Gains and Losses on Academic Transfer Markets: dropping out and course‐switching in higher education

Abstract

Giving up studies in higher education may be considered a pivotal point where an educational career may change course either in an upward or a downward direction. Leaving an institution of higher learning without a degree is, in this connection, interpreted as downward mobility. By contrast, transfers within the higher education field are counted as gains or losses of the individual concerned, depending on the direction of his or her moves within a status hierarchy based on the esteem accorded to different study fields and higher education establishments. The analyses revealed that in Finland it is the status‐oriented inheritors of the societal elite who do best on the higher education field's external and internal transfer market, while those who start from weaker positions are distinctly less successful. In addition to questions linked with equality between individual students, the results also raise questions about equality between educational units. The move from uniform higher education towards a more diversified model may further intensify the status differences dividing the field. There is the danger that certain sections of the academic field will be increasingly used as roundabout routes by a growing proportion of the upper secondary school graduate cohort intent to reach the status summit of the field. The findings support the view that Pierre Bourdieu's terminology of cultural reproduction may be used to also explain Finnish educational reality.