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Geographic mobility and social inequality among Peruvian university students

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore geographic mobility among university students in Peru and to understand how mobility patterns differ by region and by demographic indicators of inequality. The ways that students may be able to move geographically in order to access quality higher education within the educational system can be a driver of equality or inequality, depending on who is able to take advantage. Using data from a university census, we examine how demographic indicators of inequality are related to geographic mobility for university attendance, how prior geographic mobility predicts later mobility for university attendance, and how these relationships differ based on the number and quality of universities in a region. Results show that sociodemographic variables related to social inequality explain a substantial amount of students' postsecondary mobility. However, some of these relationships do not operate in the same way in all of the regions. Depending on the availability of universities and their quality, patterns of association between inequality and geographic mobility change. Implications for higher education policy as well as further research examining geographic mobility and inequality in education are discussed.

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Notes

  1. We use the term “region” to represent the 26 administrative divisions in Peru—25 geographic regions and the province of Lima. In addition, we combine the Provincia Constitucional del Callao with Lima for our analyses, giving us 25 “regions” for analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA

    Ryan Wells

  2. Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, Jesús María, Lima, Peru

    Ricardo Cuenca

  3. University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, USA

    Gerardo Blanco Ramirez

  4. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Jesús María, Lima, Peru

    Jorge Aragón

Authors
  1. Ryan Wells
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  2. Ricardo Cuenca
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  3. Gerardo Blanco Ramirez
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  4. Jorge Aragón
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Correspondence to Ryan Wells.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 5 Higher education institutions in Peru, by region
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Table 6 Socioeconomic indicators, by region
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Wells, R., Cuenca, R., Blanco Ramirez, G. et al. Geographic mobility and social inequality among Peruvian university students. High Educ 75, 449–469 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-017-0149-6

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