European Sociological Review Advance Access published online on September 21, 2009
European Sociological Review, doi:10.1093/esr/jcp045
Minority Dropout in Higher Education: A Comparison of the United States and Norway using Competing Risk Event History Analysis
Correspondence: Liza Reisel (to whom correspondence should be addressed), Department of Sociology, the Graduate Center, City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA. Email: lreisel{at}gc.cuny.edu
Correspondence: Idunn Brekke, Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo, Boks 1096, Blindern 0317, Oslo, Norway
The objective of this article is to compare college persistence patterns among minority and majority students in universities and colleges in Norway with that of the United States. Despite differences in the educational systems and economic regimes, both countries face the common challenge of ensuring educational equity, especially among students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds and minority students. Using competing risk event history analysis, this article examines nationally representative samples of students to assess the relative year-to-year risk of dropping out from higher education among minority and majority students. We found that while the US higher education system tends to exacerbate initial socioeconomic inequalities between minority and majority students, there is no difference in the dropout risk among minority and majority students in Norway. Moreover, at the BA level, we found that minority students graduate at significantly lower rates than majority students in the United States, even when we control for dropping out. Again, there is no such difference in Norway. This indicates that even though minority students in Norway are also disproportionately from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, they are encountering fewer obstacles in higher education than minority students in the United States.
Manuscript received: March 1, 2009.