Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Impact Of Increasing Competition For University On Disadvantaged Government School Students, Daniel Edwards

Dr Daniel Edwards

The influence of socioeconomic status on academic outcomes has been well documented in literature exploring post school pathways. Such accounts of educational disadvantage exist in relation to Melbourne, Australia as they do in other cities across the developed world. However, over the past decade in Melbourne there has been an increased stratification of educational outcomes that cannot necessarily be explained by any parallel increase in social inequality. This differentiation of outcomes has been the result of growing competition for university places – stemming from growth in the school aged population and rising retention rates, but accompanied by no equivalent increase …