TRANSITIONS TO TERTIARY, EDUCATION IN BYELARUS AND THE BALTIC COUNTRIES

This is a study of post-secondary level educational transitions in Bel arus and the three Baltic countries. Tertiary - or post-secondary leve l education - in the former Soviet Union consisted of three distinct t ypes: vocational preparation, specialized college, and conventional hi gher (university) education. This study of the transition from second- to third-level education is based on the second follow-up survey of se condary-school leavers which was carried out in 1993 in these four cou ntries as part of the Paths of a Generation study. The data analyses, using logistic regression, yielded the following results. The differen t types of secondary education are highly stratified at the level of e ducational provision, social class recruitment, and the subsequent edu cational careers of their graduates. The extent of standardization and centralization in the older Soviet educational system has resulted in little institutional variation amongst the four countries. However, t here are significant cross-national differences. Despite very strong s ocial origin effects on secondary school tracking, social origin is a very important factor predicting the probability of transition to univ ersity.