Access to Higher Education in France: Genuine but limited Democratisation,

Abstract

The rapid opening-up of the higher sector since the early 1980s and the increasing range of courses on offer, particularly the development of short vocational courses, lead us to reconsider the issue of reducing social inequalities of access to schooling. The reality of democratisation is contested on two counts. It is suggested that it mainly concerns short higher education programmes, and it is possible that inequalities have taken on a different form and now concern the nature of the course attended. Compiling the Employment surveys from 1990 to 2002 allows us to study closely the changing link between social background and qualifications. The opening-up of higher education has not been accompanied by a slowdown in democratisation, at any level of qualification. Measured at a constant level of selection, the falling level of social selectiveness in higher education becomes clearer still. Democratisation in this sector remains limited, however.Social Stratification, Higher Education, Educational System, Family Background, Horizontal Educational Choices