Opportunities in Higher Education: An Application to France

International audienceThis paper first sets out criteria to evaluate the inequality of opportunity in higher education. We propose a two-level classification by distinguishing the categorial and the counterfactual approaches. For each approach we consider dominance quasi-orderings and inequality measures. We then apply these criteria to the French higher education system by comparing the situations in 1992 and 2004. Our main findings suggest: (i) that there is inequality of opportunity in each of the two years; and (ii) that the inequality of opportunity tends to increase during the reporting period, especially the opportunity to graduate in the lowest and highest levels of education