Question Scans

Question Scans

Question 4: What factors account for the differences in access to post-secondary education between applicants residing in rural and urban areas?

Overview

The purpose of this question scan was to determine what factors account for differences in access to post-secondary education between applicants residing in rural and urban areas.

Searches applying a broad range of applicable search terms to four major databases initially yielded 126 articles potentially relevant to this question. Subsequent examination of article abstracts reduced the number to 67. An additional 10 articles were collected from Canadian government and professional/sectoral organization websites germane to post-secondary education.

The documents collected for this report includes comparative research studies between rural and urban populations’ access to post-secondary education. Most articles focussed specifically on rural populations and factors that impede or facilitate their access to post-secondary education. A complicated interweaving of factors in the research articles relate to rural access to post-secondary education. These have been divided into the following broad categories:

Learners

  • Psycho-social characteristics identified as aspirations, expectations, persistence, preparation, and perceptions of economic opportunity, including family culture
  • Demographic characteristics of learners including minority status, gender, socio-economic status, and age
  • Contextual / situational characteristics including distance from educational institutions, financial considerations, real economic opportunity and community culture, and access to ICT resources

Educational Institutions

  • Policy initiatives that facilitate enrolment, admissions criteria and processes, post-secondary education preparation programs, career guidance and strategies for distance education

Community Organizations

  • Community characteristics such as cultural attitudes toward higher education, real and proposed economic opportunities for citizens with higher education, and support organizations that encourage learners to persist

Government

  • National and provincial education policies and funding responsibilities are seen as government characteristics to consider

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