Inequality of Higher Education in China: An Empirical Test Based on the Perspective of Relative Deprivation

The primary goal of this paper is to examine what makes Chinese college students dissatisfied with entrance opportunities for higher education. Based on the author’s survey data, we test two parameters which could be a potential cause of this dissatisfaction: 1) distributive inequality, which emphasizes the individual’s dissatisfaction caused by unequal quota distribution; and 2) relative deprivation, which emphasizes the individual’s dissatisfaction caused by social comparison relative to a reference group. Results show that relative deprivation has a significant effect on individual’s dissatisfaction compared to unequal quota distribution. As a conclusion, college students’ dissatisfaction was caused by the fact that they realized they could not get a fair distribution comparison to their reference groups. Individual subjective valuation gradually becomes an important standard of judging educational inequality, that makes educational inequality more complex to be resolved. Considering the ingrained household registration system and admission policy, we propose that individual’s relative deprivation will probably persist or even worsen during the period of social transition.