Test-Based Admission to Selective Universities: A Lever for First-Generation Students or a Safety Net for the Professional Classes?

This article examines whether the existence of a secondary higher education admission system honouring more qualitative and extra-curricular merits has reduced the social class gap in access to highly sought-after university programmes in Denmark. I use administrative data to examine differences in the social gradient in the primary admission system, admitting students on the basis of their high school grade point average, and in the secondary admission system, admitting university students based on more qualitative assessments. I find that the secondary higher education admission system does not favour first-generation students; further, the system serves as an access route for low-achieving children from the privileged professional classes. Drawing mainly on theories in the social closure tradition, I argue that children with highly educated parents will be favoured when qualitative merits are honoured, and that professional-class families will be especially vigilant in pursuing educational pathways that will secure the reproduction of their class.