Achieving equal educational opportunities for all in Europe remains a complex challenge. Recent research conducted at the Mapineq project[1] sheds light on the interplay of social, economic, and geographical factors influencing access to higher education. The results reveal both progress and persistent challenges in the quest for a level playing field for Europe’s younger generations.
Measuring Progress: The Good News
Let's start with the good news: these studies show that, on average, inequalities in educational opportunities in Europe have narrowed across generations. How do we know? One way to measure educational inequality is to look at how access to education depends on family background. Sociologists do this by asking: Out of the group of people whose parents did not get university education (i.e. first generation tertiary educated student, who are the first generation in their family to attain an university degree) – how many achieved tertiary education? This percentage is then compared to the other group whose parents did get tertiary education (second generation tertiary educated students). We have then two percentages – the assumption is that the smaller the difference, the greater the equality.
Among people born before 1940, the difference in the proportion of those who attained tertiary education between individuals with parents who had tertiary education and those without was 50 percentage points. In the most recent generations born after 1980, this difference has fallen to around 40 percentage points. Thus, inequalities in educational opportunities across different generations in Europe have decreased by approximately 10 percentage points.
The Persistent Challenge: Uneven Progress Across Countries
However, turning to the less positive news, a closer look at individual countries reveals a less optimistic picture. First, educational inequality across Europe remains substantial. The difference in the proportion that attain tertiary education is 40 percentage point between first- and second-generation tertiary-educated students. Second, countries have not converged toward a similar level of educational inequality. In both countries with high and low inequality among older generations born before 1940, inequality has generally decreased over time. However, the gap between these countries has remained largely unchanged. As a result, disparities in educational inequality across countries have remained relatively stable.
This seemingly positive trend of declining inequality over time should be interpreted with caution, as it does not reflect progress in every country. While most countries have experienced a reduction in educational inequality, in some, it has remained unchanged or even worsened—for example, in Switzerland, Austria, and Belgium.
Regional Disparities: The Importance of Local Context
Against this broader backdrop, our findings shed light on additional aspects of spatial and temporal educational inequalities. First, the sub-national level plays a crucial role in shaping these disparities. Regions account for between 17% and 30% of the spatial variation in inequality levels across Europe, while differences between countries explain the remaining heterogeneity. This underscores the influence of local contexts, where factors such as the availability of public services and infrastructure, community safety or environmental quality, can either exacerbate or mitigate educational inequalities. Therefore, improving local living conditions appears essential to creating a more level playing field.
Second, although educational inequality has not converged to a common level across European countries, regional disparities within countries have narrowed. Regions with the highest levels of inequality in the mid-20th century have significantly reduced these gaps. As a result, while countries have not become more similar to each other, they have grown more internally homogeneous.
The Paradox of University Expansion
In addition, the expansion of university education, aimed at democratizing access, has inadvertently introduced new challenges. As university admission has become less selective, parents with a university degree have progressively become a less selected group in terms of traits that also confer educational advantages to their children, such as cultural capital and cognitive skills. Accordingly, we find that students from university-educated families experience a decline in achievement as the proportion of highly educated parents increases, suggesting a 'withering advantage' effect.
This decline in the influence of parental education on children’s educational outcomes mirrors the phenomenon of credential inflation, where the value of a given educational qualification in the labour market decreases as more people earn one. Similarly, this 'parental education inflation' may partly explain the reduction in tertiary education attainment inequality across Europe.
How Selectivity Determine Who Succeeds in Higher Education
Finally, the degree of selectivity in tertiary education—measured by the proportion of individuals entering and completing higher education—plays a crucial role. There is considerable variation across Europe, with some countries having low selectivity (such as the UK, Belgium, and Finland) and others maintaining high selectivity (for example Austria, Italy, Hungary and Czech Republic).
Notably, countries with less selective tertiary education systems tend to exhibit lower educational inequalities. This appears to be due to a ceiling effect, whereby around 70% of students from tertiary-educated families attain higher education, with little further increase beyond this threshold. This limit means that highly-educated families cannot easily increase their advantage in getting their kids into higher education, which helps reduce the gap in educational opportunities. At the same time, less selective systems create more opportunities for students from lower-educated families. The simultaneous occurrence of these two trends leads to diminishing inequality.
Conversely, in countries with more selective systems, parental education serves as a stronger 'safety net', ensuring that even those who do not complete tertiary education can still avoid unskilled employment. These findings highlight the crucial role of educational selectivity in shaping intergenerational inequalities in both educational and occupational attainment.
The Path Forward: Policy Implications
Neutralising the effect of parental education is a difficult challenge, but targeted policies can help reduce its impact. Improving local living conditions and strengthening student support in the last years of secondary education can mitigate regional disparities that shape educational opportunities. However, it is equally important to reduce selectivity in tertiary education by expanding access and broadening admissions. While the challenge is complex, these measures can make higher education not just a privilege, but a real possibility for all.
[1] Espadafor, M.C., Bernardi, F., Lievore, I., & Valdés, M.T. (2024). Selectivity and risks along educational transitions. Mapineq deliverables. Turku: INVEST Research Flagship Centre / University of Turku. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10868079; Valdés, M.T., Bernardi, F. & Lievore, I. (2024). A withering educational advantage? The effect of educational expansion among parents on the academic achievement of children with university-educated parents. Mapineq Working Paper. Turku: INVEST Research Flagship Centre / University of Turku DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/2azxu; Lievore, I., Valdés, M.T., Espadafor, M.C., & Bernardi, F. (2023). The geography of tertiary education inequalities over time. Mapineq deliverables. Turku: INVEST Research Flagship Centre / University of Turku. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10401330.
Acknowledgement:
This publication is part of the Mapineq project, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the grant agreement No. 101061645 (www.mapineq.eu). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Read more about the Mapineq project here and follow the project on X and LinkedIn. You can also register to receive Mapineq's bi-annual newsletter here.