Choosing a University as Intensifier of Vertical Differentiation? Comparisons Between Germany and France

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Reinhold Sackmann
• Subject Area: Education Systems and Educational Institutions ; Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2015 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 279117829

The project examines whether the choice of university contributes to vertical differentiation in the field of higher education. The main hypothesis refers to the perception of consensual reputation systems by potential students who in the act of choosing a college subjectively differentiate by its performance. This institutionalization of vertical differentiation influences elite formation in higher education and a segregation of the social composition of colleges.Vertical differentiation is therefore highly influential on education systems and the social structure of modern societies. Methodologically, a comparison is made between Germany and France based on longitudinal secondary data. Theoretically, the project employs a frame-selection model. Longitudinal analyses allow the determination of changes in the influence of reputation and social background on the choice of universities considered vertically different and in the degree of social homogeneity of institutions. In Germany the project cooperates with the Deutsche Zentrum fuer Hochschul- und Wissenschaftsforschung (DZHW), which will provide the research project with all waves of the Studienanfängerbefragung. This data set will be available as a Scientific Use File after the conclusion of the three year project. Through the use and processing of this large secondary data collection the project contributes to the improvement of the infrastructure of German social science data. For France, analysis will be conducted with secondary data from the surveys of the Conditions de vie des étudiants (CVE) of the Observatoire national de la Vie Étudiante (OVE). In their design and uniform questionnaires the two international data sets compare very well with each other and allow the operationalization of all planned variables in the theoretical model. The intended results of the project will consist of: a) a quantitatively accurate determination of the degree of elite formation in two different higher education systems; b) a theoretically and empirically important reconstruction of the extent of a selection process supported by vertical differentiation; c) a new longitudinal data set for educational research. As the choice of university and its institutional and socio-structural consequences have rarely been studied quantitatively, the proposed project will be able to fill significant research gaps and open new perspectives for the topic "elite and university". This includes in particular the question of whether and how countries despite diverse points of departure are reducing their differences in patterns of vertical differentiation and vertical closures in the field of higher education.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: France
• Cooperation Partners: Dr. Ulrich Heublein; Professor Dr. Manfred Stock; Professorin Dr. Agnès van Zanten