People Will Continue To Study?

Nowadays, people’s overall level of education is raising; there are more and morehighly educated persons. However, compared with the past, the same qualificationscannot receive the same social status; the value of credential seems to decrease withthe expansion of education. This study measures whether the credential is devaluatsthrough comparing the impact of educational level on social status between differentgeneration, as well as the impact of university credential on social status before andafter university increase enrollment. The results confirmed that China indeedexperiences a credential devaluation phenomenon, especially in higher educationstage. What impact does credential devaluation on the fairness of educationalopportunities is the second theme of this study. In the background of credentialexpansion and educational devaluation, gender differences have been strengthened,men are more likely to obtain a higher level of educational opportunities than women;urban-rural differences have also been strengthened; the urban populations are morelikely to receive high-quality educational opportunities. The Credential expansionhave a negative impact on the families of lower social class position, such as workers’educational opportunities has been decrease in the context of the credential expansion;and it has a positive impact on families with higher social class position.In addition, the paper also explores if the relative risk aversion will beestablished in China in the background of credential expansion. The analysis resultsshow that the families with low level of education are more likely to require theirchildren to give up continuing their education in the face of the credential devaluation.However, the families with higher level of education are still willing to continue toinvest on their children in order to access higher education in the face of the credentialdevaluation. The latter verifies the RRA assumption and the former is the complementof RRA. The research adds to this theory and confirms my suspect on credentialdepreciation. At the same time, the paper finds that the credential expansion of is notconducive to vulnerable groups to get educational opportunities and strengthens theinequality of educational opportunities. The whole society should pay concern to thenegative impact of the credential devaluation. The relevant government departmentsshould give more attention to the fairness of educational opportunities.