Socioeconomic Status and Access to Quality Higher Education: A Quantitative Study

The study explores the role of socioeconomic factors in accessing quality higher education. A descriptive research design was used and, accordingly, a sample size of 152 students from the population of 260 from the National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad using sample size determination techniques was selected. A proportionate random sampling technique was used to get equal sample proportions from the three selected departments. Data was collected through a validated self-developed five-point Likert scale questionnaire with the Cronbach Alpha score as 0.756. Ordinal Regression Analysis (ORA) was used for the analysis using SPSS. The study findings revealed that hypotheses i.e., “there is no significant impact of socioeconomic status on student's access to resources”, “there is no significant impact of socioeconomic status on family support and parental education access to quality education”, and “there is no significant impact of socioeconomic status on student's emotional and psychological abilities” are rejected as the model fitting information for Confidence Interval at 5% and 12 degrees of freedom shows rejection of fit of the model. The study concludes that socioeconomic status significantly influences access to quality education at a higher level. The government and policymakers should provide financial assistance to students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.