Family Education and Place of Residence as Predictors of the Chance of Going to University

Abstract

This article is based on the results of a study carried out by the Centre for Science Policy and Higher Education on commission of the Ministry of National Education. The main purpose of this study was to gather information which could be compared with the statistical data for the entire population of young people in Poland so as to carry out appropriate calculations and assess the level of accessibility or lack of accessibility to higher education in Poland. The authors also wanted to determine students’ material situation, degree of dependence on various forms of material aid provided by the state, their opinions concerning the contribution of these forms of help to their budgets, and their opinions concerning the regulations of reimbursement for higher education. In this article the authors focus only on the problem of unequal access to higher education. The remaining problems are discussed in the Research Report.