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标题：Distance Effects, Social Class and the Decision to Participate in Higher Education in Ireland
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作者：John Cullinan ; Darragh Flannery ; Sharon Walsh 等
期刊名称：Economic and Social Review
印刷版ISSN：0012-9984
出版年度：2013
卷号：44
期号：1
页码：19-51
出版社：Economic and Social Research Institute
摘要：While a number of international studies have attempted to assess the influence ofgeographic accessibility on the decision to participate in higher education, this issue has not beenaddressed in detail in an Irish context. The aim of this paper is to fill this gap and to present ahigher education choice model that estimates the impact of travel distance on the decision ofschool leavers to proceed to higher education in Ireland, while also controlling for a range ofindividual level characteristics and school related variables. To do so we use data from the 2007wave of the School Leavers' Survey and find that, on average, travel distance is not an importantfactor in the higher education participation decision, when factors such as student ability areaccounted for. However, further analysis shows that travel distance has a significantly negativeimpact on participation for those from lower social classes and that this impact grows stronger asdistance increases. We also find that the distance effects are most pronounced for lower abilitystudents from these social backgrounds. This has important implications for higher educationpolicy in Ireland, especially in relation to equity of access and the design of the maintenance grantsystem