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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Aptitudes et classes sociales : accès et succès dans l'enseignement supérieur

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Mingat Alain. — Aptitudes and Social Classes : Access to and Success in Higher Education. In this paper, two types of social selection in education are considered. In the first place, the proportions in higher education in various social groups are compared to the distribution of measured intelligence in these groups. The adequacy of measurements of intelligence is not discussed, but account is taken of the fact that IQ measures are used in educational institutions for the purposes of assessment. It is noted that if entry into higher education were dependent entirely on the achievement of high IQs, the proportions of workers' and farmers' children in higher education would be far greater than are currently found. Next, the success rate in higher education for students of different social origin is considered. Success rates are nearly independent of parental occupation, but the breakdown of students in different academic disciplines differs by social origin. There is some degree of self-selection at the outset; students tend to move towards subjects where they feel they are most likely to succeed.