Impact of the change in the admission requirement on the territorial recruitment of higher education

Abstract

The 2020 higher education enrollment has brought a significant decline in both the number of applicants and those enrolled. The study deals with the impact of headcount reduction on the territorial recruitment of higher education.

The paper first presents the change in higher education admission requirements, pointing out that the generalization of advanced graduation has caused a decrease in the number of applicants, and consequently in the number of admissions. The work then analyzes three cross-sections of territorial recruitment of higher education. First, it examines the micro-regional impact of changes in entry opportunities, presenting changes in the micro-regional distribution of applicants and admissions. The paper then analyzes the change in the enrollment of young people in the most disadvantaged micro-regions by comparing it with the chances of young people in the best-off micro-regions. Finally, the study examines how the tightening of admission requirements has affected the distribution of recruitment in the higher education sector between the capital and the countryside.

The study concludes that the tightening of the admission system has had a negative effect on the access of young people from disadvantaged micro-regions to higher education, as well as restructuring the institutional system, as a result of which the dominance of higher education institutions in the capital continues to grow.