The Influence Of City Administrative Hierarchy On Educational Opportunity Equality: Evidence From China's Higher Eduvation Expansion Policy

In 1999,the Chinese government implemented the policy of higher education expansion to improve the quality of human resource and education equity.While this expansion has provided more educational opportunities,whether it has improved educational equity has been controversial.Many scholars have also measured the educational opportunities of individuals from the perspectives of different family backgrounds and urban-rural dualism.China has a typically hierarchical administrative structure,and Chinese cities with different administrative levels enjoy different concession policies,while the political centers have their own priorities on public resource distribution.This study attempts to identify the link between a city administrative level and tertiary attainment in the context of the higher education enrollment expansion policy.First,we starts with the implementation of the expansion policy and the existence of educational resource gaps between cities of different administrative levels,raising questions about the policy of higher education expansion,the administrative hierarchy of cities and the equality of educational opportunities based on the literature review.Then,we reviews the fee reform,employment system,college entrance examination and household registration system that existed in China during the same period when the higher education expansion policy was implemented.In terms of education expansion policy and educational opportunity,it is based on the MMI hypothesis,the EMI hypothesis and the rational choice theory of education;In terms of urban administrative hierarchy and equality in education,this paper builds on the theory of government "preference".This paper combines the theoretical basis with the institutional background,constructs the theoretical framework and puts forward the hypothesis.Secondly,this paper selects data from the CGSS2008 statistical survey and identifies the dependent,independent and control variables.This paper presents a descriptive statistical analysis of sample data.Then,making regression analysis of the data using the logit model.Our empirical findings indicate that after implementation of the expansion policy,inequality between cities increased.Students from the political and economic centers,Beijing,Tianjin,and Shanghai,as well as the provincial capitals appeared to offer many more opportunities for tertiary education attainment.In addition,students who live in different administrative levels of cities have different probabilities in obtaining specialized education and undergraduateeducation in the context of the expansion.After the implementation of the higher education expansion policy,the quantity and quality of inequality of Chinese education still exist.Finally,We put forward specific suggestions to the government and universities respectively based on theoretical background and empirical analysis results.And welook forward to the future development of educational quality and educational equity in China.