

The profile of offers for students who go on to university is not 
ideal (see Parker, et al., 1993).  Some students with low scores 
are offered places at university and some with high scores are 
not.  We might speculate about the courses for which students 
apply, the realistic assessments student make of their 
achievement and course entry points, and whether 'preferences' 
were genuinely preferred tertiary study options.  

     Once the students have completed the application to the 
Universities Admissions Centre, we can follow them along UAC 
decision trees (Parker et al., 1993) from offer, accept, and the 
decision to enrol or defer (or not show up).  


           apply                      ?      
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