The diffused religious choice when applying for a university degree in Sydney

ABSTRACT

While the preference for university by school leavers has been researched extensively, this article seeks to explore if religious influence might also come to play when selecting a university, with particular reference to Australia, a country whose higher education environment is largely made up of public, secular universities. The data used is the first preference that students in High Schools in NSW make for an urban and public university in Sydnney, and is analysed statistically and with social mapping tools. While this article cannot prove a direct religious choice when it comes to a university, it nevertheless shows some patterns in Sydney that cannot be ignored. There is an influence of religion through various geographical patterns and socio-economic factors that have been affected by religions over the history of Sydney. Using the theory on Diffused Religion by Roberto Cipriani, this article concludes that there is indeed a religious choice, but diffused, from someone who has attended a high school and choose a university, be it consciously religious or not.

KEYWORDS:

• Diffused religion
• higher education
• university preferences
• Australia

Acknowledgments

The team would like to thank Stephen Butcher and Lisa Lewis for providing assistance with this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Adam Possamai

Adam Possamai is Professor of Sociology and Deputy Dean of the School of Social Sciences. He has recently edited with Anthony Blasi, The Sage Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Religion (2020) and with Giuseppe Giordan, The Social Scientific Study of Exorcism in Christianity (Springer, 2020). He is the author of The i-zation of Society, Religion, and neoliberal Post-Secularism (Palgrave MacMillan, 2018).

Alphia Possamai-Inesedy

Alphia Possamai-Inesedy is Professor of Sociology and Chair, Academic Senate. She is the current President of the Australian Sociological Association. Her recent work includes: The Digital Social: Religion and Belief (2019); as well as an upcoming edited volume on Health sociology (Pearson). Alphia is currently involved in ongoing research that focuses on higher education, risk society, religion, digital sociology and methodologies.

Awais Piracha

Awais Piracha is an Associate Professor and Director Academic Program for Geography, Tourism and Planning at the Western Sydney University. In his professional career spanning over two decades, Awais Piracha has led or participated in numerous research and consultancy projects as an urban and transport planning expert. Awais Piracha has conducted research for the United Nations University, the World Bank, Nanjing City, Landcom NSW, Transport for NSW, Penrith City Council and the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute. In recent years much of Awais Piracha research has focused on disadvantage and discrimination in urban and transport planning.