Can earmarked admission places help address the perceived rural disadvantage in higher education access? Evidence from Romania

ABSTRACT

The perceived disadvantage faced by high school students from rural areas in pursuing higher education is often associated with the fact that these areas are by default affected by socio-economic disadvantages. The analysis of the results from the high school baccalaureate examination for Romania, which is mandatory for admission to higher education, and which plays a major role in ranking the applicants, shows the potential outcomes of the university admission policy targeting high school baccalaureate holders from rural areas. Under different scenarios, this can lead to either targeted admission places being allocated to students that would have been otherwise successfully admitted by competing on general admission places or could have helped students from other disadvantaged backgrounds. These results may help as a basis for guiding policy designs that can better target admission places for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

KEYWORDS:

• Higher education
• baccalaureate examinations
• admission policy
• rural background
• disadvantaged areas

Disclosure statement

Emilia Titan is a member of the CNSPIS national-level consultative higher education body. Other authors have no known potential conflicts of interest to report.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Emilia Titan

Emilia Țițan, PhD, is a professor of Statistics and Econometrics at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Director of the Doctoral School of Cybernetics and Statistics, and member of the Council of the Faculty of Cybernetics, Statistics, and Economic Informatics, she also acts as PhD adviser and a member of a non-profit higher education consultative body, CNSPIS. She has participated as a director in several national and international research programmes, and authored many specialty books and textbooks, mainly in the fields of labour market and higher education.

Adrian Otoiu

Adrian Otoiu, PhD, is a full-time Lecturer in Statistics and Econometrics at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies. In addition to pursuing a post-doctoral stage in higher education, he has previously held various analytics and research positions with the Ontario Ministry of Finance (Canada), Ipsos, Vodafone, UniCredit, and The Fraser Institute, and has participated in several education-related research projects. His research interests are labour market issues, composite indicators, education policy, and machine learning.

Dorel Paraschiv

Dorel-Mihai Paraschiv, PhD, is a professor of International Business and Economics, and holds the Vice-Provost (Liaison with the social and business environment, and cooperation with students) position, at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies. He is also consultant in Strategy for companies developing international business in Central Europe and associate professor for the ASE CNAM MBA program. He held visiting professorship positions at CNAM Paris, World Bank Institute Washington, EDC Paris, ESFAM Sofia, WU Viena, and acted as a director or team member in national and international research programs.

Daniela Manea

Ioana-Daniela Manea, PhD, is a professor of Statistics and Econometrics at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies. She has training and managerial experience in management of higher education institutions, auditing, and counselling, and helped develop 22 research contracts in labour market and higher education fields. Her research interests and publications lie in the fields of labour market, higher education, and circular economy.