Access to Higher Education in a Society with Decreasing Numbers of Children and Youth : Regional Variations in College Choices

This study examined regional variations in college attendance and choice behavior among high school students by analyzing official statistics and survey data on their career choices. Thus, the following points were clarified. First, the desire to pursue higher education is more affected by household income for students living in provincial areas. This is primarily because most private universities are located far away and enrolling would therefore incur room and board expenses. Thus, in some cases, students do not pursue higher education even though they would have done so if they lived in the three largest metropolitan areas. Second, there are regional differences among students entering selective private universities that are unevenly distributed in large metropolitan areas, leading to differences in their overall advancement rate. Thus, students prefer less difficult universities than those they could have attended based on their “innate” academic ability. Third, there are differences in the location of the main destination of higher education across regions. While differences in destinations are related to the cost of college attendance, they also correspond to the regional distribution of the expected returns of pursuing higher education. As the population of 18-year-olds declines, the proportion of those living in the three largest metropolitan areas is increasing compared to youth living in provincial areas. When discussing the future state of access to higher education in Japan, a society where the number of children and youth is decreasing, it is imperative to consider “inconvenience in large metropolitan areas” and “disadvantage in provincial areas” in the context of access to higher education.