Table 1 presents descriptive statistics on the dependent and independent variables across students with majority and minority backgrounds over the three cohorts. It clearly shows that most minority students have parents with low levels of education or lack information on their parents’ levels of education. Whilst approximately half of majority students have parents with a bachelor’s or master’s degree, the corresponding fraction among minority students is one-third. The table reveals the female dominance among college professions because the percentage of women is 69% or higher.
Table 1 Parents’ level of education We ran regressions on educational support in seven models. The first and second regressions presented in Table 2 investigate ethnic minorities’ scores on the encouragement for educational support scale. The second to third to seventh regressions presented in the table investigate from whom students receive this support (parental support, sibling support, support from friends, support from others and support from other family members). In the last column, we show the results regarding support for fellow students (this variable is not part of the encouragement scale).
Table 2 Educational support The first column shows the average level of encouragement received in total, summed across families, friends and other people. First-generation students from Asia report a level of encouragement higher to that of majority students, but the level of encouragement among second-generation students is comparable to that among majority ethnic students.
The second column repeats the analysis from column one, with the additional control for parents’ highest level of education. Adjusting for parents’ education level is relevant considering that ethnic minority students receive equal or higher levels of encouragement than their majority peers (c.f. Table 2, column 1) but have lower social origins (cf. Table 1). The analysis shows that students whose parents have tertiary education report receiving higher levels of support compared with those who have parents with secondary education, but introducing controls for parents’ education level does not affect the coefficients for minority students’ reported levels of encouragement. Moreover, interaction terms between parents’ level of education and minority background are not statistically significant (results not shown), which implies that minority ethnic students from non-academic families do not report higher levels of encouragement for their choice of study compared with majority ethnic students from similar social origins.
The results from column 3 show that parents generally provide high levels of encouragement in support of their offspring’s choice of study. There are no statistically significant differences between the minority and majority groups, but second-generation men of Asian origin tend to receive higher levels of encouragement as compared with men with majority ethnic origin.
The fourth column reports the average levels of encouragement received from siblings. The levels of educational support elicited from siblings are lower than those elicited from parents. Nevertheless, first- and second-generation students of Asian origin report significantly higher levels of support from siblings as compared with their majority counterparts, and again, second-generation men of Asian origin have the highest scores, although the interaction term is insignificant. Hence, the observed difference can be due to chance.
The fifth column concerns support from the extended family.Footnote 2 The levels of support received from other family members are higher among ethnic minority students as compared with ethnic majority students, but the differences are not statistically significant.
The figures in column 6 refer to encouragement from peers, and the average levels of support provided are generally high. There are no significant differences between minority and majority students.
The seventh column investigates support from others.Footnote 3 In this context, others may imply extended family members and people in the community, excluding parents, siblings, friends, teachers, and college advisors. Minority students report a slightly higher level of support from ‘others’, but the coefficients are not statistically significant.
Column 8 reports the levels of support received from fellow students. This question is not part of the encouragement scale, but it is included because of its relevance to the topic under study. The results show that first- and second-generation students of Asian origin report significantly lower levels of support compared with the majority.
In sum, the survey data analysis shows that, on average, minority students enrolled in bachelor programmes at university colleges have parents with low levels of formal education. Nevertheless, first- and second-generation immigrants report receiving similar or higher levels of encouragement for their choice of study, primarily from siblings. Furthermore, students whose parents have some higher education report higher levels of encouragement for their choice of study compared with those students whose parents have secondary education. Yet, the data analysis does not support the hypothesis that minority students from lower social origins experience higher levels of encouragement in their choice of study compared with majority peers.