The paper discusses a particularly acute problem of the higher education in Romania, concerning the relatively low percentage of young people from rural areas who, after finishing secondary school, choose to continue their studies at an academic level. A study by the World Bank and The Ministry of Education and Research in 2008 revealed worrying results: only 3.7 % of the young people between 25 and 29 years of age who lived in rural areas had graduated from university; by comparison, the percentage of university graduates from urban areas was 27.2%. This disquieting reality draws attention on the necessity of implementing psychopedagogical and social programs for facilitating access to higher education for young people from disadvantaged areas. In this context, the aim of the present study is, firstly, to make an inventory of the factors that lead to the low insertion of highschool graduates from rural areas into higher education. Secondly, starting from this analysis, we want to highlight some courses of action for improving the access to higher education for young people from disadvantaged social environments. It is our belief that a democratic society based on equity in integration must implement public policies meant to alleviate the discrepancies among the opportunities that young people coming from different social environments have, in what access to education is concerned.

integration, access, equity, rural area, higher education

Presentation: oral