高等教育大众参与的非预期后果:社会不平等的新形式和人才外流

Unanticipated Consequences from Mass Participation in Higher Education:New forms of Social Inequalities and Brain Drain

在许多国家,大部分学生中学毕业后都能够继续接受高等教育。从这个现象出发,从宏观和微观层面探讨高等教育机会发生结构性变革的社会学因素,以及高校毕业生数量日益增长引发的两方面互联效应。以欧洲小国塞浦路斯为主要案例,适当对比希腊的相关情况,审视高等教育大众参与给一国经济、社会、文化带来的直接后果和非预期后果。这些后果固化甚至加剧了塞浦路斯国内的社会不平等,也导致了国际间的不平衡。概言之,探讨了高等教育大众化趋势对一国经济发展前景与财富积累诸多影响因素产生的效应。

This paper discusses the macro-and micro-sociological factors relating to the changing structure of available opportunities in higher education resulting from a phenomenon observed in many countries whereby higher education has become accessible to the majority of students who graduate from secondary schools.It discusses two inter-related effects of the growing number of graduates in this new landscape of higher education.Taking examples from a small European country,Cyprus,and to a lesser degree from the example of Greece,it examines the immediate and often unanticipated consequences that this phenomenon has for a country’s economy and the social and cultural implications that sustain or even broaden inequalities within the country but also at a cross-country level.More specifically, it discusses the effects that this trend has on the whole gamut of factors that affect a country’s prospects for prosperity and wealth production.