ABSTRACT
This chapter tries to place the findings of the available studies in an intra-European comparative context, and to put forward a concept of long-term development of educational opportunities in the context of social change in nineteenth-century Europe. It describes the common European characteristics of opportunities in higher education and the related parts of secondary education. Government policy aimed primarily at financing expansion of secondary and higher education, upgrading the quality of teaching and research, and modernizing the curricula to meet new social and economic needs. Although industrialization may have commenced, European postprimary education during this period was rarely linked to economic development. Industrial innovation was not usually triggered by scientific research, nor was the qualified labor force in the economy trained in institutions of secondary and higher education. A second major determinant of educational opportunity during the nineteenth century was a complex of institutional changes that reduced the permeability of higher education.
