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Educational Transitions at Graduate Level

Social Origins and Enrolment in PhD Programmes in Norway

Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

The prevailing view in the research literature is that social origin has little impact on educational choices made late in one’s educational career. The article focuses on one very late transition, viz. enrolment in PhD programmes. The most important theoretical point of departure is the Breen and Goldthorpe relative risk aversion (RRA) theory. The analyses show that class origins have an impact, but only in how individuals at the very top of the class hierarchy deviate from the rest. There are also considerable effects of having parents who have themselves taken doctoral degrees and of having parents employed in higher education or research. The results do not support the RRA theory with mobility defined in terms of class, but they are consistent with a modified version in which individuals are assumed to be concerned about their educational mobility irrespective of whether or not additional education affects class position.

Key Words: educational transitions • PhD enrolment • relative risk aversion • social class • social mobility

Acta Sociologica, Vol. 49, No. 4, 437-453 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0001699306071683


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