Indicator A7 Does the socio-economic status of their parents affect students' participation in higher education?

This indicator examines the socio-economic status of students enrolled in higher education, an important gauge of access to higher education for all. International comparable data on the socio-economic status of students in higher education is not widely available and this indicator is a first attempt to illustrate the analytical potential that would be offered by better data on this issue. It takes a close look at data from ten OECD countries, examining the occupational status (white collar or blue collar) of students’ fathers and the fathers’ educational background and also considers data from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2000 survey.