This study examines the differential patterns of access to higher education of
students from rural areas in transition from a planned to a market economy. In
respect to college access, the research argues that market reforms have reproduced
the advantages for students from the cadre?s and the professional?s families while
simultaneously creating new opportunities for the children of the new arising
economic elite. Yet, it has performed less for traditional peasant families whose
children still fail to gain access to college in proportions higher than the size of
the population.
Based on the literature, this research places a special emphasis on how economic
and cultural resources become the main influence on rural students? college access.
The process dimension -- how families from different social backgrounds within
rural society involve themselves in the schooling of their children and how this
contributes to inequality of college access within rural society, are investigated.