Soziale Ungleichheit bei den Übergängen ins Studium und in die Promotion: Eine kumulative Betrachtung von sozialen Herkunftseffekten im nachschulischen Bildungsverlauf

Transitions in the educational system are highly important for the emergence of social inequality. Research points at a decrease in social background effects from the transition to secondary education to the transition to tertiary studies as well as to a decrease in the relevance of primary effects (performance-based social background effects) across the two transitions. Based on the longitudinal study BIJU, this study examines the development of the effect of educational background over post-school educational pathways focusing on the transition to tertiary as well as to doctoral studies and investigates which proportion of the social background effect can be traced back to primary effects. By conducting an effect decomposition, the proportion of the social background effect traceable to performance differences is calculated. To analyse the cumulative effect of social background in higher education, the analysis for the transition to doctoral studies was performed using the whole sample of persons with a higher education entrance qualification next to only using the selective sample of graduates with a tertiary degree. The results indicate that an effect of educational background exists at both transition points. This effect is decreasing across the two transitions, however, the inequality is cumulative overall. The relevance of performance differences increases in a relative perspective, however, decreases in an absolute perspective.