Promoting low socio-economic participation in higher education: a comparison of area-based and individual measures

As with other countries, Australia has been grappling with the identification, measurement and impact of disadvantage in higher education. In particular, the measurement of socio-economic status (SES) has been of central concern. The immediate solution in Australia has been the introduction of an ‘a...

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Main Authors: Dockery, Alfred Michael, Seymour, Richard, Koshy, Paul
Format: Journal Article
Published: Routledge 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/18798
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author Dockery, Alfred Michael
Seymour, Richard
Koshy, Paul
author_facet Dockery, Alfred Michael
Seymour, Richard
Koshy, Paul
author_sort Dockery, Alfred Michael
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description As with other countries, Australia has been grappling with the identification, measurement and impact of disadvantage in higher education. In particular, the measurement of socio-economic status (SES) has been of central concern. The immediate solution in Australia has been the introduction of an ‘area’ measure in which students' SES is categorised on the basis of census data for their neighbourhoods rather than on individual or household data. This paper assesses the veracity of the area measure in capturing individual SES for school-aged entrants, using a longitudinal data set, the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, to construct individual measures of SES and a national ranking of sample individuals on the basis of probability of attending a higher education institution. The results demonstrate the tendency for area measures to misclassify individuals' higher education opportunity and the associated potential for perverse policy outcomes.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-187982017-10-02T02:28:04Z Promoting low socio-economic participation in higher education: a comparison of area-based and individual measures Dockery, Alfred Michael Seymour, Richard Koshy, Paul entering university youth transition socio-economic status widening participation economics of education As with other countries, Australia has been grappling with the identification, measurement and impact of disadvantage in higher education. In particular, the measurement of socio-economic status (SES) has been of central concern. The immediate solution in Australia has been the introduction of an ‘area’ measure in which students' SES is categorised on the basis of census data for their neighbourhoods rather than on individual or household data. This paper assesses the veracity of the area measure in capturing individual SES for school-aged entrants, using a longitudinal data set, the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, to construct individual measures of SES and a national ranking of sample individuals on the basis of probability of attending a higher education institution. The results demonstrate the tendency for area measures to misclassify individuals' higher education opportunity and the associated potential for perverse policy outcomes. 2015 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/18798 10.1080/03075079.2015.1020777 Routledge restricted
spellingShingle entering university
youth transition
socio-economic status
widening participation
economics of education
Dockery, Alfred Michael
Seymour, Richard
Koshy, Paul
Promoting low socio-economic participation in higher education: a comparison of area-based and individual measures
title Promoting low socio-economic participation in higher education: a comparison of area-based and individual measures
title_full Promoting low socio-economic participation in higher education: a comparison of area-based and individual measures
title_fullStr Promoting low socio-economic participation in higher education: a comparison of area-based and individual measures
title_full_unstemmed Promoting low socio-economic participation in higher education: a comparison of area-based and individual measures
title_short Promoting low socio-economic participation in higher education: a comparison of area-based and individual measures
title_sort promoting low socio-economic participation in higher education: a comparison of area-based and individual measures
topic entering university
youth transition
socio-economic status
widening participation
economics of education
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/18798