Access to Higher Education and Degree Stratification in Morocco: A Multilevel Analysis

Résumé

This article investigates educational inequality in Morocco by examining both access to higher education and stratification within higher education. Using data from the 2014 General Population and Housing Census, it estimates multilevel models that account for individual, household and provincial-level factors. The results show that women, rural residents and individuals from less educated households are significantly less likely to access higher education. They also show that these inequalities persist within higher education itself, as disadvantaged groups are less likely to reach the highest degree levels. The interaction between gender and place of residence reveals a particularly strong disadvantage for rural women. Robustness analyses conducted on the subsample of sons and daughters of the household head confirm the importance of parental educational background. The article argues that educational inequality in Morocco is expressed both as unequal access to higher education and as unequal positioning within higher education.