Using new longitudinal data from the Adult Cohort (SC6) of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) this paper examines how the highest educational attainment has changed in the process of educational expansion in Germany between 1950 and 2010. The study focuses on a fairly neglected question of the educational expansion process: Which role does the changing social background composition play in changes in inequalities of educational opportunity? It concludes that, despite a period of substantial educational reform, the overall origin-specific inequalities as well as the demand to earn the highest educational degree within the various social origin groups have remained surprisingly stable across birth cohorts. Instead, the general trend towards educational growth at higher education in Germany seems to be mainly driven by intercohort changes in social background composition.

本文使用来自国家教育专家小组研究（NEPS）的成人队列（SC6）的新纵向数据，研究了1950年至2010年德国最高的受教育程度在教育扩展过程中是如何变化的。该研究的重点是一个相当被忽视的领域教育扩展过程的问题：不断变化的社会背景构成在教育机会不平等的变化中起什么作用？结论是，尽管经历了一段时间的重大教育改革，但在各个出生群体中，特定于种族的总体不平等以及在各个社会出身群体中获得最高学历的需求仍然令人惊讶地保持稳定。代替，