Rural youth studying at universities – social selection, presence at universities, determinants

Abstract

The aim of the article is to draw attention to the current trends in the rural youth’s access to university education and the main directions of the rural youth’s allocation in the structure of institutions of higher learning. During many years rural youth relatively rarely studied at universities. This fact was attributable to social-economic, cultural and educational factors. The situation changed after the accomplishment of systemic transformation in the result of which young people from rural areas more and more often study at universities. As the presented data show, this does not mean that rural youth has – in comparison with urban youth, equal access to individual departments and directions of studies. It turns out that the general indicators of the rural youth’s presence at universities are clearly rising. However, truly revealing are the indicators for individual departments and directions of studies which suggest that the main factors determining the presence of rural youth at universities are: auto-selection, evidenced by the tendency to choose definite – chiefly pedagogical, directions of studies, the popularity of a given direction of studies (attributable to social prestige or demand for definite competencies, etc.), the position of a given direction of studies within a definite department and, consequently, the pursued recruitment policy (the number of students that can be admitted, possible entrance examinations, etc.)