Is post-secondary access more equitable in Canada or the United States?

by Marc Frenette
Business and Labour Market Analysis Division
Analytical Studies Branch research paper series, No. 244

Context

As the burden of financing a university education is shifted more towards students, it is becoming increasingly important to understand the extent to which students from lower socio-economic backgrounds are affected. To this end, we know quite a lot about the situation in Canada, but very little about how well Canada fares relative to other countries. Given that post-secondary schooling is funded very differently in Canada and the United States, family background may play substantively different roles.

Objectives

This comparative study investigates the role of family background characteristics in post-secondary access in Canada and the United States.

Findings

University-going is less common among lower-income students in the U.S. than among their Canadian counterparts. Among groups of students from higher income families, U.S. students are at a distinct advantage over Canadian students. Other factors, such as parental education, sex, and membership in a specific visible minority group appears to play more or less the same role in both countries.

Data sources: National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 Cohort and Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID).

View the article in the Daily about this publication.

View the full publication.

---

You need to use the free Adobe Reader to view PDF documents. To view (open) these files, simply click on the link. To download (save) them, right-click on the link. Note that if you are using Internet Explorer or AOL, PDF documents sometimes do not open properly. See Troubleshooting PDFs. PDF documents may not be accessible by some devices. For more information, visit the Adobe website or contact us for assistance.