Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2017, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (5): 139-164.

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Independent Freshman Admission Program （IFAP） and Talent Selection in Higher Education in China： Evidence from National Elite Universities

  

  1. Author 1：WU Xiaogang，Division of Social Science，Hong Kong University of Science and Technology；Author 2： LI Zhonglu，School of Psychology and Sociology，Shenzhen University
  • Online:2017-09-20 Published:2017-09-28
  • Contact: WU Xiaogang，Division of Social Science，Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

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Abstract:

The admission to higher education not only severs as a main mechanism to identify and select talents but also plays an important function in upholding social justice，promoting social mobility，thus maintaining social order. As one of the important reform on the college admission system，the Independent Freshman Admission Program (IFAP)，which involves the issues of allocation of quality higher education resources (e.g. the chance of receiving education in national elite universities)，has received wide attention since it was launched. In the allocation of scare resources (e.g. quality tertiary education)，the equity and efficiency are the constant dilemma that we have to encouter. There has been much discussion on the equity of educational opportunity in IFAP，and that IFAP has excerbated the inequity in educational opportunities is an indisputable fact. On the other hand，there is lack of empirical evidence on whether or not such inequity is a necessary tradeoff to the efficiency of talent selection. This article analzyes the subsample of three national elite universities (Beijing University，Tsinghua University，and Renmin University of China) from Beijing College Student Panel Survey(BCSPS) to in investigate this question. We pay attention to the heterogeneity of students recruited through IFAP，and divide them into two subgroups：those who could pass the entrance exam even without IFAP，and those who could be admitted only through IFAP，and compare them to those who enter college through competitive College Entrance Examination (gaokao) to examine the impact of IFAP on educational equity and talent selection. Results show that，IFAP is socially stratified， and students selected by the IFAP are more likely to come from families in urban areas，with collegeeducated parents， and graduate from keypoint high schools. On the other hand，there is no significant difference in terms of the academic performance，political participation，noncognitive ability，plan and placements after graduation among students selected by the IFAP and by regular gaokao.The implications of our findings for the admissions policies and procedures are discussed.

Key words: academic performance , educational inequality , family background , independent freshman admission program (IFAP) , talent selection