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College is a Rich, Han, Urban, Male Club: Research Notes from a Census Survey of Four Tier One Colleges in China*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 June 2013

Xiaobing Wang ,
Chengfang Liu ,
Linxiu Zhang ,
Yaojiang Shi  and
Scott Rozelle
Xiaobing Wang
Affiliation:
Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Chengfang Liu
Affiliation:
Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Linxiu Zhang*
Affiliation:
Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Yaojiang Shi
Affiliation:
Northwest University (Xi'an).
Scott Rozelle
Affiliation:
Stanford University.
*
Email: lxzhang.ccap@igsnrr.ac.cn (corresponding author).
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Abstract

The opportunity to attend college and earn a degree has increased dramatically in China. However, that does not mean that everyone has an equal opportunity. Historically, there has been well-documented systematic discrimination against minorities, women and the rural poor. The main question of this paper is whether or not this discrimination has persisted since the recent expansion of China's tertiary education system. Using a census of incoming freshmen from four tier one universities, this paper assesses if certain types of students are over-represented while other types of students are under-represented. Comparing the shares of students from different socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds from our primary survey data with government generated census statistics, we conclude that poor, minority and rural female students are systematically under-represented. In contrast, rich, Han, urban males are dominant in college.

Keywords

higher educationbarrierspovertyrural ChinaAsia
Type
Research Report
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 214 , June 2013 , pp. 456 - 470
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2013 

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Footnotes

*

The authors would like to acknowledge the funding support from National Natural Sciences of China (71110107028) and the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS (Grant: 2012RC102).

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