As demographic changes coincide with a desire to widen access to higher education, higher education admission systems in Europe take on increasing significance. Given that admission criteria often effectively begin many years prior to the completion of compulsory education, however, reform will require engagement from more than one level of the school system.

Admission to higher education is a critical stage in the lives of millions of young people (and older students) in Europe, as well as the focus of policy makers concerned about engineering the right level of graduates for the workforce and society. This stage is usually associated only with the point at which students apply to higher education via a specific examination or on the basis of examination results upon leaving compulsory education. In Europe, however, the process of admission to higher education begins, in reality, before compulsory education ends. This article will look at higher education admission systems in various European countries, indicating what future priorities and challenges the systems may have to deal with.

How Admission to Higher Education Works in Europe

In most European countries, the “right” to enter higher education is conferred on students when they obtain a school leaving certificate. In Germany, for example, students obtain the Abitur when they leave school, which allows them to apply for any course at any university in the country. The Abitur is obtained through taking examinations in four or five different subjects that assess knowledge of the subject content. As is the case across Europe, examinations that govern admission to higher education are content-driven, and are not tests of aptitude, as is the case in some countries outside Europe, e.g., China, South Korea, or the United States.

While the Abitur and its equivalent in most European countries confer a right to enter higher education, it does not mean that a student can necessarily take any course they wish. In oversubscribed courses other forms of tests may be used to decide entry. Alternatively, universities themselves set their own entry criteria or tests. In these countries, in effect, students may sit two sets of examinations around the end of compulsory education. The Southern European countries of Italy, Portugal, and Spain all have such university tests.

Students apply directly to the university itself in the majority of European countries. In some, however, they apply via a central online application platform. In France, for example, the Parcoursup platform allows students to apply for up to 10 different courses. Students will normally select a number of courses/providers and place them in order. The central application platform will then allocate students to providers on the basis of some form of criteria agreed upon with the providers.

In the Nordic countries, as well as the nations of the United Kingdom and Ireland, students apply to higher education via such central application platforms. However, in France and the Nordic countries, students still have a right to enter higher education. This right has caused some challenges in recent years in France, as many students enter higher education only to leave in their first year, thus incurring costs for them and the state. The United Kingdom and Ireland, on the other hand, stand distinct from mainland Europe. In the four nations of the United Kingdom, the school leaving examinations are not brought together in the form of one overall qualification or baccalaureate where the student will receive a grade, and there is no right to enter. In Ireland, grades obtained in the school-leaving certificate are translated into an overall points score. In both the United Kingdom and Ireland there is a deeper sense of hierarchy between universities than in other European countries. This means that there are high-stakes school leaving examinations, which have become de facto university entrance examinations. Overall, this creates significant pressures for students.

When Does Admission to Higher Education Really Start?

In any country, higher education entry is never just the product of what happens when students are at the end of compulsory schooling. It is the culmination of their previous academic attainment, individual preferences, and knowledge of the higher education system. In Europe, however, it is often also the product of where in the schooling system they were placed at age 11 or 14. In the majority of European countries children are selected for different types of schooling at some point after primary/elementary school on the basis of ability/aptitude. In most cases, there are three types of schooling: one academic in nature, another offering more professional-related subjects alongside core academic options, and a technical school with a concentration on vocational subjects, which becomes stronger as the children get older. Selection dictates to which type of school children progress. In 20 countries in Europe, no route into higher education for students at technical schools is offered. A significant level of school-based selection brings advantages and disadvantages. It is relatively effective at matching graduates with jobs, as its students have progressed through schooling and higher education often following a distinct path that leads into employment. On the other hand, it is less effective at enabling students from lower-income backgrounds and other groups underrepresented in higher education to progress. Such students are usually placed at an early age in schools that are far less likely to lead to higher education.

Future Challenges for European Higher Education Admission Systems

Overall, higher education participation in Europe is increasing. However, higher education participation is declining across Eastern Europe and is also stalling in parts of Western Europe, e.g. Germany and Portugal, due to declining numbers of young people. If European countries want to limit declining higher education participation or to increase it, then higher education admission must be understood as something that begins from the early teenage years, not 17 onward. Such an understanding becomes even more important if the priority is to extend access to higher education to a broader range of groups in society. For some years now the European Commission has been pushing universities and governments to enable more students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, underrepresented ethnic groups, and other marginalized populations to enter higher education. This is slowly becoming a higher priority across the continent but remains a major challenge. It will require specific support for such students to help them progress to higher education throughout their schooling.

The challenges facing higher education admission in Europe highlight again how embedded admission systems are in the wider education system and society. If systems are to help counteract the impact of declining youth populations, while also supporting those young people who are less likely to enter higher education to do so, bigger changes than what happens at the end of compulsory education will be needed. Policy makers will need to examine the relationship between schooling, higher education provision, and assessment criteria for higher education entry if participation-related goals are to be achieved.

Professor Graeme Atherton is the director of the National Education Opportunities Network (NEON) and vice principal at Ruskin College, Oxford University, United Kingdom. E-mail: [email protected].