We contribute to research on social inequalities in educational attainment by examining the role of institutional contexts for students’ study abroad (SA) intent and participation. To do so, we extend the individual-level rational choice model predicting SA intent and participation depending on students’ socioeconomic status (SES) into a multi-level model emphasizing the importance of context effects. We test our model based on unique micro-level student data, which we supplement with context data. Examining 18,510 students nested in 69 universities, we provide the first in-depth multi-level analyses of SA intent and participation of students from Japan. In line with findings from many Western countries, our results show that higher-SES students are more likely to (intend to) study abroad. Regarding the role of institutional contexts, we find that programs designed to improve SA opportunity structures hardly affect students’ SA intent but significantly positively affect SA participation above and beyond other university-level and student-level characteristics. Importantly, both lower- and higher-SES students benefit from favorable SA opportunity structures. These findings suggest that Japan’s recent push toward internationalization of higher education has created relevant SA opportunities for students from different social backgrounds. Still, higher-SES students are currently overrepresented among those studying abroad because they are more likely to select into universities offering favorable SA opportunity structures. Our analysis calls for more research combining individual-level with contextual-level theories and data to better understand the conditions shaping SES-specific SA intent and participation.

我们通过研究制度环境对学生出国留学 (SA) 意向和参与的作用，为教育程度方面的社会不平等问题的研究做出贡献。为此，我们将根据学生的社会经济地位（SES）预测 SA 意图和参与的个人层面理性选择模型扩展到强调情境效应重要性的多层次模型。我们根据独特的微观学生数据测试我们的模型，并补充上下文数据。我们对 69 所大学的 18,510 名学生进行了调查，首次对日本学生的 SA 意图和参与进行了深入的多层次分析。与许多西方国家的调查结果一致，我们的结果表明，社会经济地位较高的学生更有可能（打算）出国留学。关于机构环境的作用，我们发现旨在改善 SA 机会结构的计划几乎不会影响学生的 SA 意图，但会对 SA 参与产生显着的积极影响，超越其他大学水平和学生水平的特征。重要的是，社会经济地位较低和较高的学生都受益于有利的 SA 机会结构。这些发现表明，日本最近推动高等教育国际化为来自不同社会背景的学生创造了相关的SA机会。尽管如此，目前在出国留学的学生中，社会经济地位较高的学生所占比例过高，因为他们更有可能选择提供有利的南澳机会结构的大学。我们的分析要求进行更多研究，将个人层面与情境层面的理论和数据相结合，以更好地了解塑造 SES 特定 SA 意图和参与的条件。