SOCIAL ASPECTS OF HIGHER EDUCATION CHOICE BY KAZAKHSTANI SCHOOL GRADUATES: A SOCIOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT

The article analyses educational plans and higher education choices by school graduates from different school types, such as private (fee-based) and public (free of charge) schools. Theoretical analysis of social aspects of higher education choice within categorical and modernist approaches is presented. The research aims to understand how graduates from private and public schools make their decisions about higher education. The results of structured interviews conducted with school graduates are presented. The sample contains school graduates representing different socio-economic groups. Respondents are graduates from urban and rural areas, private (paid) and public, general and advanced schools. The sample size is 150. During the research, it was determined that the decision to choose a higher education institution depends on the family’s socio-economic status. The higher the family’s socio-economic status, the more ambitious the choice of a school graduate becomes. On the one hand, the process of higher education choice is formed based on the principle of rationality considered in economic theories and, on the other hand, based on social opportunities and limitations defined in sociological theories. Thus, school graduates try to make rational decisions considering social opportunities. The research aims to find out how social opportunities and constraints affect school graduates’ higher education choices.