caa a22 4500 463161696 CHVBK 20180406164749.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170326e20070701xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10734-006-9043-3 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10734-006-9043-3 Zimdars Anna Department of Sociology, University of Oxford, Manor Road Building, OX1 3UQ, Oxford, UK aut Testing the spill-over hypothesis: meritocracy in enrolment in postgraduate education [Elektronische Daten] [Anna Zimdars] This study contributes to the literature on educational transitions, specifically whether an equalising of opportunities at early educational transitions translates into more equal participation patterns at later stages (Spill-over versus maximally maintained inequality hypotheses). The case study approach used in this paper compares the enrolment profile of postgraduate students at a prestigious, research-led British university with the profile of the postgraduates' undergraduate degree-awarding institution. The database for this research consists of government statistics and two purposefully administered surveys, one of undergraduate students (n=709) and one of postgraduate students (n=502). The study finds that the intake of new postgraduates is largely drawn from the most prestigious universities thus suggesting that graduates from lower tier institutions do not self-select themselves for further study at Oxford. The results lend support to the meritocracy hypothesis regarding the attainment levels of new postgraduate students and their propensity to gain government funding. There are, however, some discrepancies in transition patterns that advantage the already privileged. This lends support to the maximally maintained inequality hypothesis and suggests that there are social justice concerns in postgraduate education. Springer Science + Business Media B.V., 2006 Funding nationallicence Maximally maintained inequality hypothesis nationallicence Meritocracy nationallicence Postgraduate students nationallicence Russell Group nationallicence Social justice nationallicence Spill-over hypothesis nationallicence Stratification nationallicence UK nationallicence Higher Education Kluwer Academic Publishers 54/1(2007-07-01), 1-19 0018-1560 54:1<1 2007 54 10734 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-006-9043-3 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-006-9043-3 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Zimdars Anna Department of Sociology, University of Oxford, Manor Road Building, OX1 3UQ, Oxford, UK aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Higher Education Kluwer Academic Publishers 54/1(2007-07-01), 1-19 0018-1560 54:1<1 2007 54 10734 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer