The education market, the stratification of institutions and unequal access to university in Quebec
This article examines the extent to which the stratification of secondary education in Quebec, favoured by the education market, has an impact on social inequalities regarding access to university. Based on a longitudinal survey—the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS)—we show that students whose schooling was limited to the regular curriculum of the public school system are significantly less likely to enter university than their peers from private institutions or those who took advanced placement classes in a public school. These differences remain significant when controlling for student performance and social background. A double hypothesis has been put forward for interpreting these results. On the one hand, stratification engenders unequal conditions of schooling among pupils, insofar as classroom composition is determined very much by social and educational factors. On the other hand, stratification allows, at an institutional level, students to follow differentiated educational paths.