Vulnerability of Students in Times of the Corona Pandemic: Is Social Inequality in Higher Education Increasing?

• Applicant: Dr. Markus Lörz
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research ; Education Systems and Educational Institutions
• Term: from 2021 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 470278283

During the Corona pandemic, the social and economic conditions of students have drastically changed. This raises the question of whether the achievements of the past decades in terms of increasing diversity and decreasing social inequalities have been scotched.Due to contact restrictions, the Corona pandemic has worsened the financial situation of students and their parents. Also, the teaching and learning situation of students has transformed, as students had to follow courses and take exams via digital platforms. Moreover, students social support situation has altered in that possibilities to interact with other students and teachers and receive support from family members were reduced. Relatedly, the crisis has induced higher levels of study stress. While this is known, we lack information on the Corona-specific study conditions, challenges, and consequences for study success (expected study progress and student dropout) of different vulnerable or socially disadvantaged student groups.Therefore, our project examines the extent of social inequalities in study progress and dropout intention, and how social inequalities have changed during the Corona pandemic. We study social inequalities between and within student groups not only based on students’ gender and educational background, but also based on characteristics identifying other vulnerable groups, i.e. students with migration background, children, and disabilities. We systematically examine the study conditions (financial situation, teaching and learning situation, social support situation, stress situation) of these student groups and their relevance for study progress and dropout intentions.Estimating linear and non-linear decomposition models using both cross-sectional and longitudinal designs, we additionally disentangle the underlying mechanisms of (changes in) social inequality in study progress and the dropout intention by considering (changing) study conditions (composition effects). Furthermore, we figure out whether changing study conditions have differently impacted study progress and the dropout intention of the vulnerable student groups (interaction effects).Our analyses are based on a tailor-made, Germany-wide dataset containing the variables and case numbers needed to perform the envisaged subgroup analyses. We obtain this dataset by merging two already available datasets (Studieren zu Zeiten der Corona-Pandemie, and the pooled Sozialerhebungen of the years 2009 to 2016).Our results will provide new theoretical and empirical insights for educational and social stratification research on how social inequalities evolve in a crisis situation. They will also allow us to formulate much-needed policy recommendations for targeted support of different student groups at risk of delaying their study progress and of dropping out of higher education in times of the Corona pandemic. This can help counteract long-lasting social inequalities in German higher education and society.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Nicolai Netz