THE RISK OF DROPPING SCHOOL VERSUS ENROLLING UNIVERSITY FOR THE ROMANIAN HIGH SCHOOL PUPILS. INSIDES FOR NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL POLICIES

European policies regarding education and employment are mostly concerned with identifying possible sources of inequity in access to education (particularly higher education). Given that the European Union desires a knowledge based economy, increasing the percentage of people graduating high school and further pursuing a university degree is a key purpose of both employment and education strategies. Therefore we looked for theoretical explanations (models) why people might get into the situation of dropping school during their studies or continuing their studies. To what extent pupils consider education a key factor to success, and what are the factors predicting risk of dropping school and chances of enrolling in a university program? To answer those research questions we conducted a sociological survey on a representative sample (N=2654) of high school pupils from Romania. The findings show that beyond the demographic variables (family income, parents' education, gender, rural/urban residence); the presence of materialistic values is a good predictor for dropping school (positive correlation) and intention to enroll in university (negative correlation). Finally we underlined the importance of gender factor that emerged from the analyses, which indicated a general trend toward the feminization of the higher education system.