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Equity of Higher Education Enrollment 

Opportunities among Classes: 

A Reconstruction of Indicator System for 

Social Class-based Differential Enrollment 

Opportunities and its Empirical Analysis

Yan Cao, Shanshan Tang 

 
Institute of Higher Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai 

200062, China 

Based on the educational hierarchical reproduction theory and the MMI 
and EMI hypotheses, this paper discusses the impact of the tracking of 
general and vocational education at the secondary level on higher 
education opportunity equity among social classes. The study finds that 
increasing gross enrollment rates of both general high schools and 
secondary vocational schools can help improve the equity in admission 
opportunities of colleges and universities among social strata; 
expanding the share of general high school places by adjusting the 
structure of general and vocational tracks (that is, the general-
vocational ratio) can effectively reduce the class disparities in college 
and university admission opportunities; neither the change in the scale 
nor in the structure of general and vocational tracks will contribute to 
alleviating class inequality in top university enrollment opportunities. 

Best Evidence in Chinese Education 2022; 11(1):1461-1466. 
Doi: 10.15354/bece.22.ab003. 

How to Cite: Yan, C., & Tang, S. (2022). General and vocational tracks and equity 
of higher education enrollment opportunities among classes: A reconstruction of 
indicator system for social class-based differential enrollment opportunities and its 
empirical analysis. Best Evidence in Chinese Education, 11(1):1461-1466. 

Keywords: Tracking of General and Vocational Education, Higher Education, Enrollment 
Opportunity, Class Equity, Class Disparity 

 



Yan & Tang. General and Vocational Tracks and Equity of Higher Education Enrollment. 

BECE, Vol.11, No.1, 2022 1462 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

About the Author: Shanshan Tang, Institute of Higher Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai 
200062, China 

Correspondence to: Yan Cao, Institute of Higher Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, 
China. E-mail: caoyan0516@126.com 

Conflict of Interests: None. 
 

© 2022 Insights Publisher. All rights reserved. 

Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the 

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License 

(http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of 

the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed by the Insights Publisher. 

mailto:caoyan0516@126.com
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Yan & Tang. General and Vocational Tracks and Equity of Higher Education Enrollment. 

BECE, Vol.11, No. 1, 2022 1463 

The tracking of general and vocational education at the secondary level is the first 

streaming Chinese students face in the entire educational system. To some extent, it is 

not only educational tracking, but also a form of hierarchical differentiation among 

classes. In the context of worsening social inequality and blocked social mobility, there 

exist huge class disparities in the acquisition of resources and capital in students’ early 

stage of schooling. The expansion of regular college and junior college enrollment scale 

and the continuous upgrading of the industry also contribute to the problematic circum-

stances of secondary vocational education such as low returns, implicit social discrimi-

nation, and obscure development prospects. The primary issue for the tracking of gen-

eral and vocational education in China is the contradiction between the need of econo-

my and industry for vocational education development and the low public demand for 

vocational education. The purpose of this paper is to explore the appropriate tracking 

scale and structure that help reduce the gap in student access to higher education among 

social strata from the perspective of regional development. 

Research Hypotheses 

The increase in total enrollment of general schools enable those students who would 

otherwise be diverted to the vocational track to enter academic schools and enhance 

their opportunity of attaining higher education, thereby improving equity in higher edu-

cation opportunity among different classes. The following hypotheses are put forward 

in this study. H1: Expanding the general school enrollment scale is conducive to reduc-

ing the class gap in higher education opportunity disparity, while it cannot change the 

inequality in high-quality tertiary education opportunity among classes; H2: The in-

crease in the proportion of general school places helps alleviate the class inequality in 

student access to higher education, whereas it makes no differences to the disparity in 

top-level university attendance among classes. 

Sources of Data 

This paper sources data from the enrollment database of all regular colleges and junior 

colleges in China and summarizes the number of enrollments in each region from in the 

academic year of 2014-2015. Additionally, it consults the China Statistical Yearbooks 

to trace the data of those students who participate in college entrance examination in 

this academic year (2014-2015) in various regions and draws on the numbers of region-

al primary school graduates (2008-2009), junior high school graduates (2011-2012), 

secondary vocational enrollments (2011-2012), high school enrollments (2011-2012), 

and regional high school graduates (2014 and 2015) of the corresponding groups whose 

college entrance examination year was in 2014-2015. 

Results and Discussion 

The Regression Analysis of the Effect of General and 

Vocational Education Tracking on Class Disparities in 

Tertiary Education Opportunity  



Yan & Tang. General and Vocational Tracks and Equity of Higher Education Enrollment. 

BECE, Vol.11, No. 1, 2022 1464 

After controlling for other factors, the gap in places between junior and senior second-

ary schools in various regions significantly affects the equity of higher education. The 

widened gap in school places results in the increased disparities in tertiary education 

opportunity among classes. In terms of the effect of school places on the class dispari-

ties in access to the general tertiary education (including regular and junior colleges) 

and the 4-year regular college courses, the logarithmic coefficient values are 0.005 and 

0.006, respectively, which means that with every 100% increase in the gap in places 

between junior and senior secondary school, the disparity between the middle class and 

the lower middle class in the access to general tertiary education will expand by 0.5%, 

and that in access to 4-year regular colleges will increase by 0.6%. The R-squared val-

ues mediated by the model of enrollment scale of general and vocational tracks are 

0.591 and 0.541, and the R-squared value mediated by the model of enrollment struc-

ture of general and vocational tracks is 0.407-0.458, which shows that the scale and 

structure of general and vocational tracks can properly explain their effects on class 

equity of college enrollment opportunities in three years. The P values of the F test are 

all less than 0.01, indicating that the overall model has a significant explanatory effect. 

After controlling for other variables, the coefficients of the effect of the gross 

enrollment rate of general high schools on class disparities in student access to general 

tertiary education and 4-year regular college education are -0.165 and -0.158, respec-

tively, statistically significant at the 1% level, which means that with every 100% in-

crease in the gross enrollment rate of general high schools, the gap in general tertiary 

education and regular college education opportunities between the middle class and the 

lower middle class will significantly decrease by 16.5% and 15.8%, respectively. The 

increase in the gross enrollment rate of secondary vocational schools has a relatively 

small influence on the class disparities in general tertiary education and regular college 

education opportunities with influencing coefficients being -0.125 and -0.126, respec-

tively, statistically significant at the 5% level, which indicates that with every 100% 

increase in the gross enrollment rate of secondary vocational schools, the gap in general 

tertiary education opportunity between the middle class and the lower middle class is 

reduced by 12.5%, and the gap in regular college education opportunity by 12.6%. 

Therefore, regarding the enrollment scale, the increase in the gross enrollment rate of 

both general high schools and secondary vocational schools is likely to enhance class 

equity in higher education opportunities, while the effect of expanding enrollment scale 

of general education is more pronounced. 

Using the ratio of general-vocational school places (or the proportion of gen-

eral high school places) to represent the structure of general and vocational tracks, this 

study discovers that without considering the discrepancy in school places between jun-

ior and senior secondary levels, the proportion of general high school places has no sig-

nificant impact on the class disparities in the general tertiary education and 4-year regu-

lar college education opportunities. After controlling for the above discrepancy in 

school places, the proportion of general high school places significantly affects the gaps 

in the general tertiary education and 4-year regular college education opportunities be-

tween the middle class and the lower middle class, with coefficients of -0.192 and -

0.167, respectively, statistically significant at the 1% level, which signals that with eve-

ry 100% increase in the proportion of general high school places, the class disparity in 

the general tertiary education opportunity is reduced by 19.2%, and that in the 4-year 

regular college enrollment opportunity by 16.7%. After controlling for the discrepancy 



Yan & Tang. General and Vocational Tracks and Equity of Higher Education Enrollment. 

BECE, Vol.11, No. 1, 2022 1465 

in places between junior and senior secondary schools, the higher the proportion of 

general high school places in the structure of general and vocational tracks, the more 

conducive it is to the promotion of education opportunity equity between classes. 

Moreover, the increased proportion yields a slightly greater positive effect on the equity 

in 4-year regular college education opportunity than that in the overall tertiary educa-

tion opportunity. 

This result provides a new perspective in examining the role of tracking. Now-

adays, China’s high education is more universalized than ever before, gradually weak-

ening the “screening function” of the college entrance examination. General-vocational 

education tracking, as the first streaming in students’ entire education course, will large-

ly affect their access to later opportunities. From the point of view of class equity, ex-

panding the enrollment scale of general secondary education, to a large extent, allows 

students from disadvantaged classes more opportunities for further academic education, 

and delay the time of first “educational diversion”, thereby promoting inter-class mobil-

ity. 

The Regression Analysis of the Effect of Tracking on 

Class Disparities in Top-level University Attendance 

To evaluate the class-based differentials in high-quality tertiary education, this study 

introduces diverse college categories into the model to examine the effect of tracking on 

first-class university enrolment opportunity. Mediated by the model of enrollment scale 

of secondary schools, the R-squared values is 0.478 and 0.431; Mediated by the model 

of structure of general and vocational tracks, the R-squared value is 0.424-0.590, signal-

ing that the mediation of independent variables can explain the variance (between 42.4% 

and 59%) of class disparities in top university attendance. After controlling for relevant 

factors, neither gross enrollment rates of general and vocational secondary schools nor 

the ratio of general-vocational school places is significantly related to the class dispari-

ties in first-class university attendance. The result of analysis validates the initial hy-

potheses and demonstrates the intense competitiveness and rigorous selectiveness of top 

universities. Increased admissions of general high schools simply mean the raised num-

ber of participants in the college entrance examination. Virtually, the tracking of gen-

eral and vocational education has no effect on ordinary class students’ access to top 

universities. 

Conclusions 

Scaling up the enrollment of both general and vocational tracks by increasing the gross 

enrollment rate of general high schools and secondary vocational schools and other 

means will help improve the equity of admission opportunities of colleges and universi-

ties among social strata and reduce disparities in student access to higher education be-

tween the middle and lower classes. Additionally, increasing the proportion of general 

high schools (i.e., the general-vocational ratio) by adjusting the structure of general and 

vocational tracks can effectively reduce the stratum gap in college and university ad-

mission opportunities. 

Regarding superior higher education opportunities, neither the increase in the 

gross enrollment rate of general high schools nor secondary vocational schools nor the 

rise in the proportion of general high school places in the general-vocational tracking 

structure can contribute to alleviating class inequity. 



Yan & Tang. General and Vocational Tracks and Equity of Higher Education Enrollment. 

BECE, Vol.11, No. 1, 2022 1466 

 
 

The Chinese version of this article has been published in Beijing University Education Review, 
2021, 19(4):21. The English version has been authorized for being publication in BECE by the 
author(s) and the Chinese journal. 

 
曹妍, 唐珊珊. (2021).普职分流与阶层间的高等教育入学机会公平—各地区分阶层入学机会

指标的再构建及其实证研究. 北京大学教育评论, 19(4):21. 

 

 

Received: 30 March 2022 
Revised: 11April 2022 

Accepted: 05 May 2022 
 

 

 

 

 


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