The Analysis of Accessibility of Higher Education in Russia for the Students from Moscow and from the Russian Regions

Based on the data obtained in the project "Trajectories in education and professions", the factors affecting the admission of young people from Moscow and other regions of Russia to universities are estimated. By means of regression analysis it was revealed that only school characteristics (type of school and specialization of the class) do not affect the admission to the University for both Moscow and regional youth. At the same time, Muscovites face barriers to access to education, such as the level of mother's education and the results of the GIA in mathematics. For young people in the regions, in addition to the barriers faced by Muscovites, there are additional barriers: gender, family income, the number of books at home, Gia assessment of the Russian language. This indicates a more profitable position of Moscow youth in the context of admission to universities. When comparing the average characteristics of students in Moscow and in the other regions of Russia, it was found that Moscow students have both higher academic performance and higher socio-economic status of the family. At the same time, the academic performance and socio-economic situation of the family are higher among those Moscow students who were admitted from the regions of Russia. Keywords: higher education, accessibility of higher education, selective universities, socio-economic status, social inequality, Unified State Exam (USE).