# **Participation in Tertiary Education by Quintile**

Current tertiary enrollment rates provide one indication of future trends in tertiary education attainment. On the whole, there has been no significant increase in the tertiary Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER)<sup>12</sup> (Table 3). Yet there are some surprises. Costa Rica has caught up with and overtaken Panama (where the GER has declined slightly): the GER rose from 39 percent in 2001 to 49 percent in 2009. The true surprise is Nicaragua, which has a relatively high enrolment ratio of about 29 percent, about 3 percentage points higher than in 2001, and above that of El Salvador (26 percent). This is consistent with the relatively higher levels of tertiary education attainment noted earlier for Nicaragua. The enrollment rate in Guatemala and Honduras is about 16 percent, which is similar to the levels in low income countries, and has remained stable over the decade. These rates compare with an average gross enrolment ratio of 76 percent in 2010 for OECD countries.<sup>13</sup> In all countries, participation in tertiary education is extremely unequal across socioeconomic groups. The stark gap in tertiary enrollment between the top and bottom income quintiles<sup>14</sup> is reflected in Figure 8. In Costa Rica, the increase in the tertiary GER has been accompanied by a great increase in inequality. While the participation rate of the poorest quintile in Costa Rica is the highest among all countries (about 20 percent), this proportion has hardly changed between 2001 and 2009. On the other hand, the enrollment ratio of the richest quintile has increased and is now 130 percent. A GER of more than 100 percent indicates that for the richest group, a large number of students are beyond the theoretical age group of 18-23 years. In Panama, less than 20 percent of the bottom quintile of the age group is

|**Table 3: G**<br>**Ter**<br>|**ross Enrollm**<br>**tiary Educati**<br>|**ent Ratio**<br>**on**<br>|
|---|---|---|
|**Country**|**Circa 2001 **|**Circa 2009**|
|**Costa Rica**|39%|49%|
|**Panama**|50%|47%|
|**Guatemala**|16%|15%|
|**ElSalvador **|21%|26%|
|**Honduras**|16%|17%|
|**Nicaragua**<br>Source: Authors’ ca|26%<br>lculations based on|29%<br>several household|

<mark>Source: Authors’ calculations based on several household surveys circa 2001 and circa 2009</mark> enrolled in tertiary education, while for the top quintile, the enrollment ratio is close to 100 percent. In short, in both countries, the richest sections are not only likely to enter tertiary education, they also tend to stay longer than the theoretical duration of the program. For the four other countries in Central America, there is only a minimal representation of the poorest sections of the population at the tertiary level, and this percentage has hardly changed between 2000 and 2009.

The enrollment rate for the richest quintile has increased in all countries, with the sharpest increase in Costa Rica. Hence, although by one measure Costa Rica is more equitable as it is provides more opportunities to the poor than other Central American countries in as a larger proportion of the poor are enrolled in tertiary education, by another measure, it is the most

> 12 Following standard practice, the tertiary GER is defined as the number of people currently enrolled in tertiary education divided by the population of the 18-23 year old age group.

> 13 UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Gross enrolment ratio Total, ISCED 5 and 6. Available online: <u>http://stats.uis.unesco.org/unesco/TableViewer/tableView.aspx.  Date accessed: June 15, 2012.</u> 14 Quintiles are estimated using household income per capita.

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